Is Verstappen playing hide and seek? 'Data shows fastest team in Monaco'

Is Verstappen playing hide and seek?

Red Bull were seen as the favourites this weekend. The narrow streets of Monaco should suit the RB16B better than the W12 of Mercedes, and with a P1 and P3 in the first free practice, it seemed to be confirmed. In the second free practice, however, the Ferrari's were on top, with Verstappen and Perez dropping back to P4 and P8.

It was not just a surprise that Ferrari had two drivers at the top of the timesheet, but Red Bull's performance was especially disappointing. Verstappen was clearly not happy with his car afterwards. He would suffer from understeer and called his team weak and too slow. Lawrence Barretto has the idea that this could have been a trick of the trade.

Red Bull fastest

''When our data team dug into the numbers and worked out their performance taking things like fuel loads and tyre life into consideration, they topped both the short and long run charts. So while Red Bull may be talking a lot about Ferrari and Mercedes’ pace around Monaco so far this year, it could well be deflection, as they appear to look pretty handy themselves,'' says the Formula One journalist.

Barretto makes these statements based on data from Formula1.com. In the qualification simulation, Red Bull is the strongest, with Mercedes at +0.06 and Ferrari at +0.09. So it is very close. In the race, the gap is slightly bigger. Red Bull is also the fastest, with Mercedes and Ferrari both at +0.14.