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.
The tight, twisty and extremely low-speed street circuit has been a happy hunting ground for the world champion as they have won the last three races in Monaco – two for Verstappen and one for Sergio Perez in 2022. But last weekend, McLaren pushed Red Bull to the very final lap of the race to be within a second of them at a different kind of narrow circuit and will be looking to continue to push Verstappen even harder for victory this weekend.
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…
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