Charles’ curse is over! Leclerc wins his home GP, finishing ahead of Verstappen in sixth position. This result keeps him in second place, 31 points behind Max Verstappen, and 25 points ahead of Lando Norris. More importantly, in the constructors’ standings, Ferrari is now second, only 24 points behind Red Bull. The start incident involving Sergio Perez and the two Haas cars, with Kevin Magnussen playing a bit of bowling (incredibly not penalized), also played a part in this.
Strategy recap
Our analysis will be brief as the strategies were heavily influenced by the red flag on the first lap. Those starting on Medium tires, Leclerc, Piastri, Sainz, Norris, Tsunoda, Albon, and Ricciardo, clearly took advantage of the incident to switch to Hard tires and finish the race, completing 77 laps on C3 compound.
Verstappen, Hamilton, and Bottas switched from Hard to Medium during the red flag and then made a second pit stop to switch back to Hard. Meanwhile, Russell executed a Hard-Medium strategy, running 77 laps on C4 tires after fitting them during the red flag. On alternative strategies, Stroll, due to a puncture, did Hard, Medium, Hard, Soft; Sargeant finished on Hard, Hard, Medium; and Zhou on Medium, Hard, Soft.
Charles Leclerc breaks the curse with a perfect weekend
With Sunday’s victory, Charles Leclerc can claim to have had a perfect weekend on his home circuit. Leading the standings since Friday, Charles remained calm in every condition, securing the victory he had been chasing for too long, since his first year with Ferrari in 2019. The Maranello team did everything required. Taking advantage of the red flag, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz switched to Hard tires to finish the race and never yielded to the temptation of a tire change.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection! Click here to enter the F1 online Store and shop securely! And also get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
Perhaps a second pit stop for Carlos Sainz to switch to Medium halfway through the race could have aimed for a one-two finish (there was a margin over Russell at one point). Pitting would have created some chaos in the McLaren pit box, but considering Max Verstappen’s inability to attack George Russell on new tires in the final laps, it worked out well. Especially considering the FIA’s decision early in the race, allowing the Ferrari driver to restart from P3 despite the puncture caused by contact with Piastri just before the red flag. Carlos was very fortunate in this circumstance.
The race may have seemed monotonous, but there was constant discussion between the Ferrari pit wall and Charles Leclerc about the pace to keep to prevent the McLarens from pitting, and Charles executed Bryan Bozzi’s orders brilliantly.
Russell’s great management of the Medium tires
After the early race suspension, the GP couldn’t have gone differently. The C3 tires at Monaco could have lasted two races, considering the times Russell managed in the final laps with the C4 Medium tires fitted on lap 1.
Few overtakes
These cars are so wide that at Monaco, they can be compared to trucks. It was almost impossible to overtake. There were perhaps half a dozen overtakes, two of which (by Magnussen and Ocon at the start) ended badly. Esteban was rightly penalized with grid positions for the next GP in Canada, while Kevin got away with it this time. The stewards decided to consider the incident involving the two Haas cars and Sergio Perez as a racing incident, which is somewhat disappointing.
Pirelli’s comment
We conclude with the thoughts of Mario Isola, Pirelli’s motorsport director, given at the end of the race by the Italian company: “The Monaco race doesn’t offer many opportunities, and today even those few were practically nullified by the red flag on the first lap. The interruption made pit stops unnecessary. We knew that both Hard and Medium could complete the entire race distance if managed properly, and this was done by almost all the drivers.
“Those who made a pit stop did so without losing position: they could push on a clear track for a while, setting lap times seconds faster than those managing their tires, but once they found themselves in traffic, they were back to watching the rear of the car in front. It’s no coincidence that the top ten positions remained the same from start to finish,” concluded the Italian manager. The fastest lap of the race was set by Hamilton (Mercedes), who made a second pit stop along with Verstappen about 27 laps from the end: 1’14’’165.
Leave a Reply