Just one week after a close race battle for victory between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in Imola, the F1 field will reconvene in Monte Carlo for the 81st Monaco Grand Prix.
If Norris’s victory in the Miami Grand Prix indicated that Red Bull’s reign at the top of the championship may be about to end, Imola underlined that while the world champions can be beaten, their rivals must be close to perfect to pull it off.With Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari all within eight seconds at the end of a race without Safety Cars last weekend, there could be many contenders for the most prestigious win on the calendar this weekend.
These are the talking points for the Monaco Grand Prix.
Most open Monaco in years?
For the team who have produced the fastest cars in the field in recent years, Red Bull have also been the strongest around the slowest circuit on the calendar too.
Does that mean fans can expect a similar dynamic this weekend, with both Norris and team mate Oscar Piastri looking to attack Verstappen, especially at a circuit where pole position is crucial? Verstappen says that nothing that has happened so far this season can be applied for the one true outlier on the calendar.
“Monaco is completely different,” he said after Imola. “It was incredibly close and Monaco is always very hectic. You need to really nail all of qualifying to get a lap together there, get the tyres to work as well when it matters, it’s always very tricky. Monaco is very special, I would say, in that sense.”
Leclerc’s overdue home podium
Beyond Red Bull and Ferrari, there will be special focus on Ferrari – as there so often is – this weekend. Not only because of the team’s enduring popularity, but because it is Charles Leclerc’s home grand prix.
Although Leclerc will be competing in his fifth Monaco Grand Prix for Ferrari – and his sixth of his career – this weekend, he is still looking for his first ever appearance on that famous podium in the royal box. This year, Leclerc has not finished lower than fourth in any of the seven rounds so far and has been on the podium in four grands prix, including the last two. Surely he is due to finally achieve that dream this weekend?
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Perez under pressure?
For the first six rounds of the season, Sergio Perez had managed to present himself in a much stronger light than he had throughout most of 2023. Although unable to beat his team mate at any of the races where they both finished, Perez had backed up Verstappen with second place during three of Verstappen’s five victories and finished on the podium more often than not.
Monaco should be the perfect place for him to right the wrong of last weekend and get back on track, given that this was the scene of one of his six grand prix victories back in 2022. However, this was also where his 2023 campaign began to unravel.
Perez crashed on his first push lap of Q1 here last year, dooming him to start at the back of the grid where he struggled to make progress up the order around the extremely narrow street circuit. It was the first of several consecutive rounds where Perez, driving the best car on the grid, failed to progress into Q3.
Christian Horner described Perez’s Imola weekend as an “anomaly”. He needs to prove his team principal right in that respect in Monaco.
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Verstappen seeks record-breaking pole
Verstappen narrowly claimed pole position at Imola last week, heading Norris by just seven hundredths of a second (after a penalty relegated Piastri from second).
By doing so he equalled two long-standing F1 records (counting only grands prix): Ayrton Senna’s eight consecutive pole positions, set in 1988-89 and Alain Prost’s seven consecutive poles at the start of a season, which he achieved in 1993. One more this weekend will add two more records to his name.
Aston Martin’s halted momentum
But now Alonso and his team arrive back in Monaco again with little in the way of momentum. While fifth in the championship, they are significantly behind the same rivals they had been in the thick of battling this time last year.
Since Alonso was announced to be extending his contract with the team, Aston Martin have scored a total of just 11 points – their second-lowest three-race total since he joined the team in 2023. Can they find some more speed at the slowest track of the year?
Alpine animosity?
It’s well known that the two French drivers in the field – Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon – were fierce rivals before they both found themselves racing in Formula 1. However, since they both teamed up at Alpine at the start of 2023, they have managed to do a decent job of working together and not allowing their egos to come before their team.
Last weekend in Imola, there were some early warning signs of tension. Gasly was very unhappy at the end of final practice that Ocon appeared to have been given a better opportunity to complete a final push lap after a late red flag and then his two-stop strategy did not pay off as he ended up finishing behind his team mate in the race.
Last year, Monaco was one of the highlights of the year for Alpine as Ocon produced one of the best weekends of the season to take a fantastic third place finish. But this year, the prospect of that happening is extremely slim. Could Imola be a sign of things to come?
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Yachting and blocking
Last year, Leclerc lost three places on the grid after Ferrari failed to warn him that Lando Norris was approaching behind on a push lap at the end of Q3. With a new race engineer in Brain Bozzi, who ran his first race weekend in Leclerc’s ear in Imola, Leclerc will hope that his team’s communication is stronger this year than last.
Kevin Magnussen will also be hoping he does not have any of his push laps ruined by rivals getting in his way on Saturday – which has happened to him for the last three rounds in a row.
Losing its lustre?
Monaco does not get anywhere near the same star billing as FOM’s darling new event does in marketing and with so many venues eager to host races, there were even some question marks over whether the sport would turn away from Monte-Carlo before it extend the race’s contract until the end of next year.
But the future of the race beyond next year is less certain. In the modern era of big, heavy cars and the Las Vegas Grand Prix, is there still a place for Monaco in Formula 1, or should it consider calling time on one of its most iconic events?
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Are you going to the Monaco Grand Prix?
If you’re heading to Monaco for this weekend’s race, we want to hear from you:
Who do you think will be the team to beat in the Monaco Grand Prix? Have your say below.
2024 Monaco Grand Prix
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- Ocon defends his driving after ‘hurtful abuse’ over Monaco GP crash with Gasly
- How the midfield’s hottest team mate rivalry boiled over
- “He’s really dangerous”: Unheard driver radio from F1’s slow show in Monaco
Alan Dove
22nd May 2024, 8:15
F1 derives its value largely from its heritage. It’s what gives the feeling of ‘high-stakes’. Monaco isn’t losing its luster.
I don’t buy this notion it isn’t ‘suited for racing’. F1 pretty much ranks bottom on formulas that are conducive to close-racing. F1 as a formula, thus, is also ‘unsuited for racing’ if we use the same logic. This proposition is of course nonsense, but ‘close-racing’ isn’t a priority in terms of viewership. What is a priority above anything else is ‘high-stakes’. Close-racing is seasoning that it nice, but this isn’t the fundamental foundations you build a compelling championship on.
Monaco is the single most unique event on the calendar. Has bar far the best qualifying of the year (we all remember Max’s wall riding lap last year) and it has an immense amount of history and heritage that money simply can’t buy. So if F1 were to leave Monaco, it’d leave the door wide open for a rival series to jump in. A new light weight formula with a range of naturally aspirated engines racing around Monaco, a circuit which F1 derives a lot of its value, would be a real threat. Especially with a wave of young, rebellious talent, coming in. With the way money is getting thrown about nowadays, like with LIV Golf, this wouldn’t be out of the question.
Liberty would be foolish to leave Monaco.
PT (@pt)
22nd May 2024, 9:19
I’d say F1 lost much of its heritage when it ditched the Nordscheleife, a track that like Monaco is etched in heritage and tradition. Apart from some unpredictable editions, Monaco largely produces a procession and not a race. Maybe I’m not European enough to understand its value. Maybe it’s because I’ve never visited the place. But I speak as a television viewer with 24 years of watching ever F1 race. I feel Monaco is no longer suited to F1. Sorry.
Alan Dove
22nd May 2024, 11:25
Valuing F1 races on their nature misunderstands the value of F1, or any sport really. Almost all F1 races are ‘poor’ when looked at rationally. But that’s not why F1 is compelling to a viewer, this is demonstrably factual. Monaco is compelling because qualifying is everything, almost. That’s what makes it unique, apart from the circuit itself, which is very special. It’s pretty basic behaviorally psychology, but Monaco is special, because it’s special.
Just look at the publicity surrounding Senna at the moment. It’s focused on him being the ‘master of Monaco’. No other track really warrants ‘masters of’ treatment. It’s this ‘irrational’ or ‘ethereal’ quality is what creates the value of F1.
F1 would be making a huge error to move away from Monaco, and as I said, it’d leave a gaping hole in the market that some investors with sovereign wealth funds could exploit very easily.
anon
22nd May 2024, 18:11
Alan Dove, is Monaco really that inherently prestigious because of what it is, or is it a case that Monaco is prestigious because we say it is prestigious?
After all, you say that it “has an immense amount of history and heritage that money simply can’t buy” – but why doesn’t that argument also apply to other events? The British and Italian Grand Prix are the only two races that have been permanent fixtures on the calendar since 1950, and both Silverstone and Monza have vast amounts of history and heritage.
Indeed, if we were to follow your logic, then shouldn’t the Italian Grand Prix be considered even more prestigious than Monaco? In terms of history and heritage, Monza outstrips Monaco by a substantial margin, whilst the layout also marks it out as being particularly exceptional. In terms of the experience and level of engagement from the fans, many would say that Monza is also considerably superior to Monaco in that area too – so, why shouldn’t that have the prestige you decide must go to Monaco instead?
Alan Dove
22nd May 2024, 19:02
Alan Dove, is Monaco really that inherently prestigious because of what it is, or is it a case that Monaco is prestigious because we say it is prestigious?
If you use money, then you buy into the nation of value being largely a human perception thing. That’s really all that matter. Yes it is prestigious because we say it’s prestigious. You might think it’s irraitonal, but that’s just the nature of the world.
I think Silverstone and Monza should remain, no argument there. Monaco is a little more special, naturally, but still the idea of value can be applied to the other two.
You’re trying to apply logic, not an uncommon mistake in this arena but again, that’s not really how these things work. It’s not how humans work. Monaco is Monaco, and that’s all that matters.
MichaelN
22nd May 2024, 11:13
Monaco is a great qualifying event. It’s unique, and as you note, it’s ‘high stakes’. It’s prestigious, and it has history.
But the race is just not that interesting. Like everywhere else, cars are many seconds off the pace in race trim. While that’s still super fast, it’s a big difference for F1 drivers. It’s no wonder that recent editions see pretty much everyone finish the race (technical DNFs aside), and even with such a short lap it’s quite rare to see the backmarkers lapped more than once.
Alan Dove
22nd May 2024, 11:30
Arguing the race isn’t interesting doesn’t add any value though. All F1 races rank pretty low if you measure their events through a rational lens. This isn’t what makes F1 compelling to the viewer, and this is the only metric that really matters, even if viewership say otherwise.
Ogilvy once famously said “People don’t think how they feel, they don’t say what they think, and they don’t do what they say.”
With regard to Monaco its exactly the same. I don’t really listen to what explicitly people say about Monaco, because its largely misses the point of it. I’d bet all my wealth that if we had a ‘butt clenching’ measuring device, Max’s last sector year would recorded the strongest numbers of the year.
MichaelN
22nd May 2024, 14:45
Disagree, F1 races can be plenty interesting as F1 races. Now it might well be that others prefer other forms of racing; that’s fine. F1 certainly owes much of its popularity to the inertia of its historic status, but it can’t live off of that alone. Plenty of other previously popular series have demonstrated that you need to keep exciting people race by race, or they’ll drift off. So while F1 has lost a lot of people compared to the early 2000s, it’s still going strong and even growing a bit because the product, whatever one’s gripes, is still fundamentally compelling to a lot of people.
That said, Monaco isn’t really interesting as a normal ‘F1 race’ either. That time Ricciardo won when he was basically the slowest car on track is what Monaco is all about; it’s track position and little to nothing else. But Monaco is still cool because of its qualifying, and its long history. Ironically, given the differences in the track layout, it’s much like Monza in that sense. And that’s fine, the calendar is long enough for a few of those events.
Alan Dove
22nd May 2024, 15:13
I don’t think it’s accurate you need to keep people excited race by race. If this really was how people behaved karting would be the number 1 ranked motorsport in the world. BTCC, which is the poster boy of trying to make sure every race is ‘exciting’ is a bit irrelevant now outside of its niche, yet dedicated, audience. IndyCar’s racing is OK and their viewership outside of the Indy500, isn’t all that good. MotoGP decimates WSBK and the latter has more ‘exciting’ races event to event. What happens is if you focus on ‘racing excitement’ you devalue the product. If everyone is a winner, then no one is a winner.
Series panic because they fail to understand the motivation of humans and their viewing habits. It’s the same error over and over again, the under-value what actually compels people (high-stakes) and over-value something that is actually in plentiful supply and thus of little value – ‘close-racing’. That’s not to say close-racing isn’t good, but it’s all about context.
Also, the fact you can immediately reference Ricciardo’s win is testament to Monaco’s inherent value by the way.
S
22nd May 2024, 14:49
But that’s a big problem, isn’t it…. It certainly isn’t justification for running an F1 ‘race’ that isn’t, in the wrong place.
You can’t experience F1, or anything for that matter, through only a rose-coloured tint. Reality simply can’t be overlooked. If viewership says Monaco is not a suitable venue or consistently fails to deliver interest, then that really matters.
But the Monaco GP isn’t qualifying. It’s supposed to be a race. On Sunday.
Qualifying carries additional there importance only because of the factors that make the GP typically so poor. That’s not a positive or a selling point.
Good – please do. I suspect not many series would want it, though.
The historics are OK because they rarely appear anywhere else and it is most definitely a car show, and FE is a totally different kind of racing – they can put on a reasonable competition pretty much anywhere that features corners, so Monaco is nothing special for them. If anything, the track is more of a hindrance than feature.
AlexS
23rd May 2024, 10:55
For me Monaco is essential, F1 tracks should have great variety, it is the ethos of the formula. For example we should have the fast Hockenheimring variation or something alike back. This means that a team that chooses to develop for fast tracks can get a win.
The Tilke factory of bringing sameness corners and straights felt so empty and also reinforces same teams wining. Track variation is essential for F1.
Asd
22nd May 2024, 9:04
IndyCar has 2 car configuration: track and oval. Have a special car configuration for Monaco: no wings, steel brake discs for longer braking distances, use the hardest tyre compound for least grip. Simple as that. Make those drivers have to use some skill to control cars not driving on rails.
PT (@pt)
22nd May 2024, 15:20
Good point!
Jere (@jerejj)
22nd May 2024, 9:08
Most open Monaco in years? – Maybe & hopefully.
Leclerc’s overdue home podium – Even better if he could win the race.
Perez under pressure? – Yes, if he also slumps in Monaco.
Verstappen seeks record-breaking pole – But achieving that isn’t necessarily a given even under normal circumstances.
Aston Martin’s halted momentum – I don’t expect much from them in Monaco either, although I’d be surprised if Alonso again gets out-qualified by Stroll & fails to reach Q3.
Alpine animosity? – The post-FP3 radio complaint was targeted at the team rather than Ocon, so too early to think about animosity.
Yachting and blocking – Not only in recent seasons, but since almost forever. Nevertheless, this year’s edition will probably again see impediment issues, especially because race engineers & drivers seemingly never learn.
Losing its lustre? – That could well be the case, & losing the Monaco GP altogether is something I wouldn’t mind despite the event’s historic status.
someone or something
22nd May 2024, 12:11
Oh, don’t make me laugh. There’s Las Vegas now, so we might as well drop Monaco?
Why are we still going to Monza when we have Baku, with them long straights and all?
For Ayrton’s sake, we’ve had one event at Las Vegas. One single event, that was strongly disliked by the overwhelming majority of those who weren’t paid to talk it up.
Some touching grass is advised.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
22nd May 2024, 12:41
Well, the Las Vegas GP got a rating of 6.84, which is higher than average and makes it the 17th best circuit and a higher score than the averages of tracks like Red Bull Ring, Spa, Suzuka, Singapore, and indeed Monaco.
It was definitely not disliked by an overwhelming majority, since we seem to have rated it 7/10 on average.
Axel
22nd May 2024, 12:59
Although they are linked, the race rating does not equal the degree to which the venue is liked. Spa 2021 is the worst race in terms of rating but people love the track.
S
22nd May 2024, 14:55
Money, of course. When Monza stops paying, that’s the end of the GP.
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
22nd May 2024, 16:57
Most open Monaco in years? No – last year top 3 qualifying were Red Bull, Aston Martin and Alpine – in 2022 Ferrari, Ferrari and Red Bull and 2021 Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari.
So how would be 2024 suddenly be open – all previous years were open as well.
Leclerc’s overdue home podium? Yes long overdue but a combination of bad luck and own errors prevented it so far.
Perez under pressure? What else is new – till he has a signed contract for 2025 he will be under pressure to perform.
Verstappen seeks record-breaking pole? He seeks pole – whether it is record breaking or not doesn’t really matter to him – without impeding/red flag Monaco is really the 1 track that sublime drive performance can be more important than the car driven (valid for top 5 cars).
Alpine animosity? Alpine who? Sorry is that a new applicant?
Yachting and blocking? Failing to understand “Yachting” but red flag or yellows are a high risk as well.
Losing its lustre? The race – probably already did 10 years ago when the cars really became to big/heavy to race. Qualifying – there isn’t a circuit that even comes close to excitement.
Again proving that the FIA and Pirelli are killing F1 – F1 should be (near) maximum speed the entire race not 5-6 second per lap slower to keep the tires alive. Qatar 2023 for me showed more how F1 should be – push push and more push