Max Verstappen doesn’t usually reach for excuses, even when Red Bull hands him a car that’s trying to shake his fillings loose. But after wrestling the RB22 over Montreal’s unforgiving bumps, the world champion sounded less annoyed than wary — because he knows what’s coming next.
Monaco.
Canada was already a physical slog. Verstappen still dragged the car onto the podium, yet his description of the ride quality was brutal in its simplicity: he couldn’t keep his foot planted, and at points his feet were “flying off the pedals”. That’s not a driver searching for set-up perfection; that’s a driver telling you the platform is misbehaving in a way that limits how hard he can commit.
“I was struggling a lot with just the ride of the car… I couldn’t put my foot down,” Verstappen said after Friday’s Sprint qualifying. “My feet were even flying off the pedals, so it made it very difficult to be consistent.”
The bigger issue for Red Bull is that this isn’t a one-off. Verstappen’s read is clear: on smoother circuits the RB22 can look respectable, but the moment the surface deteriorates the car becomes a handful — and not in the romantic, old-school way. The bouncing is back as a performance problem and, more importantly, as a drivability problem. Any track where you need to attack kerbs, accept a little punishment and trust the car won’t spit you at the wall is going to magnify it.
“Anywhere that it’s bumpy is going to be difficult for us,” he admitted.
Which is precisely why Monaco has been circled in red ink. This is a weekend where the fastest lap isn’t about bravery alone; it’s about placing the car millimetre-perfect while riding kerbs and coping with constant surface changes. If Verstappen is already fighting to apply consistent throttle in Montreal, Monte Carlo’s rhythm — or lack of it — threatens to turn into a weekend of compromise: raise the car and lose performance, or keep it low and deal with a chassis that’s punishing him and blunting confidence.
Asked about that prospect, Verstappen’s answer came with a laugh that carried a little less humour than it tried to.
“Oh yes, that is going to be great,” he joked. “I think I’m going to order a new back!”
Behind the punchline sits an awkward admission from Red Bull: even now, they’re not entirely sure what’s driving the RB22’s ride issues. That’s the part that should worry anyone inside the team more than the Monaco kerbs. Drivers can adapt. Engineers can tune around weaknesses. But when the root cause is still being debated, you’re left treating symptoms — and Monaco, of all places, is where symptom management tends to end in tears.
“If only we knew exactly what was causing it,” Verstappen said. “I do have some ideas, and that’s what we’re going to work on now.”
Team principal Laurent Mekies, for his part, is trying to keep the conversation framed as a solvable development task rather than a fundamental limitation of the ’26 package. He insisted the problem isn’t being written off.
“There is nothing yet that we are saying cannot be fixed in ’26,” Mekies said.
But he also offered a telling insight into the mood on the Verstappen side of the garage. Verstappen, he said, was “extremely unhappy with the car” in Canada — and still delivered a strong race. In other words: there’s performance being left on the table, and it’s being paid for in discomfort and confidence.
“It’s a very difficult game,” Mekies added. “It’s an invitation to take more risk, to accept the pain, and keep exploring.”
That line — accept the pain — might be meant as a rallying cry, but it underlines where Red Bull is right now. This is no longer a team cruising at the front and debating tenths. Red Bull sits fourth in the Constructors’ Championship on 57 points, staring at a 162-point deficit to Mercedes. Verstappen is seventh in the Drivers’ standings with 43 points, 88 behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
And Monaco has a habit of turning small weaknesses into weekend-defining limitations. If Red Bull can’t calm the RB22 down over the bumps, Verstappen’s ceiling may be dictated less by his ability and more by how much punishment the car forces him to absorb just to get into the window.
He’ll still take the fight to it — he always does. But if you’re Red Bull, you’d rather not head into the sport’s most precision-dependent weekend with your star driver half-joking about needing a replacement spine.
