Monaco Grand Prix Weekend Recap

May 25

Pre weekend thought

the curse is broken but now the car is a tractor & I am unsure which is worse

Throughout the week

The discourse around the Ferrari uniforms is something that has made me laugh because truly, if they used these race suits any other race I don’t think that people would be this mad. Based on what I have read, the main issue is that they have chosen to alter the Ferrari logo to match the rest of the aesthetic of the suit to a light blue. For context as to why this irks people, Ferrari is known for not fully partaking in alternate liveries like other teams on the grid because “they must preserve the Ferrari brand and heritage” so they will only alter bits and pieces of their car or race suit. For them to choose to alter the logo to blend with the rest of the suit has a lot of people extremely confused. Most are thinking and are probably correct in that HP, their title sponsor, paid more money to the team so that they would change the color of the logo. My main point of confusion is that they are a team that is respected for always paying homage to their past and their legacy so, for them to alter their iconic logo at one of the most historied races on the F1 calendar, truly doesn’t make sense to me. HP may go down as one of the most disliked title sponsors because they have been so highly criticized for how they have affected the aesthetics of Ferrari’s on and off track merchandise. Me being one of those critics.

To counter this, I saw a single tweet that mentioned that they may have altered the colors of their logo as a tribute to Charles and not HP seeing as the light blue, as the driver has stated himself, is his favorite color. Another instance that we have seen something similar was last year on Carlos’ merchandise for his last Spanish GP with the team. So, this year as a way to pay their respects to Charles and the anniversary of his storied win at his home race last year, they changed the logo. Now, if this was the real true cause for making the logo light blue, I can promise you there wouldn’t be this much controversy about it online. It’s the fact that is matching the HP blue.

This is a lot of discussion for a logo but it is something that needs to be discussed because it made a lot of fans mad. Sports teams need to understand that while fans love when there is a moment for special race specific or event specific merchandise, it is exciting but there is a large group of people who are not fans of loud sponsorship. Fans are there for the team, not the sponsor. There is a way to create a well integrated and executed partnership in the sports world without having to compromise a teams iconic and identifiable branding.

Track Specs

78 laps
circuit length: 3.337 km
1 DRS zone
19 turns

Free Practices

There was a bit of surprise that came out of our free practices this weekend. That surprise being that Ferrari had a competitive car. Charles came out on top in each of our free practices. Watching each of them made me want to go to Monaco and interrogate everyone on the Ferrari pitwall as to where this car has been all season. I said it last year and I guess it is also applies to this year too, that Fred will make sure the drivers do well in the races it means that most. So, let’s make sure to keep that energy on Sunday.

We came out of the free practices with a few penalties that will impact our starting grid on Sunday. Lance Stroll received a grid penalty for his FP1 run in with Charles that caused a red flag. We also saw Ollie Bearman get handed a 10 place grid penalty for failing to listen to race director instructions under the red flag. Trying not to over react to them doing this to a literal child. Unbelievable.

Qualifying

live thoughts and reactions to qualifying

I love the aerial drone shot they just did
I really am confused where this Aston Martin is coming from this weekend? Is it because adrian is there?
red flagging the session and still making it through thats kind of legendary kimi
okay but when are we going to openly say whats the difference of having jack on track vs franco
okay that impeding was 100% the teams fault but now lewis is going to suffer
I just dont understand lance stroll having a seat

The mediums may not be the move tomorrow but the softs are not going to survive but its 2 pit stops I am not understanding
So Mercedes what the heck is happening? Where have you been all weekend and when you finally have us talking about you its because both of your drivers red flagged our session with battery issues
lmao George still in the car while they move him out of the way is hilarious
Alex putting that car into P3 makes me quite happy.

new track record for Lando kind of hits different
but on the same beat why would he ever take that away from Charles

Sunday Strategy

During the off season, there was a significant rule change for the Monaco Grand Prix specifically in attempts to spice things up. Instead of it being classified as a one stop race, the FIA & F1 have designated that this is a mandatory two stopper. This will provide new opportunities for drivers and alter the typical strategies for normal one stop race.

This leads us to tyre talk, we are looking at the use of 3 of the softest compounds available from the Pirelli range. There are 2 mandatory compounds for the race. the C4 being the hard (white) and C5 as the medium (yellow). With this new mandatory 2 stop race, depending on race circumstances and conditions, we may even see a few teams decide to break out the C6 soft tyre (red).

The strategy for Sunday is that there is no strategy so I guess it could be to use any chaos to your advantage. I have read many interviews and watched all race coverage this weekend and there was not a single person who had any idea as to what was the best choice for the Sunday start. So, I guess it really is a we will know once the race is over what the best strategy is.

Race

live thoughts and reactions to the race

a Lando lock up into turn 1 well i guess i wont relax the next 78 laps
that ollie pitstop makes me want to rage against Haas for their crimes this weekend
people who are into F1 probably don’t know what this reference but anytime they discuss McLaren and who their #1 driver is it reminds me of the Nick Saban interview about his starting QB link to watch that is here
Pierre just dragging that and its debris all over the track
“box to overtake leclerc” and then give oscar the slowest pit! amaze!
Mercedes getting stuck and being rendered noncompetitive this race
Okay but they are kind of right these teams running the team race and driving slow for the pit stops is a bit frustrating but how else are they supposed to run this race
why arent they showing blue flags? this is madness
“ban blue flags” so thats kind of crazy but I get that energy
these lap times and the +1 laps is absolutely insane
wait how are we in lap 41 and neither mercedes has pitted?? thats insane.
this race is hurting my brain nothing is making sense and everyone is confused
Toto Wolff making me laugh out loud in the middle of this race is what I needed
Williams took on the villain role this afternoon and they simply do not care
respectfully, why are we even thinking of penalizing George because it’s lap 51, he’s in 10th and needs to pit 2 times still
“I’ll take the penalty” I think Williams has broken George
Update: Williams has just broken Mercedes in general with Albons driving style today
“at this point, why not get disqualified” I think Mercedes self sacrificed today for the general enjoyment of everyone watching this race
that was a Max and Charles power of friendship strategy
that was the longest hour and 45 minutes of my life

Post race thoughts

My brain is broken I need a week to recover but we race next weekend

Well, I really don’t have much more to say because I need time to recover. Absolute chaos from start to finish & I don’t think I like the mandatory 2 stops.

Okay, see you guys in Spain next weekend.

Talk soon.

Katherine Bowe