Piastri believes Verstappen had a real shot at winning the Monaco GP

Having started P4, Verstappen, after his first pitstop, decided to go long and hold out for a safety car, a strategic gamble that didn't pay off, prompted by the implementation of a mandatory two pitstop strategy.

After the race, the McLaren driver commented on the mandatory two-stop strategy that had been introduced for this racing weekend.

"It definitely made it a bit more tense at a few points," Piastri revealed after the race to media like GPblog. "You had to push more at certain points to kind of recover the safety car windows to other cars around you or put yourself outside of someone else's safety car window. So there were some strategic elements involved. But ultimately, at the front, I don’t think it changed a whole lot."

The safety car/race neutralisation aspect of the race was precisely the area Red Bull wanted to exploit. By leaving Verstappen out and putting him in the lead the Austrians were hoping a red flag would come and give the Dutchman a free pitsopt essentially, a danger that Piastri, and also his McLaren team boss, saw as well.