When you think about the Monaco Grand Prix, what words come to mind?
Iconic. Historic. Sinewy. Unforgiving. Challenging. Scenic. Celebrities. Superyachts. Royalty. Glitz. Glamour. Staple. Stale. Anachronistic. Archaic. Boring.
As is tradition, Sunday’s lacklustre race overshadowed a much-needed victory for McLaren’s Lando Norris.
This isn’t a new phenomenon; F1 outgrew Monaco decades ago, amplified now in the age of social media with the sport’s popularity at its apex. Three-time world champion Nelson Piquet once said, “It’s like riding a bicycle around your living room.” The most recent on-track pass for the lead during a race in Monaco took place in 1996 (yep, 29 years ago) and you can thank wet weather for making that possible. McLaren’s Ayrton Senna famously fended off Nigel Mansell for the victory in 1992 despite the superior machinery of the Williams.
It’s been a dull race for almost as long as it’s been a legendary one and yet, it remains the “crown jewel” on the calendar, a link to F1 and motorsport’s past. It likely wouldn’t get approved if it was proposed today, but then again, it is Monaco and money talks.
Kudos to F1 and the FIA for at least trying something different this year, as drivers were mandated to make a minimum of two pit stops.
Unfortunately, teams cracked the code quickly, starting with Racing Bulls. Liam Lawson backed up the field, allowing his teammate ahead of him, Isack Hadjar, to pit twice before other drivers had even stopped once. How slow can you go? Norris caught up and was lapping almost half the field before the midway mark.
Having seen that play out ahead of them, Williams perfected the strategy with their drivers, Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, until Mercedes’s George Russell essentially said (with his actions and not words) to hell with this and plowed through the nouvelle chicane to overtake Albon. Russell knew he’d be penalized for leaving the track to gain an advantage, but he figured nullifying the likely five-second penalty would be easier than trying to make a clean pass. Au contraire, said the officials, as Russell was handed a rare drive-through penalty instead.
Racing Bulls and Williams did what they had to do to net double points finishes in a case of “don’t hate the player, hate the game.”
“Today is not how we want to go racing, and I think the way us and other teams were able to hold up the pace and build gaps shouldn’t be what the Monaco Grand Prix is all about,” Sainz said in a team release. “We worked well as a team, but I understand the frustrations of the cars around us as we were victims ourselves.”
So then it’s back to the drawing board. While other legacy tracks like Spa and Imola may cycle in and out of the calendar in future years, Monaco isn’t going anywhere. But is there something, anything, that can actually be done to make it exciting?
There’s not much you can do about modifying the circuit itself when you don’t have the space to widen the roads. Next year’s new regulations are unlikely to make a difference either unless the cars suddenly become significantly smaller, which would sacrifice safety measures.
Or maybe nothing can be done and we accept it for what it is and has been for some time: A parade for the rich and famous.
“You can’t race around here anyway, so it doesn’t matter what you do,” Red Bull’s Max Verstappen told Sky Sports F1. “One stop, 10 stops. I mean, even at the end, I was in the lead, but my tires were completely gone, and you still can’t pass.”
He added: “Honestly, we were almost doing Mario Kart, then we have to install bits on the car and you can throw bananas around.”
Now you’re playing with power.
Norris’s mega drive at Monaco GP
Yes, the old adage is that Monaco is won during Saturday’s qualifying, but what a lap Norris laid down to secure pole position.
It looked like local lad and last year’s winner Charles Leclerc had put his Ferrari on pole for the second consecutive time until Norris posted a track record time and the first sub-70-second lap in Monaco history.
Still, you can lose the race on Sunday with its slim margins of error. Norris’s tire lockup on the first turn of the opening lap was a close call, but just a hiccup. The British driver avoided any damage and kept it clean from then on out.
Norris conceded the lead only while pitting and regained the top spot for good on the final lap as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen couldn’t wait any longer for a potential red flag and had to make his second mandatory pit stop.
Although Leclerc was on his tail, Norris immediately flexed his car’s muscles and took off in the clear air, setting the fastest lap of the race and finishing more than three seconds ahead.
Norris scored his first grand prix win since taking the season-opener from pole in Australia and drew within three points of championship leader and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, who came in third.
Since Australia, Piastri has taken attention away from Norris, and for good reason, with seven consecutive podiums, including four wins, leapfrogging his teammate in the standings along the way.
Four-time reigning world champion Verstappen, who finished fourth, remains an additional 22 points back of Norris, so it’s still a head-to-head fight between the McLaren drivers for now.
There isn’t a driver who knows the streets of Monaco better than hometown hero Leclerc, but there wasn’t much more he could do to return to the top step of the podium after qualifying second.
Charles was in charge during practice, topping the speed charts in all three sessions, but the Monegasque driver came up .109 of a second short of securing pole position. As mentioned, Leclerc’s time would have been fine any other year, but Norris pushed his car faster around the Monaco circuit than anyone ever.
P2 was the best Leclerc could hope for as he earned his second podium of the season.
Rookie watch: Hadjar continues to impress
After the worst possible start to his F1 career in Australia — crashing out on the formation lap — Hadjar has earned points in four of the past six races and a career-high (so far) sixth place in Monaco.
Racing Bulls teammate and fellow rookie Lawson also topped his personal best, finishing eighth to score points for the first time this season. Sure, it wasn’t the most thrilling performance, but that has to feel good after he was demoted from the main Red Bull team just two races into the season. Meanwhile, his successor, Yuki Tsunoda, finished way back in 17th after starting 12th.
What was Mercedes thinking?
It was game over for Mercedes after qualifying, and things continued to unravel from there.
Russell (engine failure) and Kimi Antonelli (accident) failed to advance out of Q2 and lined up 14th and 15th, respectively, on the grid. Getting stuck in a train behind the Racing Bulls and Williams cars set in frustration, but their antics bypassing the nouvelle chicane to get by Albon didn’t win them any favours. Neither did waiting until the race was almost over before making any pit stops.
Russell finished just outside the points in 11th while Antonelli was 18th, i.e., last of the cars still running.
Despite sitting second in the constructors’ championship, you’d be hard-pressed to consider Mercedes second best on the grid right now. It’s been back-to-back subpar weekends for the team that has Red Bull (four points back) and Ferrari (five) breathing down their necks.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso already declared himself the “unluckiest driver” last weekend in Imola, so it couldn’t get any worse, right?
Alonso was in line to score points, his first of the season, starting sixth on the grid, but an engine issue forced the two-time world champion to retire the car almost midway through the race.
You may have seen that graphic on social media this past week that highlighted Lance Stroll has 100 per cent of Aston Martin’s points this season. That seems impressive until you remember we’re talking about only 14 points and eighth place in the constructors’ championship, nothing to really brag about.
If Alonso doesn’t score points at his home race in Spain next week, it will be the worst start to a season in his career since his rookie year with Minardi in 2001 — things we never thought we’d be writing.