The Monaco Grand Prix has long been considered to be the crown jewel of Formula 1. Since 1955 it has been a mainstay on the schedule and only failed to take place in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This time around, for what would be the first occasion this season, we have Max Verstappen leading the championship from Charles Leclerc. He holds a 6-point advantage over the Ferrari driver and is on a 3-race winning streak. Leclerc will be hoping to make a comeback in the championship after losing out on a confident win at Barcelona due to a power unit issue. The Monaco GP is his home race, and, to be fair, he hasn’t had the best of luck in Monaco.
The circuit includes some of the most famous parts of any F1 racetrack: Casino Square, the tunnel section and the blisteringly fast Swimming Pool section, to name three.
World champion Max Verstappen heads home this weekend hoping to survive the chaos and beat arch-rival and luckless local hero Charles Leclerc again in Sunday’s 79th running of the Monaco Grand Prix.
Just days after leading his team-mate Sergio Perez over the line in a Red Bull one-two last weekend in Spain, the 24-year-old Dutchman will bid for a repeat to consolidate his grip at the top of this year’s title race.
Max Verstappen is reportedly set to race with a heavier car at the 2022 F1 Monaco GP as Red Bull looks to fix some of its reliability issues. Milton Keynes is planning to introduce stiffer parts to the RB18 at Monte Carlo after the DRS on Verstappen’s car failed in Barcelona last weekend.
The Monaco GP is a very peculiar circuit. A specific set of demands needs to be met for a car to do well here. As we found out last season with Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, the tires need to be in the right window because if that is not the case, you could lose multiple positions in qualifying and the race.
Another critical aspect would be the slow speed efficiency of the car. Mercedes and Ferrari have shown certain prowess throughout the season in those parts of the tracks. However, looking at the last two races, it did appear that Red Bull had caught up with Ferrari in the slow-speed sections.
However, for all of its heritage and fame, Monaco no longer seems untouchable on the F1 schedule the way it once did. Monaco’s current contract expires in 2022, and its future beyond that remains uncertain, with no clear solution to make the Sunday main event more enjoyable for fans and increasing questions about its value to F1.
