Verstappen Explains Engine Failure That Ended His Monaco Grand Prix On Lap One

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has opened up on the mechanical issue that ended his Monaco Grand Prix before it had barely begun on Sunday afternoon.
The four-time world champion stalled on the grid at the start, swerving wide to avoid being collected by the cars behind him as the race got underway.
Verstappen was heard on team radio expressing his frustration in colourful terms, saying: “Yep, nice. Completely ****. Guys, what the **** man?”
After briefly getting his car moving again, the Dutchman was unable to continue and was called back to the Red Bull garage, officially retiring on lap one.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the race, Verstappen revealed that problems had actually begun before the lights went out, with the formation lap already causing concern.
“Already the formation lap was not going very well and then after that the pre-start was terrible,” Verstappen told Sky Sports F1.
“There was just no consistency and then the engine just dropped dead. I only got a little bit of power back after the first corner and then the engine sounded really awful.”
Verstappen confirmed that the lack of power made it impossible to continue racing, saying: “I could not go full throttle, so we brought it back and that was it.”
The retirement was a particularly bitter pill given that Red Bull had defied expectations across the Monaco weekend, with Verstappen pushing strongly enough to defeat both Ferrari drivers in qualifying before being beaten to pole by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.
Red Bull now turn their attention to the Spanish Grand Prix at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit next weekend, which Verstappen believes will provide a far more meaningful test of his team’s recent upgrade work.
“It’s a completely different track so it will be a good test to see if we actually really made a proper step forward or not because that’s all about high speed and aero performance,” Verstappen said.
“So, that will be an interesting weekend,” he added, suggesting the team are quietly hopeful that Barcelona will reveal genuine progress in their development programme.
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