F1 in Monaco: No one has ever gone faster than that

The least-sensible F1 race of the year is also the most glamorous.

The principality of Monaco is perhaps the least suitable place on the Formula 1 calendar to hold a Grand Prix. A pirate cove turned tax haven nestled between France and Italy at the foot of the Alps-Maritimes, it has also been home to Grand Prix racing since 1929, predating the actual Formula 1 world championship by two decades. The track is short, tight, and perhaps best described as riding a bicycle around your living room. It doesn’t even race well, for the barrier-lined streets are too narrow for the too-big, too-heavy cars of the 21st century. And yet, it’s F1’s crown jewel.

Despite the location's many drawbacks, there’s something magical about racing in Monaco that almost defies explanation. The real magic happens on Saturday, when the drivers compete against each other to set the fastest lap. With overtaking as difficult as it is here, qualifying is everything, determining the order everyone lines up in, and more than likely, finishes.

Coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix is now filmed in vivid 4k, and it has never looked better. I’m a real fan of the static top-down camera that’s like a real-time Apple TV screensaver.

Although native-Monegasque Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc tried to temper expectations for the weekend, the Ferraris were in a good place in Monaco. With no fast corners, the team could run the car low to the ground without risking a penalty, and this year's car is very good at low-speed corners, of which Monaco has plenty.

A 10th of a second separated comfortably being in Q2 from being relegated to the last couple of rows in the grid, and a very long Sunday. Mercedes' new teenage protegé, Kimi Antonelli, failed to progress from Q1, spinning in the swimming pool chicane. Unlike Michael Schumacher in 2006, Antonelli didn't do it on purpose, but he did bring out a red flag. His teammate George Russell similarly brought a halt to Q2 when he coasted a third of the way around the circuit before coming to a stop in the middle of the tunnel, requiring marshals to push him all the way down to turn 10.

The gaps at the front were much bigger for Q3, and the lap times much quicker. Three drivers broke the existing track record set by Lewis Hamilton during qualifying in 2021, with McLaren's Lando Norris the fastest at 1:09.954—the fastest time ever for this configuration of the circuit.

The race

In order to try to spice up the race this year, the sport's organizers mandated every driver perform two tire-changing pit stops during the race. This opened up a lot of potential strategies, but in the end no one went for the “stop twice early in quick succession” that was so talked about by the pundits in the leadup to the race.

On lap 2, a virtual safety car opened up early stops for people at the back half of the grid, but with the current supersized cars, there was very little interesting during the race. Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was set to score his best result of the year with a sixth place, but his engine blew on lap 39.

Teams that had both cars running together on track could use the second car to hold up everyone behind and give their teammate a hassle-free pit stop, but none of the teams able to employ this strategy were set to score points. Lewis Hamilton managed to make up a couple of places, but most everyone finished where they started.

The race was dominated by pole-sitter Norris, although Verstappen took the lead for much of the last third of the race, and only by dint of not having made his second pit stop. Hoping for a red flag or safety car that would give him that stop for free, Verstappen was left unsatisfied and had to come in under green flag conditions for a tire change just before the end, leaving him in fourth place.

McLaren's Oscar Piastri took third, looking a little behind Norris all weekend. Leclerc took second, with Norris the victor.

Next week, Barcelona!

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