2022 Formula One Monaco Grand Prix

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Monaco.jpg
As Formula 1 rolls into its most famous race location, there is a new name on top of the driver's standings.

Ferrari and Charles Leclerc will be hoping that there is no such thing as a curse, as the Monegasque needs to regain some momentum in the championship standings on his home turf. His string of unfortunate finishes on home turf is well-known in the Formula 1 space, and includes five consecutive DNF's dating back to his time as a driver in F2.

For the first time following a race this season, Leclerc is not atop the drivers' standings. Max Verstappen of Red Bull complained about his failing DRS system at the Spanish Grand Prix, but still managed to score a strong victory. His teammate, Sergio Perez, was understandably frustrated in being asked to let Verstappen through in Spain. The pair have put their team ahead of Ferrari now by a margin of 26 points.

Mercedes seems to have finally found a competitive pace, with drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton both finishing in the top five in Spain, and nearly taking the third and fourth spots before cooling issues forced Hamilton to ease his pace in the final laps.

Lando Norris continues his strong season in the McLaren and finds himself 7th in the standings, while his teammate Daniel Ricciardo continues to struggle and has no scored a point since his home race in Australia.

The new regulations this year gave teams a chance to advance themselves within a field that had become stagnant in recent years, and this has created a fascinating midfield battle. Below the Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes cars which occupy the top six driver spots in the standings, five different teams occupy the next five spots. Norris, Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda rank 7th through 11th for McLaren, Alfa Romeo, Alpine, Haas and Alphatauri respectively.

Monaco is F1's most famous race, but not known as a great site for overtaking. The new regulations aren't expected to change that, but the 30-50% chance of rain on race day just might.

Give us your thoughts on this year's Monaco race, or anything else relating to F1 so far this season in the comments below.
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About author
Mike Smith
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

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Comments

muzikant
what a weekend ahead 24hr Nurburgring Indy 500 Monaco GP As Nelson Piquet put it, Monaco is like cycling in your own living room.... curious how the big cars from F1 will do there. I expect a lot of trouble. instinctively I think Charles is going to win this race. At his own home Gp.. will have to give that motivation and actually I give it to him even though I am a Verstappen fan
 
T
akephoe said:
An completely old fashioned track, raced with way to big and heavy cars.
Without any dramas like accidents or weather it will be a boring race.
But hey, its F1, the biggest cashcow in motorsports.;):roflmao:
Click to expand...
Yes, and we should also get rid of suzuka, hungaroring, imola, barcelona. And if F1 finaly get rid of the DRS they should also get rid of those tracks in where before the DRS it was almost impossible to pass like: austria, interlagos, monza, melbourne, silverstone, paul ricard, abu dhabi, miami, mexico and canada. What a great championship it would be with 7 races like in the 1950s and a lot of free weekends during the season.

Call me crazy but when I started following F1 one of the things that I valued was the variety in track philosophy, you had massively top speed dependent tracks in the old hockenheim and monza, medium high speed tracks like canada, most of the tracks where like now medium downforce tracks, you had really high downforce tracks in monaco and hungaroring, and in imola you had those incredibly high and bumpy kerbs.

There was variety, the cars and drivers had to be challenged by a wide variety of track characteristics that cars and drivers had to adapt to with compromises. Now we have a season with a vast majority of the tracks being a generic design of a single kind of track design, or a generic urban track.

It was the same in the WRC back then, but if most of the championship where rallys of the same kind of the montecarlo rally it would be boring, I don't want a championship made of mostly tarmac rallyes in snowy mountains, I also want to see dirt rallyes, gravel rallyes, snow rallyes and mixed surfaces ones.

I want to see all the skills of the drivers tested in all the possible conditions, not only in the ones that produce the most unpredictable outcomes and the biggest drama event after event just for the sake of audiences. If all the races became extraordinary all of them would be ordinary, not all tracks need to be a overtake fest nor being all about the race day.

I don't get all the hate and rage against that race, people seem to love to hate it, I get that some people find it boring. But if they dislike that race so much there is also the option of not watch it and act as if that weekend there wasn't a F1 event. People act butt hurt as if that race existence harmed them in some way.

Variety is good in the same way that eating only your favourite food every single day for the rest of your life would become soul crushing very fast.
 
S
on Sunday in monaco 70% rain is possible, which means surprises are possible. Although even without this, I think there will be red flags and perhaps more than once, the cars have become larger, the view from the cockpit is worse. Let's see) Have a nice weekend everyone!
 
A
Premium
@TRASGU
You are right with almost everything, but my problem is not Monaco, or Budapest, Barcelona or Imola. Its not the mix between old, new, Tielke or History Track.
My problem is that F1 is on a business modell where the Sport and a good show for the fans is only no. 3 or 4 on the list.

I was a fan of F1 from the late 70s, have seen drivers and teams rising, wining, losing and dieing.
The old days in general weren't better. It had way more bad and boring races than good ones.
And thank god for improved safety and a closer competition.
But, the old cars until the late 2000 were stunning to watch and hear. You could see the difficulty to drive and master these cars on the limit. Watchin onboards from Monaco, Jerez, Spa or Montreal 10, 20, 30years old is still awesome.

My hopes, the new Gen cars + salary cap etc, would hold or turn the wheel to the better, are at zero after 5 races.
The cars are to big and heavy, looking like battleships in a swimmingpool.
This generation of cars transfer zero feel of speed and wow factor.
Looking at onboards or a full GP is like watching Hallenhalma for old people, no sign of true fascination.
And than there is this childish behaviour of the Horners, Wolfes, Strolls, Markos etc.
Complaining about the other teams, stewards and rules on and on and on.
Look at the current salary cap discussion, completely stupid stuff from the Teams.

Now i think, ok F1 in Monaco or 24hr at Nürburgring, and i will choose the 24hr.
 
TheSourceOfTheNile
All everybody does is bitch and complain about this race. I don't get it. It's one of the best street circuits in the world set in a beautiful location and has a great history. The track is one GP of what is soon to be 25. There's nothing else like it in the world and it helps bring a lot of fans to the sport. This season and the last two have been incredible and produced a lot of non-processional races with a lot of action. Even Barcelona this year put on a great show, so we'll just have to see how the new cars will handle this unique challenge since it's the first actually bumpy track they get to race on. If you all want an example of a what a "good" F1 street circuit should be, then Azerbaijan is an example. Track developers know this and are making another power track at Las Vegas which will be similar. Let's keep this old gem on the schedule and actually have some tradition for the sport because that's what helps make it great.
 
G
Where's the GOAT?

Okay, I know it can still improve even after wanting to give up the last race on the second lap heheh, but none of that supernatural being that existed between 2014 and 2020, much for the car much superior to the rest
 

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