Max Verstappen targets Barcelona surprise despite Red Bull reality check

Max Verstappen hopes “maybe I can be surprising” in Barcelona, but is not expecting Red Bull to be as competitive as it was in Monaco.

Despite Verstappen retiring on the first lap in Monaco, Red Bull did celebrate a podium with Isack Hadjar securing his first as a Red Bull driver with a third-place finish.

Max Verstappen seeking Barcelona ‘surprise’

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Verstappen put in an excellent lap in qualifying to line up on the front row with Kimi Antonelli, but an issue at the start saw the four-time world champion bog down and get away slowly.

With that, he brought his car back into the garage in what was a short afternoon of racing in the end.

However, with the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix quickly approaching, attention soon turned to what lay ahead.

Verstappen took his first-ever race victory in Barcelona a decade ago and won three races in a row there between 2022 and 2024.

With the track having completely different characteristics to Monaco, as well as being more power-hungry – meaning drivers are likely to need to recharge their batteries more over a lap – the Red Bull driver is not expecting the same level of performance from his team this weekend.

However, he hopes to potentially surprise the frontrunners.

“Great track,” Verstappen told PlanetF1.com and others about the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

“I always like driving there, even though I think even this year will be lifting and coasting, and that’s a bit painful, I just hope that our car will be performing well.

“Not expecting it exactly like it was [in Monaco], to fight maybe for the front row, but maybe I can be surprising.”

As for where he expects Red Bull could challenge, Verstappen added: “It will all depend on the development throughout the year between teams because a lot of the teams will bring a lot of things this weekend.”

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Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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