McLaren’s Lando Norris has emerged as a major threat to the world champion in the past two events, the Briton taking his maiden win in Miami and finishing a close second in Imola on Sunday.
Verstappen said: “Looking at the track layout it’s probably not going to be our best track, just because our car normally struggles a bit over bumps and kerbs.
“We did work on it a bit compared to last year. So far on most of the tracks that we’ve been to our low-speed performance has improved a little bit, but I don’t think this is going to be a very easy weekend.”
Verstappen won in Monaco last year but picked out Ferrari and McLaren as two teams to watch out for.
“After Miami, it was quite clear when we went into Imola that [the gap between teams] had all closed up a bit, even though Imola was probably also not our easiest weekend. For sure, Monaco is always like that anyway.”
Norris said he was “hopeful it could be a good weekend”.
And asked whether he could even mount a title challenge, the 24-year-old said: “I’m – what? Sixty points behind Max. It’s a long way to go. I am definitely not thinking about it and it is not going to change anything.
“You concentrate on getting a good result and then things play out for themselves. We have definitely put ourselves in there.”
With a third of the season gone, Norris says there is “plenty of opportunity” for him and his team.
“There are things coming in the future and, if things start to turn around, we can definitely start coming back at some things.”
