🏁 Yacht Party

🥇Max Verstappen [161]: Actually won 2 races this weekend - notching victory in his 24H sim racing event after putting in a stint on Saturday. Also passed Lewis Hamilton for best current winning pct on the grid at 30.7% (to Hamilton’s 30.4%). That puts him 4th all time behind Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari, and Jim Clark at 47.1%, 40.6%, and 34.7% respectively.

🥈 Charles Leclerc 📈 [113]: On his home race “I’ll try to win Sunday in Monaco, it’s my favorite weekend.” Adding that other upgrades are arriving shortly, and that Imola wasn’t the best circuit to judge the performance improvements that were gained.

🥉 Sergio Perez 📉 [107]: Thinks difficult Imola weekend was a “one-off” as he explains that a risky strategy left him with P8 as the best he could hope for. He added that he doesn’t think the track is great for F1 due to difficult overtaking.

4️⃣ Lando Norris [101]: Not ruling out Monaco win or title run as he looks to keep the pressure on Verstappen, “I’ve got fed up of myself kind of underestimating what we can achieve as a team.”

5️⃣ Carlos Sainz [93]: Looking to investigate issues that left him “struggling all weekend”. While he was happy with the race pace, he’s looking to “find something in qualifying.”

6️⃣ Oscar Piastri [53]: While disappointed about the grid penalty he received that knocked him off the front row, he’s “excited for the future” after McLaren’s performance. “It was just a shame about the penalty because I think it unfortunately limited what we could have done.”

7️⃣ George Russell [44]: Won’t “sulk” after conceding a position to Hamilton in order to get fastest lap point in what was a “lonely race” for Mercedes. He added, “we are making progress, it’s just that our two direct rivals have made equal progress.”

8️⃣ Lewis Hamilton 📈 [35]: He’s not getting too hung up on his sub-par qualifying performances so far. “I wouldn’t say it’s not been a priority but the whole weekend has been the priority to improve everywhere.”

9️⃣ Fernando Alonso 📉 [33]: Looks to bounce back after a “tough” weekend that saw him start in P20. “We opted to set-up different in my car and, yeah, let’s see if we found a direction for the next few races.” I’m guessing no almost-pole for Fernando this year like in 2023.

🔟 Yuki Tsunoda [15]: “Happy” with a point just miles from where he calls home, he rues the tough start that saw him drop a few places. On his battle with Nico: “He was fast on the straights, so we didn’t want to end up behind him which is why we pitted before him and earlier than planned. It was the crucial moment of the race, and I think we managed the strategy well and responded correctly”

11. Lance Stroll [11]: Krack said Alonso’s race was sacrificed to try to give Stroll an advantage last weekend, by using Fernando to gather data in what was more of a test session. You see this a lot when someone is way down the order with no shot to crawl out. It’s smart, but must be painful for the driver.

12. Oliver Bearman [6]: Wants back in F1 “as quickly as possible.”

13. Nico Hulkenberg [6]: Open to a teammate reunion with Sainz, who both drove for Renault in 2018. “I appreciate Carlos immensely, he is an incredible driver.”

14. Daniel Ricciardo [5]: Says the team is working to address race start problems that have hurt his performance. “Honestly, I don't know yet what the issue was. I didn't feel like I botched it, as I felt like everything was going okay from the procedure, but we have to have a look. It's so sensitive.”

15. Esteban Ocon [1]: On the short list for the Haas seat alongside Bearman (likely, not yet confirmed) after 5 years with Alpine.

16. Kevin Magnussen [1]: On why he loves Monaco: “It’s the best track on the calendar to drive, it’s just phenomenal on these little tight streets with walls everywhere. The feeling of driving a Formula 1 car in Monaco, to me, is the best of the year.”

17. Alex Albon [0]: Explains his wheel nut issue that cost him an additional pit, a lot of time, and a penalty - but takes positives away from the weekend: “I think, on reflection, that was the best the car’s felt. Set-up wise, I think it was a good step from us”

18. Zhou Guanyu [0]: On his hopes to stay in F1 after this year: "I'm still very calm on the situation. I don't feel like I'm pretty much under pressure. I don't feel like this will be my last year. It's clear that I'm still trying to perform on track.”

19. Pierre Gasly [0]: Thought he was disadvantaged in Imola as Ocon was receiving team priority. “I said we had the priority this weekend. I don’t get it”

20. Valtteri Bottas [0]: Word he’s on the short list for a seat at Williams, having met with James Vowles at Imola last weekend.

21. Logan Sargeant [0]: Upbeat about future as he believes he’s “extremely” close to getting to the level of performance required to keep his seat.

Constructor’s Corner

🥇Red Bull [268]: TP Horner praises Red Bull’s “phenomenal” turnaround after what was a “stressful” weekend where they struggled to nail the set up. When you look at the turnaround we had from Friday into Saturday to get the pole and to get the victory again today, it’s been a phenomenal performance and turnaround by the team but also Max has been incredible this weekend, and again he’s had to work very hard for the pole and the victory.” Again Max proves why he’s the best, and even admitted he had to work hard for that one.

🥈Ferrari [212]: TP Vasseur on the weekend: “Overall, it’s a kind of mixed feeling for me, because I think we did a step forward, McLaren did probably the same as us.” He points to the need for a better qualifying, saying “We compensate I think partly the delta with Red Bull and we are not far away now. I’m a bit frustrated because I think that if we did one-two in quali we would do in the race today. If we missed something it was in quali and not in the race.”

🥉McLaren [154]: With tighter competition at the front, TP Stella notes that execution becomes incredibly important. “But now when margins are so close, I think the first three cars in qualifying were within one tenth or something, then clearly operations, the way you drive the race and manage the tires can become the dominant factor.” 

4️⃣ Mercedes [79]: While they try to figure out this year’s car, the team is confident about their power unit progress heading into 2026. Toto Wolff: “We have an engine department that is as good as it can be, with a top leadership. I really can’t wait for 2026 [and the new regulations] to come and see the different levels of performance of the power unit.” Don’t blame him.. after the past 2+ years he’s desperate to recreate 2014 where Mercedes nailed the new regs.

5️⃣ Aston Martin [44]: Despite bringing upgrades to Imola, TP Krack admits the car is currently “difficult to drive” after some off-roading moments last weekend. Rumor is Papa Stroll is getting frustrated as well. Uh oh.

6️⃣ RB [20]: Leading the midfield “ahead of plan”, but TP Mekies admits they’ll have to fight hard to stay there. “We are P6 with no pace advantage on any of the teams from P7 to P10. But we have developed the car carefully and we have executed weekends well, in a very sharp way, building up race after race. I think in the end we have taken all the points that were available to take.”

7️⃣ Haas [7]: TP Komatsu hopes to attract talent to the team via strong results. They’ve moved themselves up in terms of desirability this year for sure. The ability to fight at the midfield plus the Ferrari relationship could help them land better drivers.

8️⃣ Alpine [1]: Reportedly considering Mick Schumacher for 2025, who is currently competes for Alpine in the World Endurance Championship and is a reserve driver for Mercedes.

9️⃣ Williams [0]: Pit stop mistake led to an Albon test session in Imola. Albon: "Trying to see if there are any solutions on the long run with the car we've got, with the wind and just with the kind of rearwards... just playing around with the brakes, basically. I don't know if there's much to say really just driving around, experimenting." Just a nice leisurely Sunday drive at 200mph. Also: Late breaking silly season rumor is that Sainz is in the mix for 2025… Stay tuned.

🔟 Kick Sauber [0]: Bravi on the importance of better qualifying: “The field is very tight, and we have seen that qualifying is the real race for us: any position we can gain on the starting grid can allow us to have a different Sunday.”

Quiz Answer

D. Ayrton Senna, with 6. Hill and Schumacher have 5, Prost has 4.

On the current grid, Hamilton has 3, Alonso and Verstappen have 2, Perez and Ricciardo have 1. Hoping at add Leclerc to this list…

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