Why Verstappen "felt like myself again" in Monaco GP qualifying

Max Verstappen says the nature of Monaco Grand Prix qualifying had allowed him to "feel like myself again" at the wheel of a Formula 1 car, having taken a dim view of the 2026 regulations and their demands thus far.

Of the current drivers, Verstappen has been one of the more vocal opponents of the current brand of F1 powertrain regulations thus far. The 53-47 split in power output between the internal combustion engine and electrical components has put more weight on battery management, with some circuits making it incredibly hard to harvest energy through a lap.

The knock-on effect of this has been in the bigger differences in energy levels. While this has increased the level of wheel-to-wheel action and quantity of overtakes, this has been criticised for being too artificial in nature. 

Although happy with the smaller cars, Verstappen has been relied upon to produce withering commentary of the powertrain regulations, likening it to "Mario Kart" and referring to the use of boost and overtake mode as the "mushroom" speed boost available in the Nintendo-produced arcade racer. 

However, Monaco has been different. Given the abundance of low-speed corners, it is very easy for the cars to charge up through the lap, nullifying the need to manage the battery. Verstappen agrees that has led to a far more natural driving experience.

"I think the chassis regulation is not bad at all, so I think in general with the cars being a little bit more narrow, I think it was alright," he began. "I quite like now the vision on the front axle is a bit better around apexes again, instead of that thing we had above the tyre before [wheel deflector].

"If you can go flat out and you can just select the gears that you want to use in the corners, it's always going to be better. So, I finally felt just myself again in the car, let's say like that, with the way you want to use the gears.

Watch: Why Antonelli is beating Russell, Hamilton puzzled by the Ferrari | 2026 Monaco Grand Prix Saturday

"Unfortunately, of course we can't do that in too many places on the calendar, but that's what that makes it more and more natural to drive."

Verstappen was surprised by his ability to fight for pole in Monaco, noting that Red Bull had found themselves far away from its expectations after FP3.

It was suggested ahead of the weekend that Red Bull might struggle with the middle sector of the Monaco lap, particularly as its recent lineage of cars have struggled for performance across bumps and kerbs.

Although the middle sector remained a weakness, Verstappen was the quickest driver in Q3 through the first and last sectors - but Antonelli's extra pace in the second sector (albeit slower than Hamilton's best) sealed the deal.

"Quite [surprised] after this morning, we were like nine tenths off. I was confident that we would make some improvements heading into qualifying but, yeah, not to fight for pole," the Dutchman explained. 

"Honestly, when I jumped into the car I was like, 'okay, let's try and recover a bit, maybe top five'. That was the target, but I'd say from quite early on in qualifying, the car felt a bit better. 

"We still have our little problems and especially in the middle sector that's where we lose the most, you have a few curbs that you have to take and there are a few bumps, or ride stuff on the track that is just a little bit more complicated at the moment for our car.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images

"But I still think that, overall, we had a very good qualifying. We were up there, we were fighting for pole, so even if you would have told me after yesterday where we looked quite okay to be starting on the front row, I would have immediately taken it.

"It's been a very good turnaround. Yes, I was quite happy, this morning really not happy and now I'm fairly happy again. So that's, of course, good when it matters, you know.

"This was, of course, the most important session of the weekend. Of course, tomorrow there's still a start which this year seems a little bit more critical to get right compared to other years where it was not such a big deal, I would say. So that's still something that we have to look at but, yeah, overall for us this has been a very positive weekend."