I am so excited to see my first ever Monaco Grand Prix! it's the 81st running of this race since 1929, where half the 20 drivers live (no taxes!), and Monaco is gorgeous- check out the pic below of an example of what the view was this past weekend!
It's a street race, and so the track will be very tight, making overtakes tricky, so pole and grid position is very key, but we'll get into the track course specs later. Let's attend to this "driver adopts driver" thing mentioned in the header!
For reasons not yet known, McLaren's Oscar Piastri posted in the 'gram that he "needs to check his family roots for connections to Monaco" (Oscar used the country's full name, but that's a typo nightmare for me). A few hours later, Ferrari and Monaco-born driver Charles LeClerc responded " Do you need me to adopt you?" The next day, Oscar responded that his new name is "Oscar Jack Piastri LeClerc, and is looking forward to meeting his brother (more on that later!)".
What did Oscar just ask his new adoptive dad, Charles? Wrong answers only!
While I'm at it, lets get some LeClerc eye candy going, as it IS his home race! Did I mention when Charles is not racing up to speeds of 250 MPH, he also has a side hustle of being a model? Armani/Bond 007 look:
Quick note: Monte Carlo Charles (remember, the s is silent!) was BORN in Monaco, about half the drivers claim residence there, mainly because the country has no taxes! Back to Charles, he is hoping to break the Monaco curse, as he has come close to winning for a few years now.
A reminder of the current teams/drivers:
For clarity's sake, I'll put on my Professor Colby hat and explain how the practices "work". Besides the obvious of the fact that the teams and drivers are learning how the car reacts to Monaco's narrow streets, and weather conditions that would affect both tyre choice and how long to use those tyres on Monaco's streets, in the three 60 minute practices, drivers can take as many laps around the 2.5 mile race course (shortest track on the F1 circuit) to score the fastest time to "win" those practices. An example, if say Lando did 9 laps, and that 9th lap was a top 3 with only 15 minutes to go in practice, he and the McLaren team may choose not to lap race anymore and hope that time of say, 14.212.23 seconds is not going to be out lapped/passed by a faster lap, they stay in the McLaren Paddock with fingers crossed!
I think class needs some puppy eye candy after that lesson:
It's the Leo wink!
Our first 60 minute P1, weather is 93 degrees, and high humidity, with some drops of rain dropping, and it's very hard for me to concentrate on the drivers on track, cuz I am just taking in the track itself , which at one point, Turn 6 I believe, has a very cool looking turn up the hill at 41 degree elevation. Should note that the McLaren team, which has won Monte Carlo GP six times, has changed their livery (paint job) to yellow and green, in honor of six-time Monte Carlo champion Arynor Senna, and I have to admit, while I miss the orange/papaya look, this paint job is pretty cool. Very nice way to honor Senna. Of course Lando would have chrome as part of his Senna helmet, which looks really cool as Lando zips through the tunnel (yes, there is a tunnel!) on turn 8. this Monte Carlo track is has very tight "slow" corners, which is where problems can occur for the drivers, like right out of the tunnel on turn 11, and on the first turn at the starting line. Back to the practice, as Alpine's Pierre Gasly's power unit is not functioning properly and the team pit crew is telling him to box the car in the paddock, so his P1 may be over for this session. With 11 minutes to go in P1, Saber's Zhou scraped the wall on turn 11, and lost his left front "flank", which is bad enough, but that debris was still there when LaClerc came up on that turn next, and that Sauber bright green flank lodged itself under LeClerc's car, sending both cars to the paddock (garage), and a Red Flag as track crew race out to clear the debris. Red Flag lifted, and drivers getting their laps in, Gasly was able to get a lap in in the last minute but was still last. Top three for P1 were Hamilton/Mercedes, Piastri/McLaren, and Russell/Mercedes.
Eye Candy time: LaClerc posing again!
P2 time: 80 degrees and a bit windy. Not much occurred in this session, a lot of the drivers were bumping into the walls on the turns, but no serious damage to report. Fastest lap times for this session were Eye Candy LeClerc/ Ferrari, Hamilton/Mercedes, Alonso/Aston Martin. P3: It's a bright sunny 93 degree day in Monaco, with light winds and high humidity. After 15 minutes and only three/four drivers warming up their cars/tyres, and w have our first red flag ay Sauber's Bottas did crunch into a wall. wrecking his front tyre, and he is out of P3! Back to green flag after about four minutes, and all drivers on track. One other thing about this track due to how narrow it is and how wide the cars are is there WILL be issues of traffic (like this Memorial Day weekend!) for the drivers, and overtakes are very hard to engage. We also had Mercedes Lewis Hamilton lock up on turn one and found himself in the gravel pit, and at the moment; Lewis isn't the only one to find that turn one gravel pit, as a couple other drivers have done the same! Something to keep an eye on as we move to qualifying later in the day, and the GP on Sunday. P3 comes to an end and our fastest laps leaders were LeClerc/Ferrari, Verstappen/Red Bull, and a nice bounce-back from Lewis with Hamilton/Mercedes clocking the fastest laps!
One of the most exciting qualifying coming up later in the day! A note on how Qualifying works: There are three quick races to determine grid position for the GP on Saturday. First quali the last five drivers are cut, second quali again, last five drivers dropped, and 3rd and final quali determines the top ten on the grid and the ever important pole (1st) position. This also applies to the Sprint Qualis, you will just see me use SQ1 to show the difference.
Eye Candy time! Leo be like "yay on doing well in quali, but where's my dinner?!? "
Quali 1: 18 minutes for this first quali. Not much to report here as all drivers are on soft tyres, so the real story is the last five who ended up in the back of the grid for the GP on Sunday, and a couple of shockers: Alonso/Aston-Martin, Sargent/Williams, Perez/Red Bull (!!), and both Sauber drivers, Bottas and Zhou.
Quali 2: 15 minutes for 15 drivers. And like Q1, no incidents, so lets get to the last five of this qualifying: Ocon/Alpine, Hulkenberg/Haas, Stroll/Aston Martin, Riccardo/RB and Magnussen/ Haas. Onto to Q3 and the top 100 on the grid and the all important pole position!
Quali 3: 10 minutes, 10 drivers. No incidents, other than a couple of drivers scraping the wall, but the top ten grd is set, with LeClerc taking pole, Piastri 2nd, and Sainz in 3rd, with Norris on 4th. Verstappen surprisingly ended up in 6th! Your Monaco GP grid for Sunday:
UPDATE! Both Haas drivers were penalized for breaking some tech rule regarding their cars, and therefore will start LAST from the pit lane- ooph!
It 's a bright sunny day in the Millionaire's Playground known as Monaco, and the grandstands are packed with the aforementioned millionaires, billionaires, celebrities and fans from all over the world for this crown jewel of racing. Fun fact! the Monaco Grand Prix is one of the three races of auto racing's "Triple Crown", with the Indy 500 and the 24 hour Le Mans being the other two! I just recently watched "Ford vs Ferrari "film, and that flick gave a good taste of the grueling conditions racing for 24 hours straight in the same car is- highly recommend as a film for both racing fans and non-racing fans, and history buffs!
There have been two cars that have driven off the track and into the Monaco bay back in the day (Google it), but I don't expect that for this year with all the safety procedures. Major key in strategy for this race is that mandatory pit stop, when to use it, and how the pit crew manages it, races have been lost on a bad pit stop. Hence the tyres used will be either hard or medium, whether to start this 78 lap race, or switch at the pit stop.
And it's LIGHTS OUT, and about 30 seconds into this first lap, MAYHEM! RED FLAG! There were two and a half incidents at the beginning of the race! Let's start with the "half" incident, where on the straight up to the first turn, Sainz car locked up and off the grid and safely into the gravel he went. Incident #2 happened on the approach to the tunnel as the Alpine teammates, Gasly and Ocon ( who do not particularly like each other) found Ocon running his front end up Gasly's rear end, causing Gasly's rear to get airborne for a moment, then landed back on track. Incident #3 was the biggest, with Haas Magnussen, trying to overtake Red Bull's Sergio Perez and causing a wild collision that looped Magnussen's teammate Hulkenberg into the mess! End result is Perez's car a mangled mess, that had to be crane-lifted off the track, and serious damage to both cars, and LOTS of debris on the track. All drivers okay, but I suspect some penalties will be dropped by the racing stewards after this wild, messy start. Everyone now back in their paddocks waiting to see what happens. Will it literally be a restart of the race, or will it be started with where the drivers were before the red flag dropped? The original grid order is maintained, minus the three drivers who are now in DNF (Did not finish), and add another driver who is out, as Alpine's Ocon's pushy car suffered more damage than his teammate, Gasly.
After about 30 minutes under the red flag, the grid resets, and all remaining drivers ready for 2nd start and its a clean one. First penalty announced- Ocon will lose five grid places in the next GP race in Montreal. Magnussen got very lucky with the stewards, as no further investigation into that three-way crash.
Absolutely no change in race list after 40 laps, all the chatter now is when one of the top four racers, LeClerc, Piastri, Sainz and Norris (It's basically a Ferrari/McLaren race at this point, barring a major mistake), as to who will do a pit stop to change tyres first...ahh strategy! On Lap 50, just after he did his first pit stop to change tyres, Stroll had his left rear tyre come off after one lap and just before the pit lane, tyre out of harm's way, Stroll gets that tyre replaced, and I expect a stern talking to from the Aston- Martin bosses to the pit crew after that!
And the curse is broken! After 13 tries on this Monaco track, Charles LeClerc WINS his first Monaco race, this one being the F1 Grand Prix! So very happy for the hometown boy, who was born and raised in Monaco, his mother a hairdresser (who many of the other drivers want her to do their hair), and the fans went wild for Charles, as he was presented with the Monaco trophy by King Prince of Monaco! As for the rest of the top ten, refer back up to the graphic from qualifying, as that is how the GP grid finished- a historical first time ever in FI racing! Track positioning counts at Monaco, indeed! LeClerc also snagged another point for being voted Driver of the Day by the fans, and Lewis Hamilton snagged a point for fastest lap, as well.
And now that Monaco is done, it's time to reveal which F1 driver is the proud papa of adorable Leo! First thing I can tell you is that Leo unexpectantly picked up a new brother this past week (see above), and I bet a few of you put the dots together. Without further ado, I present Leo and his daddy, F1 Monaco Grand Prix 2024 winner, Charles LeClerc!
The most popular celebrity on the F1 circuit, not Charles!
Leo got his own VIP pass for the Miami GP: Very Important Puppy!
Daddy Charles isn't the only one on the family to show off!
One more eye candy thirst trap of my man, Charles!
That's a wrap for a couple of weeks till we hit Montreal! Hope you enjoyed the recap, videos, and the pics!
Comments