🏁 Lecursed No More

🥇Max Verstappen [169]: Best radio of the day, saying “**** me this is boring. I should have brought my pillow.” He’s not wrong, red flag circumstances and Monaco in general led to the procession we saw on Sunday. Though Max is known to get a bit spicy when he’s not winning.

🥈 Charles Leclerc [138]: Said his previous misfortune at this race made his win “even better” declaring it the “best weekend ever” in social media after the race. “It means a lot, obviously. It’s the race that made me dream of becoming a Formula 1 driver one day. It was a difficult race emotionally because already 15 laps to the end you’re just hoping that nothing happens, already the emotions were coming.” And thankfully… nothing happened!

🥉 Lando Norris 📈 [113]: Was frustrated on how the race played out, though admitted catching Sainz would have always been difficult since he picked up the pace when he needed to. “Mentally it’s still draining and you’re still pushing, you’re just pushing to a much lower limit. A bit of a shame, we had no strategy to accomplish – it was just hard tires until the end. At least if there were some pit stops maybe something could have come of it, but [there] never was.”

4️⃣ Carlos Sainz 📈 [113]: Lucked out with the red flag that allowed him to restart in his initial starting position after an early puncture. Meanwhile, the Williams rumors for 2025 are heating up.

5️⃣ Sergio Perez 📉 [107]: Reportedly close to resigning for Red Bull for 1 year, even as his performance dips and Ferrari closes the Constructors’ gap. On Magnussen’s squeeze in lap 1: “It was just very unnecessary.”

6️⃣ Oscar Piastri [71]: Thrilled with a podium after a “tricky race”, adding “The pace at the beginning was incredibly slow. I had one little half look before the tunnel, but didn’t have… I didn’t have a small enough car to fit into the gap.”

7️⃣ George Russell [54]: Was confident in podium or “even victory” prior to the red flag. In addition to Sainz’s puncture, “When we lined up on the grid the first time and we were on the hards, the four drivers ahead were on the mediums, I was like, ‘this is perfect’.” Strategy offset is one thing, though I think victory was a bit of a reach. Also, George with honorable mention for radio of the day when he said everyone was “pootling” around. Classic George.

8️⃣ Lewis Hamilton [42]: Was frustrated that the team did not call for a push lap after his pit stop in an attempt to undercut Verstappen. Toto later admitted the team made a communication error. Not sure it would have made a difference, but it was worth a try in a race where no other overtaking was really possible.

9️⃣ Fernando Alonso [33]: Thought he was running in P10 after Lance’s puncture. "And then when I crossed the line and they told me P11, I said, 'Oh, so, uh, all that stress for nothing.' But anyway, it kept me alive.”

🔟 Yuki Tsunoda [19]: “We deserve these points” as Yuki puts in another solid weekend, taking P8. Yuki’s earned a spot for next year for sure, but reportedly isn’t currently in consideration for Red Bull.

11. Lance Stroll [11]: Christian Horner mentioned his ability to do something few could do in Monaco: “Thank God for Lance Stroll, the only guy that managed to overtake in the race.” Thank God for his radio messages too, I might add.

12. Oliver Bearman [6]: Got so bored during the race that he went into hibernation early this year

13. Nico Hulkenberg [6]: An innocent victim of the opening chaos, his thoughts on who’s fault it was: “Think somewhat a racing incident… It looked maybe a bit optimistic from Kevin, but I don’t know, Checo could have also maybe seen him and left room, so unfortunate, obviously, the outcome.”

14. Daniel Ricciardo [5]: On keeping calm during his slow start to the year, based on what he learned at McLaren: “I was worried that the team would start panicking, so I was just dialing it home to them: ‘Guys, trust me. We’re good. Let’s just stay on course, let’s not go crazy, let’s not listen to too much and not receive feedback from everyone. We’re good, it’ll make sense soon.’”

15. Alex Albon 📈 [2]: Hoping the team can “hit our stride” after first points of the season. “I wish I had a nicer race, more fun race to say how we scored our first points, but I’ll take that!”

16. Esteban Ocon 📉 [1]: Apologized on social media for his over aggressiveness, saying “Today’s incident was my fault, the gap was too small in the end and I apologize to the team on this one. Hoping for a deserved points-finish for the team today.” He’ll take a 5 place grid penalty to Canada for the incident. Most pundits seemed to agree that his dive inside was out of line against a teammate early in the race, and was more egregious than K-Mag’s error.

17. Kevin Magnussen 📉 [1]: His side of the crash story: “I think I was with my front alongside Perez’s rear, from the exit of Turn 1 on the run up to Turn 3. He goes towards the wall, the wall comes a little bit back towards the track, and I had nowhere to go.” Ultimately the stewards agreed this was a racing incident, so no penalty or race ban for him just yet…

18. Pierre Gasly 📈 [1]: He was understandably not happy with Ocon’s move, heard on the radio shouting, “What did he do! What did he do!" He added that “It was a clear instruction from the team on what to do, what we were supposed to do, and this wasn’t respected [by Ocon].”

19. Zhou Guanyu 📉 [0]: On an monotonous race: “It’s been a really tame and uneventful afternoon for me. At the first start, I saw the accident with Perez, Magnussen and Hulkenberg just in front of me: it was a sketchy moment. After the restart, everyone got all the way to the end and we were all in the same boat, so there was nothing we could do.”

20. Valtteri Bottas [0]: On his yet-to-be-confirmed future: “I don’t really actually want to put any specific number on how many years I have left, just because I don’t see the end coming yet. I still feel like I have lots to give and lots to achieve. Now my motivation is to get back closer to the top. I miss that feeling of fighting more towards the front end.”

21. Logan Sargeant [0]: Believes he can fight for points “once both cars have the same spec” as Williams still looks to catch up from early season crash issues.

Constructor’s Corner

🥇Red Bull [276]: A hit to the team’s finances: Checo’s crash will cost somewhere between $2-3 million, counting against the cost cap and hampering development down the line. Stinks when it’s not your fault... but less $$$ for Red Bull to develop? I like the sound of that..

🥈Ferrari [252]: While Leclerc can’t mathematically move into P1 after Canada next weekend, Ferrari does have a chance to overtake Red Bull, now trailing by just 24 points in the Contructors’.

🥉McLaren [184]: They intended to push Ferrari into extending the lead to allow Lando to pit, but Leclerc slowing down closed the window between the McLaren and chasing Russell to less than 20s required to get a free stop without losing track position.

4️⃣ Mercedes [96]: Rumor is Kimi Antonelli is the lead candidate for the 2025 open seat, with his recent private tests enough to convince management he belongs. Toto doesn’t want to let him slip through his fingers, like Verstappen did years ago…

5️⃣ Aston Martin [44]: Ex-Ferrari TP Mattia Binotto met with Lawrence Stroll at length over a possible Chief Technical Officer role with the team.

6️⃣ RB [24]: Rumors are they are likely to hold onto their current driver pairing. CEO Peter Bayer: “I think we’re very happy with both of our drivers. And honestly, we’re not wasting time with discussing ifs and whens. We have a very strong line-up. We have a great reserve driver.” I still think Lawson is a possibility into next year.

7️⃣ Haas [7]: “Sunday to forget” as team looks to move on from double DNF that will likely come at a “big cost.” Forget the $$$ that was like a -93 points big cost to my fantasy team since I had just subbed them in for Aston. Ugh. At least I had the 3x DRS boost on Leclerc.

8️⃣ Williams 📈 [2]: With reports that Mercedes is leading the pack on 2026 power unit development, Albon believes signing with Williams is a safe bet: “I think Mercedes time and time again when it comes to these regulation changes, they seem to be one step ahead of their rivals.. Not to say I don’t think other teams will do a good job. But I think it’s at least a safe bet.” This logic makes sense with Merc being the team’s PU supplier. Merc needs a regulation reset to really have a chance at the top again. If they can nail the PU then I like Williams chances even more under Vowles leadership.

9️⃣ Alpine 📉 [2]: Famin says the team will deal with Ocon and Gasly’s incident “behind closed doors.” Closed doors that may have a camera? Saw reports that Netflix was following Ocon this weekend for Drive to Survive. Hoping we get the inside scoop on what was said since clearly Famin was NOT happy with his driver. Probably a lot of French swear words.

🔟 Kick Sauber [0]: Hoping Monaco was an “outlier” as they’re the only team left to score points this season. Bottas on the race: “We still tried for everything we could, but it was all aboard the Alonso train, which wasn’t that fun in the end – it was pretty slow! But what can you do?”

Quick Question (my answer)

Leclerc won so it’s all good for me. But yea, I agree, bit of a boring parade as they say. BUT LECLERC WON SO WHO CARES! Happy for Charles. The fight at the top is ON.