Max Verstappen admitted that some characteristics of the Montreal venue might not help Red Bull to perform at its highest level, as it happened in Monaco.
After Imola and the Monaco GP, the Milton Keynes outfit seemed to struggle on bumpy tracks and high curbs. These two things make Verstappen think that Red Bull could also struggle in the upcoming race, as there are a few chicanes that require the drivers to use the curbs quite a lot.
Even though the circuit has been resurfaced, the three-time world champion doesn’t foresee Red Bull easily beating the competition, as there could be a few “surprises”.
“We have to wait and see [how we’ll perform in Canada], new surface as well I think, that might also give us some surprises,” Verstappen said.
“But it is probably also not going to be our strongest weekend because of that. But probably a little bit better than [Monaco].
“[We’ll be weaker at] any track that is bumpy or has curbs, or you have to ride a lot of curbs, so the street circuits will probably be a little bit tricky. But hopefully, by then we have a little bit of understanding of what is going on.”
Christian Horner also added that McLaren and Ferrari are getting closer, but historically, Red Bull has always performed well around Montreal. Therefore, he hopes that after analyzing what went wrong in Monaco, the team can jump back and improve.
“It’s a track that we’ve performed well at previously. They’ve resurfaced the whole circuit again. So let’s see,” Horner said.
“But Ferrari, McLaren, they’re quick. It was always going to happen that there was going to be convergence. This has been a tough weekend, but we’re still leading both championships.
“We’ll look to take the lessons out of this weekend and apply them to the next one.
“[Canada is] very much traction, historically was there, but with a new surface you don’t know what the balance is going to swing to.”