Verstappen: Red Bull “too slow” in “most difficult weekend” of F1 2021 so far

Verstappen trailed pacesetter Charles Leclerc by just under 0.4s in second practice on Thursday, as Ferrari showed a surprising turn of pace in the principality.

The Dutchman admitted after FP2 it has been Red Bull’s “most difficult” weekend of the season so far.

“No, we are too slow,” Verstappen said after practice in Monaco. “Not just a little bit, quite a bit. We really need to find some pace because everyone has traffic so you have to look at the optimal lap times or optimal sectors, and we are quite off.

“And also it didn’t feel great to drive. Normally I am quite comfortable in the car, quite easily to get to a pace but it all takes too long and just not how I like it. Maybe so far, the most difficult weekend.”

Ferrari led a 1-2 in second practice, Leclerc just over a tenth ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz.

Assessing the Scuderia’s turn of speed, Verstappen added: “Yeah, I am just surprised how competitive Ferrari is but I think it just shows that we are pretty weak. They’re doing very well and we are very weak, so then the offset is very big. Luckily we have a free day tomorrow so we can look into things. A lot of things need to change, I think.”

Sergio Perez topped the morning session as he was one of a handful of drivers to run the Pirelli C5 tyre.

His best lap in FP2 was ruined by traffic, ending the session in eighth place.

Reflecting on his day, Perez felt he had gone in the wrong direction in terms of setup between the two practice sessions.

“It was great,” Perez said. “I am just enjoying it a lot. It’s a fantastic track. We had a very good FP1. The car was feeling good then we did a couple of changes which probably took us a step back. I think we got plenty of information for qualifying come Saturday but we need to find some pace at low fuel.”