2023 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix highlights

Introduction

 

Max Verstappen kept Red Bull’s 2023 winning record intact by overcoming a rain shower – and the chaos that ensued – in the closing stages of the 2023 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, leading home Aston Martin rival Fernando Alonso and the Alpine of Esteban Ocon.

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Mario Isola, Motorsport Director, Pirelli:

The Monaco weekend was filled with emotions, both for the people watching the race in person and those following it at home on TV and online. Just like a year ago, all five types of tyre brought to Monaco were used, with the new specification of wet tyre – which doesn’t require blankets – making its debut. First impressions of its performance seem in line with expectations, although you obviously can’t really compare Monaco with anywhere else. When it was dry, the race was a chess game between those who started on the mediums and those who opted for the hards: a bigger number of drivers than we had anticipated heading into the race. Just one person, Guanyu Zhou, went for the softs at the start.

As is often the case in Monaco, it was first a question of seeing who made the best of the traffic to find the right time to make the decisive move and pit. But then there was the uncertain weather, with the rain that everybody knew was coming but nobody expected to be quite so heavy. All this added to an extremely difficult race to manage without making mistakes. The first stint on the medium was much longer than expected: not only did Verstappen complete 55 laps on this compound, but both AlphaTauri drivers did 53 laps, while Lando Norris did 50. On this track in particular, tyre management, even with graining, had to be carried out according to traffic and weather conditions – as was definitely the case today.

How the race was won from the tyre point of view:

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the Monaco Grand Prix with Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso in second. Esteban Ocon was third for Alpine. All the drivers on the podium took the chequered flag on the Cinturato Green intermediate. As was the case last year, all the compounds were used: three different types of slick and two wets, including the new Cinturato Blue full wet.

As usual in Monaco, qualifying was decisive for the race result, with the top three on the grid finishing in the same order. Charles Leclerc had originally qualified third ahead of Ocon but received a three-place grid penalty.

Verstappen and Ocon started on P Zero Yellow mediums with the intention of switching to the P Zero White hard for the finish. But after the rain came, Verstappen could move directly to the intermediate. Alonso also started on the hard compound but pitted for mediums which he ran for just one lap before changing to intermediates.

Half the teams split their strategies for a start: Mercedes, Alpine, McLaren, Alfa Romeo, and Haas all fitted their two cars with different compounds. The only driver to start on the P Zero Red soft was Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), who stopped after just one lap to fit the hard tyres, as did Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) and Sergio Perez (Red Bull).

The rain started to fall about 25 laps before the end of the race, initially between turns 4 and 8. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) was first to fit the intermediate, and Kevin Magnussen (Haas) was last to visit the pits for rain tyres, swapping the hards for the full wet.

The new Cinturato Blue Full Wet tyre, which had been due to make its debut at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, was used by the two Haas drivers and Perez. It is the first Pirelli Formula 1 tyre that does not require tyre warmers.

Bottas had the fastest time on the intermediates, setting a 1m24.637s on lap 76. Hulkenberg set the best time with the full wet tyres of 1m32.994s on lap 72. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) did the overall fastest lap of the race (1m15.650s) on lap 33 when he was on the hard tyres, while the best performance on mediums came from Leclerc (1m15.773s) on lap 46. Magnussen had the longest stint, using the hard for 56 laps.

The rain caused the asphalt temperatures to drop sharply from 41°C to 27°C while the ambient temperature fluctuated between 28 and 23°C.

What’s next?

Next week Formula 1 will travel to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the Spanish Grand Prix (2-4 June). The P Zero White hard will be the C1 tyre, the P Zero Yellow medium the C2, and the P Zero Red soft the C3. The circuit has been modified for this year by removing the final chicane, making it faster and more flowing.

2023 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix Race Results

Pos	No	Driver	Country	Team	Time	Points	Overall
1.	1	Max Verstappen	Netherlands	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:48:51.980	25	93
2.	14	Fernando Alonso	Spain	Alpine F1 Team	+27.921s	18	60
3.	31	Esteban Ocon	France	Alpine F1 Team	+36.990s	15	4
4.	44	Lewis Hamilton	Great Britain	Mercedes-AMG Petronas	+39.062s	13	48
5.	63	George Russell	Great Britain	Mercedes-AMG Petronas	+56.284s	10	28
6.	16	Charles Leclerc	Monaco	Scuderia Ferrari	+61.890s	8	28
7.	10	Pierre Gasly	France	Alpine F1 Team	+62.362s	6	2
8.	55	Carlos Sainz	Spain	Scuderia Ferrari	+63.391s	4	34
9.	4	Lando Norris	Great Britain	Mclaren Racing	+1 lap	2	10
10.	81	Oscar Piastri	Australia	McLaren Racing	+1 lap	1	4
11.	77	Valtteri Bottas	Finland	Alfa Romeo F1 Team	+1 lap	0	4
12.	21	Nyck De Vries	Netherlands	Scuderia AlphaTauri	+1 lap	0	0
13.	24	Zhou Guanyu	China	Alfa Romeo F1 Team	+1 lap	0	2
14.	45	Alexander Albon	Thailand	Williams Racing	+1 lap	0	1
15.	22	Yuki Tsunoda	Japan	Scuderia AlphaTauri	+2 laps	0	2
16.	11	Sergio Perez	Mexico	Red Bull Racing Honda	+2 laps	0	87
17.	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Germany	Haas F1 Team	+2 laps	0	6
18.	2	Logan Sargeant	USA	Williams Racing	+2 laps	0	0
10.	20	Kevin Magnussen	Denmark	Haas F1 Team	DNF	0	1
12.	18	Lance Stroll	Canada	Aston Martin F1 Team	DNF	0	27

2023 Constructor Standings

Pos	Picture	Team	Points
1.		Red Bull Racing	860
2.		Mercedes-AMG F1 Team	409
3.		Scuderia Ferrari	406
4.		McLaren Racing	302
5.		Aston Martin F1 Team	280
6.		Alpine F1 Team	120
7.		Williams Racing	28
8.		Scuderia AlphaTauri	25
8.		Alfa Romeo Racing	16
10.		Haas F1 Team	12

Here are the team-by-team highlights:

Red Bull Racing

 

Oracle Red Bull Racing’s defending world champion Max Verstappen extended his lead at the top of the Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship with a dominant pole-to-flag victory at the 2023 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, becoming the Red Bull Racing driver with the most Grand Prix wins ever in the process.

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Not even a late heavy downpour could dampen the Dutchman’s drive as he cruised to victory number 39 of his career around the Monte Carlo street circuit by 27.9s over Fernando Alonso, while Esteban Ocon claimed the final podium spot some 36s behind Verstappen.

Victory in Moncao made it four wins from six Grands Prix for Verstappen and maintains Oracle Red Bull Racing’s unbeaten start to the 2023 season.

Team-mate Sergio Pérez endured the toughest day of his 2023 campaign date after starting from the back of the grid following a Q1 crash on Saturday. The Mexican driver fought hard all race but was limited to 16th place on the calendar’s most difficult track for overtaking.

With Pérez’s misfortune, Verstappen significantly extended his lead at the top of the Drivers’ Standings and now leads Pérez by 144 points to 105 ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen, Driver, Red Bull Racing

It’s super nice to win here again in Monaco! It was actually quite a difficult race. We were on the medium and Fernando on the hard compound, so we didn’t want the first stint to be that long, but we had to stay out. The rain also complicated it; we called for inters, and the first few laps on them were incredibly slippery. I clipped the walls a few times again, but that’s Monaco. When you are that far in the lead, you don’t want to push that hard, but you don’t want to lose too much time. We managed to stay calm and bring it home, scoring many points for the team. I, of course, will celebrate this evening with my friends and family, but tomorrow we focus on Spain.

Sergio Pérez, Driver, Red Bull Racing:

It was the worst weekend I could remember in a while; everything went wrong, and today we paid the price for a poor mistake from myself in qualifying. I’m despondent about the performance, not just today but the whole weekend. I knew yesterday would be extremely costly; ultimately, it was 25 points. The conditions were tricky out there, and there was some hope that when it started raining, we could get things right, but we didn’t. It was a shame. I don’t think we could have done much differently; all the damage was done yesterday. I want to move on from this race because it was a terrible weekend. I still have hope in the Championship, but I know I cannot afford another zero in a race, so I really hope to return to my normal level in Barcelona. I need to be perfect in the next few races. I need to get victories and get them soon. I’m happy we are racing again in a few days.

CHRISTIAN HORNER – CEO and Team Principal, Red Bull Racing

Winning here is special; it always means just that little bit more. Every driver wants this one on their CV, and for us, it’s our third in a row for the team and our seventh in total here in Monaco. Coming into this weekend, we knew this would be our biggest challenge of the season so far, and Monaco threw everything at Max today. He managed the medium tyre and then the changing conditions well, switched to the intermediate tyre and saw it home. Another fantastic drive. Unfortunately, it was a difficult weekend for Checo. Despite his best efforts, there was very little he could do after yesterday’s qualifying. Knowing Checo, though, he will learn from his mistakes and respond quickly in Spain. What we’re seeing here at Track is just the shop window to everything happening daily back at the factory. The win here today is representative of the performance and dedication of the team on a wider scale. A brilliant win with many lessons but one we will certainly savour.

Red Bull Racing Honda best pictures:

Aston Martin Formula One Team

 

Hear from Fernando, Lance and Team Principal Mike Krack following a dramatic 2023 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, which was affected by a late rain shower, as the AMF1 Team equalled its highest finishing position of second.

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Fernando secured second in the Monaco Grand Prix in a very tense race on the famous street circuit, while Lance produced some bold overtakes from his difficult starting position.

The rain came towards the end of the 78-lap race, meaning that a race with what was expected to be a straightforward one-stop strategy was turned completely on its head.

Fernando came through to take his best finish of the season, while Lance’s day sadly came to an early end.

At the end of a thrilling weekend, Fernando, Lance and Mike share their thoughts at the weekend in Monaco.

Fernando Alonso

I’m thrilled with this result. The race was not easy, and the rain made it difficult for everybody and strategically risky. I don’t think the extra stop [first Mediums, then Intermediates] affected the result.

It’s always hard to read the race from the cockpit, but on the lap I stopped, the track was completely dry apart from Turns Seven and Eight – so why fit Inters, especially when it felt like a small shower, and we had plenty of margin behind us? So it was the right decision and extra safe: but a minute and a half later, it was a completely different situation!

There was no chance to win today – wet or dry- but we raced aggressively and tried to win. We hoped Max would suffer greater degradation on the Mediums, but he did 50 laps at an amazing pace. But we’re getting closer – let’s not forget that. Now to Spain!

Lance Stroll

In all honesty, this wasn’t a race to remember. The first lap was pretty eventful – a lot of crashing and carbon fibre flying everywhere! Those clashes left the car with a fair amount of damage, but I could still have a go at some of the cars in front. And I pulled off a couple of passes, which was fun.

But I struggled a little to get the car slowed down even before the rain; when it started raining, the brake issues meant I couldn’t stop the car. I think I hit the wall about five times out there, but it just wasn’t my day.

Congratulations to Fernando for an excellent result – I’ll aim for a points finish at Barcelona next weekend. I’m already looking forward to Spain.

Mike Krack, Team Principal:

Starting from the front row and finishing second with Fernando in the Monaco Grand Prix is a tremendous result for the whole team – and a significant marker for how far we’ve travelled together. This was a difficult race to manage: we fitted Fernando with the Hard compound, hoping to use the strategy to jump Max [Verstappen] later in the race.

Then the rain came! Initially, the downpour wasn’t too heavy, and we fitted Mediums because an old, worn Hard tyre is tough to manage on a wet track. The rain immediately increased, and switching to Intermediates was the logical choice, just a lap later. That made no difference to the result – we wouldn’t have caught Max anyway. Fernando drove magnificently in treacherous conditions to equal AMF1 Team’s best-ever result – bravo.

Lance struggled with damage after a couple of hits on lap one, but he drove with a good amount of verve, overtook a couple of cars and was battling hard. That was great to see. He correctly judged the switch to Inters but was managing the brakes in the wet and lost his front wing after a tangle with the barriers. Starting 14th, it would be a tricky race for Lance – but he kept his head up throughout.

Now we go to Spain – with the aim of getting both cars in the points once again!

Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team best pictures:

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

 

Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, and George Russell fifth in the 2023 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix. Lining up fifth and eighth, it looked like there would be little action or position change until rain fell past the race’s halfway point.

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Both drivers boxed for the intermediate tyre on lap 55, the strategically optimal time to make the switch, gaining positions. By this time, Lewis had already made a pit stop, while George had run a long first stint on hard tyres and had yet to stop.

In the challenging conditions, George ran down an escape road on his out-lap and dropped to P5. As he re-joined, contact was made with Perez and the Brit was given a five-second time penalty, although the gap he pulled to Leclerc behind rendered that academic.

Lewis ran from the stops to the flag in P4, closely following Ocon’s Alpine. He also claimed the point for the fastest lap. With a solid points haul, the Team closed the gap on second-placed Aston Martin in the Constructors’ Championship to a single point.

Lewis Hamilton

I’m pleased with today’s result. We moved forwards in the race, and that’s a challenging task here in Monaco. Coming into the weekend, I was still determining where we would stand. To come out with fourth and fifth is excellent points for the Team. Thank you to the factory workers for pushing and bringing these upgrades. It’s been so much work to get those here. We managed to keep it in one piece today and brought it home.

It wasn’t easy to know how the upgrades were performed here in Monaco. There are many bumps, and the car feels stiff, so it’s tricky. Barcelona is probably the best test circuit we could ask for to learn more about our package. I’m looking forward to seeing how the car reacts.

George Russell

I’m very disappointed with myself. After the pit stop, I was ahead of Lewis and Esteban (Ocon) and made a mistake entirely by myself. What’s even worse is that I wasn’t even pushing. I touched the brake and locked up; that cost the Team a podium. One-third of the track was highly wet; another part was quite dry. If you touch the white line when it’s wet, it’s like ice. But ultimately, it’s the same conditions for everyone. We cannot judge the upgrades from this circuit. Barcelona will be the first actual examination, and it will be exciting to see how we perform. No matter what happens in Spain, learning and moving forward from there will be interesting.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

This was a solid result and good points for the Team after a race where it would have been easy to make mistakes or move backwards through the field. The strategists called it exactly right today in terms of switching to the intermediate tyres, and that’s what jumped us ahead of Ferrari to get P4 and P5. Lewis stayed calm throughout the race – even when his medium tyres went off in the opening stint, we could protect the position and take advantage of the rain. George shouldn’t be too hard on himself, either – he drove a nice first stint to have the opportunity to capitalise on the rain, and then the conditions were so tricky to operate that a small mistake cost him quite dear. But this was an afternoon where the Team worked well, and our drivers showed their quality, too, and that shows in the points scored.

We brought a big package to this race, and it has performed well. We have seen some positives in Monaco, which we know is not a representative circuit, and it will be next week in Barcelona when we get a more precise idea of competitiveness. We don’t want to get ahead, and we’re all looking forward to learning more about the car and seeing if we’ve made a step in performance against our immediate competitors.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

Considering our pace this weekend, the fourth and fifth results are promising. Ultimately, we needed to be quicker and had work to do to see our drivers standing on the podium. The Team well handled the race itself. There were points where our options were getting limited. We didn’t have the pace to undercut Ocon or Sainz with Lewis, so they all emerged from the first stop in position order. With George, who was in a similar race with one Ferrari and one Alpine, we decided against the undercut and were waiting for rain, a safety car, or a red flag. That came, but the transition was tricky. Only half the track was wet, but it was damp where it was. We made the switch at the correct time, but George got caught out with a lock-up during the warm-up phase. Luckily, he continued, but our chance of a podium had evaporated. He did an excellent job of building enough of a gap to the Ferrari of Leclerc that his penalty didn’t affect his position when it was added after the race.

We now shift our focus to Barcelona immediately. We’re looking forward to seeing how the car works around a more normal track; we expect to have more work to do, but it will be helpful to understand where we must focus our efforts. We’re in a good fight for second in the Constructors’ Championship, and while that’s not our goal, it looks like we’re going to be able to have some fun racing with Ferrari and Aston Martin as we work on closing that gap to Red Bull.

Mercedes-AMG F1 Team best pictures:

Scuderia Ferrari

 

Scuderia Ferrari leaves Monaco with a handful of points after rain that arrived for the race’s final quarter did not do Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz any favours, as they took the chequered flag in sixth and eighth places, respectively.

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A long train of cars. At the start, Carlos and Charles ran in their fourth and sixth grid positions, stuck in a not-quick train behind Esteban Ocon, who was dropping back from the leaders, Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso. Carlos tried to attack the Alpine driver but could not get ahead, not even managing to pass him in the pit stops, having stayed out one lap longer than Ocon. Trying the overcut took work as Sainz also had to defend from Lewis Hamilton. Charles tried to go much longer, staying out on track until lap 44 when rear tyre degradation reached a point where he had to pit to switch from Hard to Medium. Eight laps later, the rain hit the Monaco track when Sainz was fifth, with Russell yet to pit ahead of him, and Leclerc was seventh. At first, only part of the track was wet, so the drivers attempted to keep going on slicks, but eventually, conditions worsened, and everyone came in for Intermediate tyres. Carlos then went off the track in sector 2, losing positions to Hamilton, Leclerc and Pierre Gasly. Russell could stay ahead of the Ferraris as he switched straight to Intermediates. By the end of lap 55, the top ten had all changed tyres, with Charles and Carlos running sixth and eighth to the finish.

Now for Sainz’s home race. The Championship resumes immediately, with the seventh race, the Spanish Grand Prix taking place next weekend. Carlos will naturally have plenty of support from his fans, watching the Madrileño in action from their own Grada55 grandstand.

Carlos Sainz #55

It was an eventful race in Monaco today. The final result differs from what I aimed because I had a good pace with every compound, and P8 is frustrating. Pit stops were vital today, but they were all tough calls, especially the change to Inter tyres, as the rain picked up very quickly, and the spin with the slicks made me lose some positions.
I leave Monaco with a bitter taste, but next up is my home race, and we need to keep focused.

Charles Leclerc #16

We were on the back foot when we got the penalty yesterday. When it started to rain, we could have gone onto the Inters early, but we decided not to as there were still a lot of cars on slicks, and so we decided to wait in the hope of a Safety Car, which 90% of the time you would expect here in those conditions.

Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, you might take a different decision, but at the time, it seemed like an excellent opportunity to make up a lot of places. I have no regrets about the decisions we made regarding our strategy. It is what it is, but the grid penalty worked against us.

The second stint was about keeping the car on the track and bringing it to the finish. There are still a lot of races left this season, and we have several updates coming, which will let us get closer to the Red Bulls.

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal

In the first stint of our race, the pace was okay: Carlos tried to push a couple of times to get ahead of Ocon, who was slow in front of him, allowing Verstappen and Alonso to get away at the front. Then when the rain came, we were P5 and P7, and we decided to take a risk and try for P3. The conditions were challenging to manage because the rain turned out to be worse than forecast, so you cannot blame Carlos for the mistake, but we need to look at why our pace was not so strong in the wet.

Looking at the weekend, our qualifying pace was good, and we have to aim to repeat that next week in Barcelona. The field is so tight that you must assemble everything; the slightest mistake is costly. We will have some updates on the car, which should be a step forward in terms of performance, so let’s wait and see what we can do in Spain.

Scuderia Ferrari best pictures:

McLaren Racing

 

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, and Team Principal Andrea Stella after the 2023 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix.

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After lights out, Lando and Oscar maintain their grid positions, starting on the Medium tyres. The halfway point is reached, and the drivers are still in P10 and P11—Lando boxes and swaps to the Hard tyre. The rain starts to fall—the drivers double stack in the pit lane, switching to Intermediate tyres. Oscar comes out in P10, with Lando in P11. The cars swap positions. Lando passes Tsuonda on lap 68, and Oscar follows suit the next lap. The chequered flag waves, Lando scores 2 points in P9, and Oscar scores 1 point in P10.

Lando Norris

That was a pretty good race! Perhaps not perfect, we stopped just before the rain, which lost us about 20s of race time, having to pit again for the Inters because the rain was stronger than expected, but unfortunately, the stint wasn’t long enough to make the most of the good pace we then had. It was very tough out there today, tricky in these conditions. Our pace was good, one of the best on track. We’ll see what we can learn, try to keep improving and do a better job if we can in Barcelona next weekend.

Oscar Piastri

I’m pretty happy with P10 and a point today. You cannot do much in Monaco on Sunday, but I think we made a good strategy call to start on the Hard tyre. When the rain began to fall, the communications were excellent as we decided if and when to go onto the Intermediate tyre. Of course, we’ll look to see if there was anything we could have done better today, but it feels like we did a good job, and I’m delighted that both of us finished the race with the points.

Andrea Stella

Two cars in the points at the end of a dramatic Monaco Grand Prix is a very positive outcome. We executed the race well; our drivers ran smart races, staying out of trouble in difficult conditions, and our pace looked very strong in the final third of the race on the Intermediate tyres. It was a shame that portion of the race wasn’t a little longer to allow us to capitalise on the pace both Lando and Oscar demonstrated.

“I would like to praise, in particular, the work of our garage crew this weekend. Yesterday, the mechanics did phenomenal work to get Lando out in Q3, and today they executed clean pit stops, including a difficult double shuffle in awkward conditions. There’s a depth of talent there, of which we are immensely proud and will keep building for the future.

McLaren Racing best pictures:

Alpine F1 Team

 

BWT Alpine F1 Team claimed its first podium of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season as Esteban Ocon delivered a dry-to-wet masterclass and kept his cool to finish in an impressive third place in Monte Carlo in the 2023 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix. Pierre Gasly capped off a fantastic Sunday for the team with a seventh-place finish.

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In Alpine’s 50th start in Formula 1, Esteban made it memorable by claiming his third sports podium. He ensured he made it a first visit to the rostrum since winning the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2021.

Esteban had to keep calm under sustained pressure from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton throughout the 78-lap race. And with rain hitting the track in the final third of the race, both drivers switched to Intermediate tyres and remained composed amid the tricky conditions to deliver a fantastic team result with 21 points scored.

The team moves to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, with Esteban ninth and Pierre tenth in the Drivers’ rankings.

Esteban Ocon:

What a feeling! I’m so happy about the team’s incredible achievement of finishing third on this fantastic circuit and legendary event in Monaco. Thanks to the entire team at Viry and Enstone and here at the track for what we have achieved together. Everyone has been working so hard, and this result is for them. This must serve as motivation to keep progressing as a team and updating the car throughout this season. We have another race next weekend in Barcelona, which must remain our focus to deliver another good result. It’s an excellent feeling for now, and the team and I will enjoy the celebrations!

Pierre Gasly:

Congratulations to the entire team and Esteban for today’s podium; it’s been a decisive day for the team and an excellent reward for everyone’s hard work. On my side, of course, it’s good to score important points, but we know it could have been more had things gone our way. We will review everything to see what can be done better next time. Right now, though, we will focus on the positives, and that’s the fact the car has been perfect all weekend; our upgrades are working, and we look forward to Barcelona next weekend, where we must aim to back up our performance from here in Monaco on a more conventional circuit.

Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal

What a brilliant day for the team here in Monaco. Congratulations to everybody today, from that trackside to our staff members across Enstone and Viry, for their hard work delivering a car that has proved its capability to fight for the podium. Today was all about staying composed under pressure – notably for our pit crew, engineers and strategists – in dealing with some challenging circumstances with the varying tyre strategies and unpredictable weather. It was also about two world-class race drives from both Esteban and Pierre to deliver such a strong team result. Well done to everyone, and this result must serve as motivation for more results like this during this season.

Alpine F1 Team best pictures:

Haas F1 Team

 

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen finished 17th and 19th at the 2023 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, held Sunday at the Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo.

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MoneyGram Haas F1 Team retains a seventh position in the Constructors’ Championship on eight points.

Kevin Magnussen

We tried everything. We tried to do the opposite of everyone, and it didn’t work out. Initially, in the dry, it looked interesting, but when the rain came, I stayed out hoping for a safety car or a red flag, but that didn’t happen, of course. We ended up last and put the full wets on, but we couldn’t get them started, so the race was over by then. There are a lot of incentives to take risks when you’re outside the top 10, and that’s what we did today, but it didn’t work out. Next week is another race week.

Nico Hulkenberg

The weekend hasn’t been too good, but the race was fun, going through all the different stages with different tires and conditions. I’m happy I got through it, and came through quite well. I feel the pace was actually pretty decent when I had some clear track, but for most of the race, I was stuck in traffic like you are in Monaco. To some extent, I feel the problems we had have been Monaco-specific, so I’m quite hopeful we should be in a better position in Barcelona, so I look forward to that.

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal:

We tried everything possible today to get into the points. There’s no point in finishing twelfth, thirteenth or fourteenth, so we decided to take a gamble at the end, staying out and then pitting for full wets as you never know what can happen, but it didn’t work out. The race was lost yesterday in qualifying, and we knew that if something special didn’t happen, we could not get into the points. We tried, and everybody was working hard to get it done. We got a penalty – we don’t know what for on lap 1 – again, inconsistency from the FIA there, but it seems to be what now is normal.

Haas F1 Team best pictures:

Alfa Romeo Racing Stake

 

Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake fought in the streets of Monaco, made treacherous by the elements, as Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu narrowly missed out on the points. Starting from the back rows on the grid, both drivers climbed the rankings, with Valtteri closing in 11th place and Zhou in 13th. The ten positions gained overall were the biggest improvement from any team during a race profoundly affected by a downpour just after the halfway mark.

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The team will now move to Barcelona for the next round of the championship, another important step as the team continues to assess the new aero package introduced in Monte Carlo.

Valtteri Bottas (car number 77):

We had a solid race and probably got as much as possible out of the day. When you make up four places in Monaco, it’s not a bad result, and it’s only a pity we couldn’t get any points for our efforts. The rain helped us by mixing up the race, but we had to make important decisions and make the right calls. It was not easy out there, even on inters, as the track was very wet in places and drier in others, but we chose to play this card before everyone else and gained ground as a result. The car felt better with the upgrades we brought in, and we will hopefully get more performance out of it in Barcelona, a faster track where our package should work a little better. I’m looking forward to it.

Zhou Guanyu (car number 24):

We had a good race in tough conditions, and, considering where we started, we can be pleased with our progress. We called to pit on lap one, an aggressive choice that would have meant finishing the race on just one set of hard tyres. Our pace on those was quite good, and I made up a few places, holding off cars on fresher tyres before the rain started. The rain reset everything. We had to do another stop and deal with challenging conditions: the track was really tricky, every corner could catch you out, and I had to be very careful. In the end, we made up six places, and it was quite good fun. Most importantly, our race pace was good and a good indication going forward to different tracks and other conditions.

Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative:

The team executed a good race to recover as much ground as possible, and in the end, no other team made up as many places as we did. We knew we had a big job after yesterday’s qualifying, so we chose to be aggressive with our calls: we pitted Zhou on the first lap to switch him to hard tyres and try a strategy to allow him to move forward. When the rain came, we were the first to switch to the intermediate tyres with Valtteri, and in the end, we could make up quite a few places. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to get into the top ten, but we cannot fault ourselves for our work today, especially on a track where overtaking is so difficult. We can take heart from today’s performance and how we rebounded after yesterday’s struggles: now we have to focus on Barcelona, where we must step forward as we keep extracting performance from our upgrades.

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Scuderia AlphaTauri

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries had his best race of the season so far, starting and finishing in 12th position, but after starting in 9th on the grid, Yuki Tsunoda’s hopes for a good points-scoring race were dashed by brake issues that limited him to 15th.

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Nyck de Vries

After lap one, I was on the back foot. It was my mistake, I locked up, and Norris and I touched. This compromised our first stint a little because there were a lot of vibrations on the right front, which affected our pace. When you’re so behind and out of DRS range, you lose so much time on the straights that catching up is tough. I was at the back, alone, so it naturally becomes easier when you’re not fighting as hard as in the middle of the pack when every moment counts. The weekend went a little up and down and started difficult; yesterday, we had a better day, and today was a shame that we lost so many positions on the first lap. We are bringing updates to Imola, so hopefully, we can improve and go again.

Yuki Tsunoda

It was a good race, effort and recovery from the team and myself. I felt like I could extract the most out of the car. It’s a shame I couldn’t score any points, I gave it my all, but I am happy with my performance. It was a tough mental race; there weren’t many breaks because someone was always in front of or behind me. I didn’t expect our race pace to be that strong, but it’s encouraging for future races. I felt confident with the brakes, so I could overtake quite a lot by sending it into the corner. We’ve got upgrades coming to Imola, so we hope they go well to allow us to score points consistently.

FRANZ TOST – Team Principal

First, I’d like to thank the organisers for this fantastic venue and event and all the fans who came to watch. They saw an exciting race, especially with Max Verstappen starting out of position and fighting his way back for another impressive win. As for our race weekend, we struggled initially, and we qualified only for P15 with Nyck and P17 with Yuki.

We chose two strategies for this race; Yuki started on the hard tyre, and Nyck started on the medium. Yuki made a strong start and overtook some cars on the first lap. Then he drove an excellent and competitive race. He overtook Albon twice. He passed Hulkenberg and Bottas and finished in P11, just 1.3 seconds behind Magnussen. Yuki also defended well against Stroll in the last few laps, and I must say that in the race, our car showed a much better performance than in qualifying.

We now have to analyse how to optimise our qualifying pace. Nyck’s start was good, but in the first corner, he crashed into Norris by breaking a bit too late, which caused a flat spot on his tyres and some vibrations. We brought him in to change from the medium tyre to the hard, and the rest of the afternoon was ok for him, but he lost his race with the contact at the beginning. Both drivers had good tyre management, crucial for the car’s overall performance.

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Williams Racing

 

It was a boring but tough race. The rain was fun and created something, but it didn’t really change our result or shake things up as much as I thought it would. Many drivers started on the Hard tyres, which created a bit of a train, but the Hard tyre was so much better than the Medium tyre. It was basically a race you wanted to be on the Hard tyres as soon as possible. We tried to hold onto it and grained massively on the Mediums. The pace was good for a short time, but once the tyres overheated, it was difficult to do anything more.

Logan Sargeant

Definitely a tough one. It started okay with the first ten laps, and then I had a lot of degradation on the Medium tyre. Once we did get on the Hard, we had a puncture within a couple of laps and so had to box for the Quali tyre and take that long. That was far from ideal. Once the rain came, it was about learning about the Inter tyre. I had a couple of small lock-ups in the wet, which I need to clean up, so, all in all, not a great day, but we’ll take what we can from it and move on. There are positives; I’ve driven the car in the wet now, so I know what it’s like, and I don’t think it was too bad at times. I just suffered from a lot of deg. It would have been interesting to see how that Hard stint went, so it was unfortunate to pick that puncture up.

I’m on the sim Tuesday, so we’ll reset and go to Barcelona. I’m good around there. I love it, it’s a track I know well, and we’ll aim to get things going in a better direction.

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance

A tricky race, with some graining on the slicks early in the race for both cars. This was worse than we expected, and so we need to understand why that was. Logan suffered a puncture shortly after fitting his only set of Hard tyres, so it became a difficult day for him, but he got some precious experience, especially driving in the wet in Monaco. Once the rain started, it was difficult to generate temperature in the tyres and brakes, but once we were able to push a bit harder, the grip improved quite quickly. Our pace wasn’t too bad, but with overtaking difficult, we weren’t able to make any more positions.

Attention now turns to Barcelona and the revised track layout.

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