May 30, 2023
After the boring races we have had this season, the drama of the Monaco Grand Prix was welcomed with open arms. The whole weekend was mayhem as people crashed, Leclerc tried to run away from his curse, and Mercedes tested their upgrades. But on the 28th of May, race day, things got even crazier. Here is your 2023 Monaco Grand Prix weekend recap:
Free-Practice: May 26-27, 2023
Monaco’s chaos began with crashes bringing an early end to each practice session. During FP1, Nico Hulkenberg and Alex Albon both crashed into the barriers and brought out Red Flags. The damage to Albon’s car was so severe that he needed a new gearbox, front wing, rear wing, floor, and front-left suspension. Carlos Sainz later crashed and brought an end to FP2. Finally, FP3 was brought to an early close when Kevin Magnussen suffered a loss of power and Lewis Hamilton crashed at Turn 5.
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The state of Albon's car after his FP1 crash |
Regardless of these collisions, Practice finally provided some useful information. Red Bull and Aston Martin continued to dominate, but Ferrari was up at the top with them. Carlos Sainz went P1 in FP1, and FP2 saw a Ferrari 2-3. Perhaps this a sign that our prayers for the Monaco curse to be lifted have been heard. McLaren’s promises of a better car have finally been fulfilled with Lando Norris consistently in the Top 10 throughout each practice session. Although his teammate Oscar Piastri was still at the back of the grid, we can write that off as the rookie learning curve, not car performance. Mercedes spent practice testing their new, highly anticipated upgrades, but the team was always at the bottom of the Top 10 or even lower. Their upgrades seem more like downgrades.
Qualifying: May 27, 2023
Q1:
In an odd turn of events, Q1 saw Max Verstappen, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and the Williams of Alex Albon take the top three positions.
Eliminated: Sargeant (P16), Magnussen (P17), Hulkenberg (P18), Zhou (P19), Perez (P20)
Sergio Perez’s shocking qualifying result can be attributed to his crash at the Sainte Devote section of the track.
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They had to use a crane to get the Red Bull of the track |
Q2:
Lando Norris ran wide on one of his flying laps and clipped the wall, damaging his left-front suspension. Luckily, he had already set a lap time that got him into Q3.
Eliminated: Piastri (P11), De Vries (P12), Albon (P13), Stroll (P14), Bottas (P15)
Lance Stroll’s Q2 exit is strange because he is in an Aston Martin, one of the most competitive cars on the grid, and can’t get the same results as his teammate.
Q3:
At one point, Esteban Ocon impressively put his Alpine in provisional pole and was one tenth clear of Verstappen. Then, by “pushing like an animal” (most likely a lion), Fernando Alonso took provisional pole. As everyone began to celebrate Alonso’s amazing result, Verstappen took pole position by making up two-tenths of a second in the final sector of the track.
Charles Leclerc qualified third! However, the Monaco Curse struck and he was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Norris in the tunnel. This put Leclerc in P6 for Sunday’s starting grid and pushed Ocon, Sainz, and Hamilton up.
Race: May 28, 2023
Unlike most other races this season, the action started with the first lap. Most of the front-runners maintained their position, but chaos unfolded for the backmarkers. Nico Hulkenberg locked up into Turn 1 and drove into Logan Sargeant’s Williams, incurring a 5-second time penalty. Meanwhile, Lance Stroll brushed the walls as he struggled for track position. Both of these incidents caused a hold-up that forced Hulkenberg to make contact with Zhou Guanyu as well. At the end of Lap 1, Hulkenberg, Zhou and Sergio Perez pitted for hard-compound tires.
Around Lap 11, Carlos Sainz tried to pressure Esteban Ocon into using up his tires but hit the rear of the Alpine instead and damaged his front wing endplate. The damaged piece flew off and Sainz was cleared to continue racing with his broken front wing.
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Ocon and Sainz's collision |
A few laps later, Sargeant became a sitting duck with his degrading medium-compound tires. Kevin Magnussen, Stroll, and Perez all sped past the American as they enjoyed the advantage of hard tires. When Williams finally pitted Sargeant, he picked up a puncture and pitted again for soft-compound tires. The team ultimately gave up on Sargeant’s race and took the time to teach him how to deal with graining.
As the front-runners began to pit, Ferrari made a classic Ferrari mistake and pitted Sainz too late. What was supposed to be an overcut ended with Sainz in the same position he was before the pit stop: between Ocon and Lewis Hamilton.
Throughout the race, storm clouds had been moving over the track. By Lap 50, McLaren was telling its drivers to expect “Class 1 rain” (no one knows what that actually means though). The rain started soon after and it quickly became a downpour. On Lap 54, not anticipating how bad the rain would get, Alonso pitted for mediums. He and the team quickly realized this was a mistake and had to pit again for intermediates a few laps later. It would have been a risk, but if Aston Martin had put Alonso on inters during that first pit stop, he might have won the race. Ferrari, and their inability to make good strategy calls, made the same error as last year when they poorly double stacked Leclerc and Sainz for intermediates. They were in P3 and P4 when the rain first fell, and they dropped all the way down to P6 and P8 because they pitted too late.
With drivers slipping and sliding all over the place, no one knew what was happening. Most drivers were on intermediates because the rain was clearing up, but some back-markers opted for the full wets and lost all grip they had. One such person was Hulkenberg who was hit with a 10-second penalty for incorrectly serving his first penalty (or in his case, not serving it at all). George Russell was also given a 5-second time penalty for rejoining the track in an unsafe manner after a spin at Mirabeau led to the Brit backing up into Perez.
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Russell and Perez's incident |
The chaos of the rain also led to two retirements. Lance Stroll retired after he lost his front wing in a collision with the wall, and KMag had driven into so many walls that his car was basically gone.
In the end, Max Verstappen took home a much deserved win with Alonso in P2 and “Estie Bestie on the podium baby!” in P3. Ocon also became our driver of the day. Mercedes finished P4 and P5 but I don’t think this is a result of “amazing” upgrades that had underperformed all weekend. I think Ferrari’s stupid mistakes bumped Mercedes up to fourth and fifth. Leclerc and Sainz came in sixth and eight, respectively, with Pierre Gasly splitting the Ferraris in his Alpine. McLaren finally got their act together and had a double points finish with Norris in P9 and Piastri in P10! Yuki Tsunoda almost got points, having run in P9 for most of the race, but he suffered from brake issues toward the end of the race and dropped down to P15.
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Estie Bestie on the podium |
Honorable Mentions:
Seb Vettel the Rebel visited the track this weekend after retiring last season. As a big fan, I was thrilled, to say the least.
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Seb Vettel the Rebel and Hamilton having a little reunion |
Haas celebrated its 150th Grand Prix this weekend. It might be one they want to forget, but this is an amazing accomplishment for a team that is constantly teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.
Even if the curse still hurt his race, Leclerc finally finished a Monaco GP that was the full race length! I think this is progress in the quest to break that curse. Unfortunately, however, the curse seems to run in the family because Leclerc’s younger brother suffered a horrible first home race in F2.
With all of the craziness, crashing, and rain, the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix was one to remember. Mercedes’ upgrades were not working as well as they wanted, but we can’t really judge them yet. Monaco is not a track where you can test changes, so next weekend will be the real test. On the bright side, McLaren is finally seeing their hard work pay off and Estie Bestie scored that podium! All we need now is for Alonso to win and Ferrari to hire me as a strategist and everything will have gone my way.
I will be back later this week to get you guys ready for the second part of this double header: The Spanish Grand Prix.
- Divya
Where I got these
from:
https://www.si.com/.image/t_share/MTkyNDY5MTY1NTAyNjM3Mzgy/monaco-2022.jpg
https://cdn-wp.thesportsrush.com/2023/05/2ff8281b-88.jpeg?w=3840&q=60
https://sportsbase.io/images/gpfans/copy_1200x800/67fffa355ae21473b3ceb7842156a6d28b18ae38.jpg
https://www.kunalsf1blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ocon_f1_monaco_2023_podium.jpg
https://staticc.sportskeeda.com/editor/2023/05/25479-16851679361588-1920.jpg?w=840
https://cdn.24.co.za/files/Cms/General/d/2794/eca2d83ad43044fc9ab9987263d90d57.jpg