Red Bull's 'saving grace' highlighted as Monaco misery forecast

Red Bull heads into the Monaco Grand Prix weekend with only a single "saving grace," according to former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer. The RB22 (2026 spec) was firmly the fourth-fastest car in Canada behind Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari, and Max Verstappen's first podium of the season came with an asterisk — aided by George Russell's DNF and McLaren's double strategy blunder. With handling bumps and kerbs a known weakness for the team, a competitive Monaco weekend seems unlikely.

Why it matters:

Monaco exposes chassis deficiencies like no other circuit. If Red Bull cannot cure its ride compliance issues, it risks falling further behind in the constructors' standings. A single podium in Canada doesn't mask the underlying pace deficit, and a poor result here could deepen the team's mid-season crisis.

The details:

• Palmer noted that Red Bull found a "good chunk of compliance" between the Sprint and qualifying in Montreal, which helped Verstappen set strong sector-one times.
• "The only saving grace I saw was that change... maybe they did find something that brought them closer towards the front," Palmer said on the F1 Nation podcast.
• However, James Hinchcliffe added that Verstappen's podium came with a major asterisk — he was tracked down by Lewis Hamilton, who closed an 8-second gap, and only a double McLaren strategy error and a Mercedes DNF put him on the rostrum.
• Compliance is critical for Monaco, and Max's biggest complaint in Canada was the car's handling over bumps and kerbs.
• Red Bull needs to start the Monaco weekend better than it has in recent rounds, Palmer emphasized.

What's next:

All eyes will be on Red Bull's first practice in Monte Carlo. If the compliance fix from Canada translates to the tight streets, they might scrape into the top five. If not, a messy weekend awaits — and the pressure on the engineering team will intensify.

"We'll only know when the cars hit the ground," Palmer said. And for Red Bull, the ground in Monaco could feel particularly rough.