With the Monaco GP over, we have a new race winner in the form of Sergio Perez. Looking back, it was one of the most fun races we’ve had in the Principality in a very long time. There was action, there was drama with the pit stops, there were stoppages, and even though they were few and far between, there were overtakes as well.
With this race, Max Verstappen and Red Bull extended their leads over Charles Leclerc and Ferrari in their respective standings. With F1 already moving out of the French Riviera, what did we learn in the Monaco GP? Let’s find out!
#1 Monaco GP might not be part of F1 for long
The race in Monaco had a lot of things going its way. It had controversy with a delayed start, it had drama with the Ferrari pitstops, it had Pierre Gasly pulling off overtakes, it had a popular winner in Sergio Perez, and it had the wily old veteran Fernando Alonso doing his own thing by holding back Lewis Hamilton.
To be honest, though, the track did get somewhat exposed on Sunday. It is far too narrow for two F1 cars to go side by side and although that is a function of cars getting wider, at the end of the day, it’s the track that adapts to F1, not the other way round. If it hadn’t rained and there were no extenuating circumstances, we were in for another Monaco GP procession. F1 cannot afford that anymore, especially with the new American audience jumping in.
#2 Ferrari is starting to feel the heat of the championship battle
Slowly but steadily, Red Bull is starting to crank up the championship pressure on Ferrari and it is starting to show. For any team to challenge for the title, the most important thing they need is a car. For any team to win the title, however, the most important thing they need is the ability to perform under pressure.
The Milton Keynes-based outfit has shown the ability to win the small battles within a race that makes a big difference. Whether it is the pitstop phase, a safety car, or an impromptu stoppage, Red Bull has shown tremendous acumen to make strong decisions in such situations. In the past, Ferrari has stuttered in such situations and the Monaco GP was a prime example of the same. That’s 4 wins in a row for Red Bull now, and the team is starting to take over.
#3 Max Verstappen was slow this weekend, and it was a good thing
One of the best things that came out of the Monaco GP weekend was Max Verstappen’s rather calm demeanor even in the circumstances where he was being upstaged by his teammate.
Verstappen struggled to be the quicker driver throughout the Monaco GP weekend with Sergio Perez holding a distinct advantage over him. Something like this has not happened at Red Bull in a long time! The Dutchman, however, remained calm, scoring the maximum that he could and extending his lead in the championship instead of throwing toys out of the pram.
This new wrinkle in his game shows maturity and a new dimension to the reigning champion’s game. Now, instead of losing the plot, pushing too hard, and crashing the car in the process, Verstappen kept everything composed and extracted the most out of the weekend.
#4 Beyond all the clutter, George Russell is getting the better of Lewis Hamilton
There’s been a lot of clutter around Lewis Hamilton’s performances this season. Everything from the traffic, the yellow flag, the red flag, to the timing of the safety car has been blamed for the Briton being beaten by his teammate. Now, there is surely credence to these views because a safety car did cost Hamilton a podium in Australia and there have been moments of misfortune as well.
Somewhere down the line, however, the seven-time world champion might need to admit that at least for the Monaco GP, George Russell did put together a better weekend. Just like in the Spanish GP the week prior, Russell is doing to Hamilton what not many drivers had ever done to him.
#5 That was a weekend to forget for the FIA
The Monaco GP weekend was a humbling experience for the FIA. It started with the extension of the jewelry exemption for Lewis Hamilton, which got interpreted as the organization bending over for the Mercedes driver’s rather stern stand.
Things got worse for the motorsport governing body when the race director thought it made sense to push back the start of the race because of a light breeze. Although there was a warning for an impending thunderstorm, one must consider that these are some of the best drivers in the world who can drive in the wet. Even if it got worse, the race could have been red-flagged by then.
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Later in the race, Mick Schumacher’s crash and the damage to the Tecpro barrier was a slam-dunk red flag, but the race director took a long time to make that decision. Then, instead of a standing start, the race director opted for a rolling start that left even the commentators bemused for a minute. The FIA took a lot of unnecessary punches this past weekend.
