In the round-up: George Russell says he understands the difficulty the Haas drivers faced in the Monaco Grand Prix, far off the pace and being repeatedly lapped.
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In brief
Russell understands plight of Haas pair
Russell said that Monaco is the worst track to be in a slow car, forced to try to get out of the way of front runners on the tight streets.“It is incredibly difficult and when you back off, you lose all the temperature and then you’ve got no grip,” he explained. “It’s a bit of a nightmare, really.
“Out of all the places, this is the worst place to have a bad car and a slow one. It was tough for me, but I don’t envy the Haas guys. That was us two years ago.”
Vettel: I knew I could make a difference here
Sebastian Vettel, who has won twice in Monaco and secured a further five second-place finishes, said that he came into this weekend knowing he had the ability to secure the team a good result by performing when it counted most.
“I had always quite good results here, so coming in, I knew that I can be making a difference at this track. So yeah, I’m happy for the team, I think, after such a strong season last year and then a disappointing start in many ways this year. I think it’s what we what we needed and the guys deserve. It’s a good signal to own the factory at home. There’s a lot of things happening.
“In the end, if you look at the weekend it’s probably only five minutes that really matters. The qualifying laps and then crucial laps in the race. But you need to have everything working your way that you get that in such a tight, tight field as it is where we are in the midfield.”
Alonso: hopes Sainz will win for Ferrari
“I’m very, very happy for Carlos,” said Alonso. “I spoke with him on the grid, at the national anthem. He was already in the podium at the time because he was starting third after the Leclerc problems and with the Bottas issues, it was even better.
“So a good start of the championship as well and hopefully we can see a race win soon. But we know that in a normal circuit, Mercedes and Red Bull would have stayed in front. It was an opportunity and he was taking it. So it was good.”
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Not a classic GP by any means but the fact that no one can pass doesn’t diminish the skills required by the @F1 drivers to keep the car between the barriers for 78 on the limit laps of Monaco.
— Dario Franchitti (@dariofranchitti) May 23, 2021
Great catching up with @WilliamsRacing CEO Jost Capito, by invitation outside team hospitality as now permitted. #MonacoGP #FunChat pic.twitter.com/CSlsT6Vo8i
— Fritz-Dieter Rencken (@RacingLines) May 23, 2021
Here's the crash which caused the stoppage of this morning's Formula Regional Europe championship support race ahead of the #MonacoGP. All drivers are okay. pic.twitter.com/M1EygylpOc
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) May 23, 2021
Managed to get the champagne sorted. Well done Mission Control team! #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/btZ7BEEzVV
— Randy (@randysingh86) May 23, 2021
Now… the usual hi-vis pit lane traffic jam. #F1 #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/qC4JbHIGQk
— Matt Bishop 🏳️🌈 🏁 (@TheBishF1) May 23, 2021
After 17 years working with the @FIA and 30 years in @F1, the Monaco Grand Prix will be the last for FIA Race Control Systems Manager Colin Haywood. The FIA family thanks him for his dedication and wishes him every success in the future pic.twitter.com/NC9s92oDlv
— FIA (@fia) May 23, 2021
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Top performance opens the team's points account (Alfa Romeo)
"Fred Vasseur: Our good race pace would have allowed us to finish even higher on any other track, but we can be very pleased with what we showed. It’s a big motivation boost for everyone in the team and can give us confidence to do even better in the next few races, starting in Baku"
2021 Monaco Grand Prix (McLaren)
"Daniel Ricciardo: The second stint on the Hard was encouraging and the lap-times really started to improve, but by that point there wasn’t much more I could do given how hard it is to pass here. I’ll just have to figure out what happened and just step away for a few days to switch off a little bit before going again in Baku."
Monaco Grand Prix (AlphaTauri)
"Yuki TsunodaI struggled for grip in the first lap compared to other cars around me and we lost a few positions, after that I was constantly behind cars, despite having strong pace, so wasn’t able to make my way forward. The main thing for me is my Qualifying performance and how I can improve this."
Formula Regional Europe round 2: Monaco - Race 3 (Formula Regional Europe via YouTube)
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Comment of the day
Waiting until the fifth race of the season to get Alfa Romeo’s first points might not sound like a strong performance so far – but Antonio Giovinazzi has been consistently out-performing Kimi Raikkonen and finally secured a good result, as noted by BasCB
I think Giovinazzi can be rightly proud of his driving. He showed great pace in qualifying to get into three and he was one of a few drivers who were pushing the car ahead of them for most of the race – ultimately it did not bring about any overtake, but the effort was there. Good job.
@BasCB
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stefano (@alfa145)
24th May 2021, 1:15
this is literally the first time in the season Giovinazzi has finished a race in front of Raikkonen (where both arrived at the end). As a matter of fact COTD doesn’t even imply anything about Raikkonen. I get it that Giovinazzi is leading Raikkonen in qualy. But “consistently out-performing” seems a bit of a stretch. @hazelsouthwell
HUHHII (@huhhii)
24th May 2021, 1:20
Ha, you beat me to it :D
And even in Monaco it’s questionable whether Giovinazzi was faster on Sunday. Kimi started 14th, 4 places behind Giovinazzi, made long first stint and had a fresher rubber in the end, catching Giovinazzi quite rapidly. He only finished one second behind.
Jere (@jerejj)
24th May 2021, 8:31
@huhhii The final gap might’ve been bigger had Giovinazzi not got stuck behind Ocon until the chequered flag.
HUHHII (@huhhii)
24th May 2021, 11:07
@jerejj I was surprised Sauber didn’t switch the order of their drivers. Kimi with fresher set could’ve mounted an attack against Ocon.
Jere (@jerejj)
24th May 2021, 11:20
@huhhii On a more overtaking-friendly circuit, yes, but very unlikely switching the order would’ve made a difference in this case.
HUHHII (@huhhii)
24th May 2021, 11:24
@jerejj True, but they had nothing to lose and one extra point to gain.
Jere (@jerejj)
24th May 2021, 11:44
@huhhii Yes.
BasCB (@bascb)
24th May 2021, 12:34
I do think we have to factor the “starting on Q2 tyres” disadvantage in there though @huhhii when comparing Kimi and Gio.
But indeed, I wasn’t even really comparing to Kimi in that CotD, rather highlighting the very solid weekend for Giovinazzi.
HUHHII (@huhhii)
24th May 2021, 13:04
@bascb Yep, Giovinazzi has definitely improved. He isn’t crash-prone anymore and his quali pace is actually pretty remarkable. He still needs to learn how to make the tires last though. But Kimi is a great mentor for that.
BasCB (@bascb)
24th May 2021, 13:15
I would guess it might have been just in time to keep him in F1 for the future too.
HUHHII (@huhhii)
24th May 2021, 1:16
Giovinazzi constantly out-performing Kimi? On Saturdays, yes, but Kimi has had an upper hand come race day most of the time.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
24th May 2021, 1:47
I’m a bit surprised Dan is talking about taking a few days off. I’d have thought he’d be glued to the simulator adapting his driving style to the car to prevent a repetition of what must have felt like a horror weekend.
Seems like Mclaren either can’t or won’t make any change to suit his style of driving so he’s just going to have to adjust and soon. I wasn’t surprised that he’d take some time, but I think this weekend rattled even him.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
24th May 2021, 4:41
Yeah very weird post race comments. Also about not wanting to be “clever” and adjust the car setup. Seems to not be wanted at McLaren. Very tough situation for him.
It’s clear who the number 1 driver is and Ricciardo is just expected to adjust to match.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
24th May 2021, 5:33
To be fair, the Mclaren car is pretty quick so I can understand them wanting Dan to adapt to the car rather than trying to adapt the car to him.
It’s tough – pretty sure Seb suffered the same at Ferrari last year, but he should be good enough to turn it around. Just takes a huge effort to unlearn a driving style and learn a new one.
Balue (@balue)
24th May 2021, 9:27
A few days off to ‘regroup’ seems perfectly reasonable after that disaster. Ricciardo showing his good attitude again.
His not wanting to chase setups is reasonable. The car is perfectly fast as is, it’s him that needs to change his ‘setup’.
Cristiano Ferreira
24th May 2021, 2:16
So far Ricciardo is a massive disappointment at McLaren, and the situation looks grim for McLaren if his situation doesn’t improve soon, because right now they are “emulating” Red Bull with only just one car fighting for points against Ferrari who has a better budget and 2 cars (drivers) fighting for important positions.
Also McLaren doesn’t have the gap that Red Bull enjoyed last year with only Max battling the Mercedes, which was enough to secure 2nd in the WCC.
If they lose their 3rd place at the end of the season it will be Ricciardo’s fault.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
24th May 2021, 4:41
However, gasly and albon were unproven drivers in a front running car, good in the midfield but not good in a top car, ricciardo has done well in both circumstances so far, so it’s weird he can’t perform.
Jere (@jerejj)
24th May 2021, 8:29
@Cristiano Ferreira, I agree. He’s definitely doing worse than, for example, Sainz and Perez out of the quartet who changed a team from last season. I’m sure he’ll eventually become better at Mclaren, but his slowness could indeed cost them 3rd in the WCC.
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
24th May 2021, 13:03
Probably taking the longest to adjust, and highlighted further by the speedy Lando.
But he is proven to be consistently quick, and you don’t just forget how to drive a car.
Mooa42
24th May 2021, 22:47
He is taking a lot longer to adjust than I suspected but I was encouraged by his times on the hard tyres. He was one of the fastest cars on track on the hards, and I think he set the forth fastest race lap but became lapped traffic at about the same time.
He is a confidence driver and can only guess it’s extra hard to lean on a car when you don’t trust it and the margin for error is so small, I suspect/hope he will be on-it soon.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
24th May 2021, 4:47
Also agree with russel, haas was 2 laps behind williams, which was lapped, so really bad performance, and with no way to compete with anyone else, like williams in the recent past.
Jere (@jerejj)
24th May 2021, 8:27
@esploratore Maybe not quite as Mazepin finished a full lap behind Tsunoda, but really bad performance anyway, so I also agree with Russell.
Dave
27th May 2021, 22:32
Wait until George becomes a Real Madrid superstar!
Jere (@jerejj)
24th May 2021, 8:36
Tsunoda struggling for grip early on isn’t entirely surprising, given he started on the hard with medium starters around him, although so did Stroll, but maybe experience made the difference. Nevertheless, this at least partly explains dropping to 17th ahead of only the Haas duo.
He’s been lackluster every event post-Bahrain, but I’m sure he’ll improve with experience. For now, I’m not worried.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
24th May 2021, 8:47
How can Hamilton be so poor in Monaco.
Rosberg, Bottas all have been able to better him round this track, and now this result.
Dropped the ball in quali, poor strategy, and now out of title lead, despite his best ever season start?
ian dearing
24th May 2021, 10:03
Short corners basically. Doesn’t do point and squirt well. Singapore, Baku, Austria. This is where the car usually saves the day.
Dave
24th May 2021, 10:07
Re Haas: Mazepin is noob and Haas are noobs. That’s all.
Re Ferrari: Don’t know if they’re still noobs. Just wait…
montreal95 (@montreal95)
24th May 2021, 16:32
Re: COTD @bascb I think the only fair thing to say so far about the Alfa Romeo pair is that Gio is so far consistently quicker over one lap, while KR is consistently quicker on race pace. Anything else is a lie and anti Kimi bias. I know it’s absolutely not what you meant and I agree with your comment but the people here who are commenting want to make sure that the one who put your comment there, with a twist, let’s say, knows that the lies and bias haven’t slipped through the net, although they are expected here its nothing new the anti-Kimi sentiment on this site