Red Bull's Max Verstappen insists his crashes at the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix will not affect his confidence heading into this year's Formula One race at Monte Carlo.
Verstappen endured a tough weekend around the streets of the principality last season, crashing out of qualifying, before hitting the wall again in tricky conditions at Messenet during the race. Later in the year, the Dutchman said he thought his crash-strewn race weekend taught him more than his record-breaking victory that had come two weeks earlier in Spain.
F1's youngest winner is yet to register a classified finish in Monaco, having also retired from the 2015 race following a heavy crash at St. Devote. Rather than dwelling on the past, Verstappen says his previous mistakes in Monaco have motivated him to claim a strong result in this season's race.
"There is no such thing as a low risk lap in Monaco, it doesn't exist if you want to be fast because you have to be on the limit," he explained. "Last year's crash was very unfortunate but it doesn't affect my confidence heading back there.
"It just makes me want to do better this year and learn from my mistakes. We still have a lot to learn from the car in terms of setup as it is always developing and we haven't driven it on a tight street circuit yet."
Adding to the challenge of the notoriously unforgiving street circuit, drivers will have to tackle the famous track in F1's wider and more aggressive era of cars introduced for this year. Verstappen reckons the second Swimming Pool chicane -- the same corner he crashed at in 2016 qualifying -- will prove to be the biggest test in the new machinery.
"Preparation for Monaco is a little different, you definitely build up a little bit slower throughout the weekend and pace yourself. It's important to find the limit carefully. With the new cars I think the chicane around the Swimming Pool will be the most challenging corner this year."