Luke’s Weekend Take – Monaco GP 2024

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Monaco GP 2024: Leclerc Takes Pole, Can He Break the Home Race Curse?

Monaco 2024

It’s time for round 8 of the Formula 1 2024 season and we are back at the legendary streets of Monte Carlo for the Monaco GP. This race is one of the most anticipated race for most F1 drivers as they all want to get on the top step of the podium and have this win under their belt.

Talking of drivers on the top step of Monaco, this weekend McLaren are running a tribute livery to the legendary Ayrton Senna who won this race 6 times in his F1 career and this year marks 30 years since the tragic accident where we lost this F1 icon. Other than the special livery we see all teams bring a super high downforce package consisting of a rear wing and a beam wing as well given that this track consists of a lot of slow corners and overtaking is not so easy as well.

We kick off the weekend with FP1 and immediately we hear radio chatter that we might get some rain towards the end of the session but as soon as the drivers went out, some drivers reported some drops of rain on Turn 2 & 7, this however had no impact on the session as the rain never caught on so drivers were able to go about FP1 with no concerns of rain.

During the session we see some drivers have some teething issues as some of them were locking up still getting up to grips with the track and the right braking points however someone who had a bit more serious issues was Pierre Gasly in the Alpine as 5 mins into the session he was called into the pits with a potential Power Unit issue to have it investigated. 10 mins later the team let him back out but again, Gasly complained about no power and he had to go back to the pits. Towards the end of the session we hear reports that it was a waste gate issue on his turbo and Gasly was unable to come back out on track in FP1.

His teammate Esteban Ocon was also having some issues but luckily there weren’t as severe as he was just saying that the front is bouncing up in the air mid corner which meant he needed to have some setup issues to iron out and get the car ready for qualifying on Saturday. Ocon was not the only one with setup issues as we also hear George Russell unhappy with the grip levels of the car as he said that the tyres are not biting at all. The reigning champion Max Verstappen also came on the radio saying the car is on a knife’s edge but was still able to put a lap good enough for 2nd at the time on the medium tyres.

The other thing to note in FP1 was how close everyone was getting to the barriers, being a street circuit, there is no run off areas so the barriers are way closer than anywhere else. Drivers however need to test the limits and get as close as possible to the barriers in order to extract the best possible lap times on the track. Some drivers however took it too far as we heard a few radio messages and some slomo replays of drivers taking it too far and clipping the barriers. Some worthy mentions were Logan Sargeant who came onto the radio saying he hit the barriers with his front left tyre, the steering was straight but he thought that there is no way nothing is broken with the speed he hit the barriers, luckily for Sargeant the car was still fine. Not as lucky was Zhou Guanyu who hit the barriers on Turn 1 as he went in too fast and couldn’t turn in time, Guanyu lost a bit of his front wing and went back to the pits and Charles Leclerc who was on a slow lap couldn’t avoid the debris on track and went over it.

Red Flag came out so that the debris can be cleared out and Leclerc made it back to the pits with a piece of front wing stuck to his floor. He picked up some damage but his mechanics was able to quickly fix the damage with some speed tape to get Leclerc back out on track for the last 10 mins of the session after the session went green. After a few push laps from the drivers the session was over and it was Lewis Hamilton who had the fastest lap time in the end followed by Oscar Piastri and George Russell.

In FP2 barriers were still the talk as drivers are reporting they hit the walls as they are all still trying to find the limits. Luckily nothing too serious and no damage and disruption to anyone’s session. Still with some setup issues Russell is complaining about vibration when under braking and he can barely hold the steering as he cuts the chicane after the tunnel. Down at Red Bull there was some issues with the ride as well as both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez came on the radio complaining about the ride, Verstappen mentioned that he is jumping like a kangaroo, so bad that he was getting headaches, while Perez says he was bouncing so bad he can’t see the Apex at Turn 3.

The rest of the session was fairly normal with a few more wall hits and Russell still complaining with his setup but in the end it was the home hero, Charles Leclerc who topped the leaderboards and he gets a massive cheer for the crowd, Lewis Hamilton came second while Fernando Alonso got 3rd in FP2.

Monaco GP 2024 Qualifying: Leclerc on Pole, Piastri Shines, Verstappen Struggles

Heading into Saturday now where in FP3 the sun was out and so were the drivers trying to get all the last practice ahead of qualifying Monaco. Ahead of the session, Red Bull decided to change the battery pack for Max Verstappen and it’s worth noting that there will be no penalty for Verstappen as this is within the allocation pool of parts he can take.

George Russell wasted no time when the lights went green and he was out on track to see if the issues from yesterday were fixed and after one exploratory lap, he was back in the pits and reports that the steering feels very different compared to yesterday but it is very light turning left and very heavy turning right.

12 minutes into the session we hear Valtteri Bottas’s engineer coming onto the radio advising him that the track was half a tenth slower than FP2 on Friday and I think Bottas was wishing he told him a bit sooner as he was on a fast lap and he hits the barriers coming out of the swimming pool chicane rear first but that bounced his front into the barriers and broke his suspension. Bottas tried to crawl back to the pits with 3 wheels hoping that his team could get started on the repairs but he was unable to get the car round the penultimate corner. This brought out the Red Flag in order to clear the car off the track and that meant it was game over for Bottas in FP3.

The session goes green again 5 mins after as the Marshalls were able to clear the car off track and all the drivers were queuing at the end of the pitlane to get back out as quick as possible and it wasn’t long before we saw some Yellow Flags being waved on track as at different points, we see Kevin Magnussen and Lewis Hamilton lock up and take to the run off. Luckily both drivers got away unscathed both times apart from Hamilton’s tyres which were pretty badly flat spotted.

Traffic was quite bad in FP3 as we see a few moments where drivers got impeded when they were on their fast laps, however the most notable one was between Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda where we saw Magnussen taking evasive manoeuvres in the tunnel as he found Tsunoda in the middle of the track  and closely avoided a collision. Max Verstappen is also heard over the radio with 25 minutes to go saying that he knows where he can gain time but he can’t and that “we know why” to his engineer as he was currently in 2nd place 4 tenths behind Leclerc. At the end of the session we do see Charles Leclerc keeping up his speed and topping the leaderboard followed by max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen got noted for driving unnecessarily slowly as well after he was impeded by his teammate on his last push lap of the session.

Onto Qualifying now which arguably it is the most important session of the weekend and also the most important qualifying of the season due to the difficulty to overtake here track position is key. And everyone knew this as way before the lights went green the drivers were at the end of the pitlane queuing to go out and try and get their laps in without any drivers getting in their way. This of course was just wishful thinking as traffic in Q1 was inevitable and after the session there were 2 incidents in particular that the stewards noted which were Carlos Sainz on Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg on Esteban Ocon. At the end of Q1 we ended up losing Fernando Alonso, Logan Sargeant, Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu. Perez was heard on the radio saying it’s a joke alluding to traffic but there wasn’t any replays shown to show any. Alonso was another shock exit in Q1 at the Monaco GP as he was showing some decent pace.

Q2 was a bit better in terms of traffic as there were 5 less cars on track and the teams could time it a bit better to send their drivers out in a good gap to get their laps in. We do hear Piastri come on the radio saying he hit the wall as he goes 2nd fastest at the time with 4 minutes to go in the session, luckily there was no damage for Piastri and he could go ahead with the session. After the final runs in Q2 we end up losing Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll and Kevin Magnussen.

Finally it was down to Q3 and the most exciting one of all as from past races here we have seen pole position end up winning most of the times and after the 1st runs in Q3 we see Charles Leclerc take provisional pole followed by Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen. When the track was clear of cars, Williams send Albon out into a clean track to do his qualifying lap as they only had 1 set of new softs and didn’t want to risk any Yellow Flags and Albon at the time managed a 7th place time which was a very nice lap from Albon. And as soon as the timer went down a bit the remaining 9 drivers came back out to give it their all one last time around Monaco ahead of the race but after everyone finished their lap, it was still the home hero who came out on top as Charles Leclerc takes pole position at his home race followed by Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, George Russell, Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly will form the top 10. Verstappen on his last push lap took it too far in Turn 1 as he hit the wall and had to back out of his lap and settle for 6th in the race tomorrow which is not ideal around here.

Who do you think will come out on top tomorrow? Will Charles Leclerc be able to convert this Pole into a win and break his Home Race Curse at Monaco? I for sure hope so as I feel it is Leclerc’s time and he has been showing it all weekend. Let’s wait and see tomorrow.

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