The Monaco Grand Prix! Where money meets the fastest cars, and arguably the best drivers globally – Monte-Carlo, a bucket list travel destination for sure.
Friday morning in Australia, all socials are filled with the arrivals, and outings of the drivers, and teams. The build-up is underway.
The championship has already taken off after six rounds, Oracle RedBull Racing‘s Max Verstappen (24), in the lead and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (24), second in the championship by six points.
So how will this weekend play out? Let’s dissect it all!
This weekend is ultimately high stakes for Charles; the Monegasque recently crashing Niki Lauda’s historical 1974 Ferrari at the Monaco Historical GP event. Thankfully, he walked away unscathed.
It is no secret that tifosi (fans) wonder if the Monaco curse will follow Charles, home grown hero, but his performance this year has been a stellar stint – urging Ferrari fans to get excited.
The pressure is undoubtably immense for young Charles. Scuderia Ferrari is one of the most highly anticipated teams in Formula One, a team everybody secretly gets behind, as once mentioned by 4x World Champion, Sebastian Vettel (34).
The 24 year old Monegasque claimed he is feeling more excitement than pressure being back in his stomping ground; further showing the latest showcased confidence throughout the 2022 season.
The excitement following Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz (27) into this weekend is astonishing, almost matching the excitement that followed Daniel Ricciardo (32), back home to the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, VIC.
However, will Max Verstappen be able to keep the lead in the championship this weekend? Even with the threat of new Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver, George Russel (24), who seemingly has solid pace in Barcelona last week?
Let’s find out!
Free Practice 1 depicted ample teams getting a feel for the track, the usual for the first run. Something that caught my attention was the return of Mercedes-AMG Petronas’ issue of porpoising. Lewis Hamilton (37), on the radio saying the car is super bouncy; a few other comments over the radio made by other drivers about the ride of the cars – piquing my interest for the weekend and how the 2022 cars and new tyre size will go throughout weekend.
Mick Schumacher (23), driver for HAAS, stopped at the pitlane entry with a gearbox issue, the car not clicking into gear – triggering a red flag mid-session.
While McLaren looked promising, Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris, (22) producing very decent pace. Verstappen was still crunching quick lap times, causing a yellow flag at one stage from a slight look-up; his teammate Sergio Perez (32), having the same issue a few minutes later. Alfa Romeo’s driver Valtteri Bottas, (32) has potential gearbox problems, not completing a time throughout FP1.
Scuderia Ferarri, Oracle Redbull, McLaren and Mercedes-AMG had all their cars hang out in the top ten, joined by Pierre Gasly (26), in the number 10 Scuderia AlphaTauri car, and the Aston Martin number 5 with Sebastian Vettel.
A pretty solid session with lots of info to grasp.
Free Practice 2 – something I had to record due to time zone and my lack of sleep in the last week.
The focus needed to fully concentrate with such a high speed, sharp cornered, and quick track is unbelievable – truly, hats off to them.
What was a seemingly quick session ended for Daniel Ricciardo with a red flag as he lost the rear into The Swimming Pool. Regardless of the shunt, he feels good and knows he’ll bounce back for FP3 and Qualifying – an exciting change to see in Daniel after the last few races of the season.
Besides the Ricciardo loose rear fiasco; the two Scuderia Ferrari’s topped the time sheets with Charles Leclerc coming out on top, Sainz in P2, Verstappen P3, Perez P4, Norris P5 and Russel P6. Both Alpha Tauri cars making their way into the top ten (p7 and p10), with Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda (22) – Fernando Alonso (40) P8, and Vettel P9.
FP2 looked like many teams began understanding which setups worked; an exciting part of every race weekend as things start to gel.
Free Practice 3!
Another round of RedBull and Ferrari one-upping each other throughout the whole session.
Home grown hero, Charles, was complaining of vibrations at the front of the car towards the beginning – terrifying fans that the Monaco Curse was back. However, Charles looked confident and very comfortable in the cockpit during his time out on track; hugging the walls and curbs perfectly.
Max Verstappen’s pull-rod suspension looks to be a pain in his backside. The car looks sketchy as the suspension snaps mid corner. This ultimately resulted in losing time, harming his pace drastically. Disappointing, but it doesn’t exactly rule him out – we saw enough of the teams strategy and luck in Abu Dhabi 2021.
Lewis Hamilton, 7x World Champ struggled – seemingly unable to stick with the track like Charles Leclerc. Unfortunate, but not surprising after the rocky start to the season Mercedes has had for car 44.
Daniel Ricciardo had completed the most amount of laps out of everyone, trying to figure out a setup after FP2’s shunt. His brakes appeared to be super overheated as mechanics did their best fanning them, but Norris remained untouched. Ricciardo hanging back of the pack when the chequered flag was brought out.
Lando Norris is still unwell but placing the car in the top ten. Impressive with suffering from tonsillitis – think I would be knocked out in bed. An applaudable effort; speedy too!
Exciting as drivers shift around in spots; meaning qualifying could be huge. Especially with Checo (Perez) taking the top step, showing his strong pace RedBull have found over Charles in this session – provisional pole. Quali looming ahead.
Qualifying in Monaco!
Q1 was red flagged with Yuki Tsunoda tapping the barrier, damaging his rim. This red ruined a lot of peoples laps, including teammate Pirre Gasly, and could potentially have been deemed unnecessary.
Q2 Both HAAS cars out of the top ten; Kevin Magnussen (29), Mick Schumacher accompanied by Yuki, Bottas, and Ricciardo. Disappointing for cars 77 and 3, especially with their pace earlier in the weekend.
Q3 Alonso’s first top ten since Imola! Charles prepared a speedy lap, situating himself on pole – deserved but a shame for the field as a red flag was raised as Perez lost the rear coming into the tunnel, Sainz doing the exact same thing, merely hitting him. The rest of the field piling up behind. This didn’t leave much hope for everyone as qualifying was called as is with Leclerc, Sainz, and Perez taking the three top steps (30 seconds left on the clock).
Positive for both BWT Alpine cars, with Esteban Ocon (25), and Fernando Alonso. Positive for both Mercedes-AMG Petronas cars, McLaren with Norris, and Aston Martin with Vettel. Not great for both RedBull drivers – however they’re there or there abouts with Ferrari in P4 and P3.
As Crofty (David Croft) always begins – it’s lights out and away we go!
Except we didn’t hear that line on time, the race start delayed by race directors as they monitored a heavy downpour for safety measures. *sigh*
Although it’s fantastic safety is highly considered, there is no doubt it’s a stressful situation for the teams and their mechanics as they run around like headless chooks to get the drivers sorted, and suited to conditions.
A nice little radio message from Hamilton, reminding his team to remain calm and take a breath. This was right before a few formation laps behind the safety car. Daniel Ricciardo also speaking up while on track, “It’s wetter than I thought”. The session red flagged not long after as the heavy rain sets in – miserable weather. Fans braving the rain in ponchos!
The race got underway at 12:11am Australian Eastern Standard Time – a late one!
With what is usually a high intensity race, it was even more full on with the wet-dry complications of the weather.
Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon bumping elbows – the BWT Alpine driver blocking the seven-time champion multiple times, making contact and only causing minor damage on Lewis’ front wing.
The race quickly became a fully charged RedBull versus Ferrari focussed situation – a clear mission to one up another and extend the championship lead.
77 laps turned into a timed race after two red flags. One result of the weather delay, and another from HAAS driver Mick Schumacher hitting the wall; back of the car removing itself from the chassis. Thankfully the HAAS driver is ok, but the team don’t seem too thrilled with the result.
To add to the jam-packed, partly horror weekend for some teams, Kevin Magnussen retired the car shortly before car 47’s hefty shunt – a disappointing weekend for the team.
Frustration felt by many drivers stuck in traffic, not much opportunity to make a move – placement staying pretty much the same for the remainder. Perez taking his first win in Monaco at the end of the race time allowed, Sainz in second and Verstappen in third over Leclerc in fourth. The lead in the Championship extended by nine points.
First Mexican driver to win the Monaco Grand Prix – pretty special day for Checo.
Whilst there was disappointment once more for Charles in Monaco, his teammate Carlos Sainz enjoyed a podium with a very deserved champagne shower. Norris taking the fastest lap of the race in p6, whilst Ricciardo finished in 16th – Albon’s (26) GP ending in a DNF.
There is nothing quite like Monaco – Miami’s Grand Prix couldn’t even match it, despite their best efforts. And what was usually named a not very interesting race turned out to be action filled with all sorts of unexpected cards thrown.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed unpacking the Monaco Grand Prix with me! Until next time.
Tayla Talks ❤
Tayla Talks 
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