Certainly a dynamic race due to the rain, but Monaco still fails to be spectacular. A day we perhaps could have used Michael Masi as race director. The race likely could have started some 20 minutes earlier, and a standing start would have been very exciting. It was shocking they didn't even have the safety car burning laps to test the track surface. Then when Schumacher split his car in half and drug the barrier half way down the track, the director throws a VSC... seriously? With the rain and drying track, the strategy portion of the race was an easy 8 out of 10, but the racing was just a 2 out of 10 at best.
Red Bull proved that you win as a team. Their strategy calls were aggressive, the pitstops were fantastic, and the drivers executed on track. Perez was spectacular. Prior to pitting he was 8 seconds behind Leclerc, pitted and fell to 25 seconds behind, and then once Leclerc pitted just a couple laps later, Perez was almost 5 seconds ahead. That's so unbelievable the math doesn't even make sense. Verstappen who really never found his groove all weekend was probably headed for 4th without some sort of team orders if the race went as normal, so a podium ahead of his championship rival has to be a victory. Of course we can't ignore the fact that supposedly both Red Bulls should have been penalized. I only saw the replay of Max touching or crossing the pit exit line, and that is a penalty. The FIA once again shows their favoritism as in Austria 2021, Tsunoda got 2 penalties for just touching the pit entry line, while Lando completely slid through the pit entry in Sochi 2021 and got no penalty, and then of course today.
Ferrari like to live by tradition, and since 2008 they have had a tradition of poor strategy decisions. Ferrari should have dominated this race. Easily the best car, both drivers looked good in the wet, especially Leclerc who built up a good lead. Somehow both cars losing out to the Red Bulls. It wasn't clearly seen by me, but supposedly both drivers got caught in traffic on their outlaps, but that shouldn't be an excuse. Carlos made 1 less stop than the other leaders, and still came out behind Perez. Leclerc was dialed in with his driving, in qualifying his 2nd Q3 lap was going to be one of the best laps of the decade, and was the class of the field before Red Bull got the jump on them. He finished 4th. W T F!
Mercedes easily the 3rd best team, but a long way off Ferrari and Red Bull. George Russell is the only driver in 2022 to maximize each race with another top 5 finish. Hamilton's race suffered because he didn't do a better job in qualifying. His race hard to the point of contact with Ocon but could never make a pass. Ted Kravitz was his biggest cheerleader and must be writing a book of excuses in why the supposed rain master looked pretty ordinary today.
Mclaren had a very strong result with Lando Norris. Still recovering from being ill, he did a fabulous job and was right on Russell's rear wing at the end. He could be right that with a more aggressive strategy that 5th place may have been possible. Had to look to see if Ricciardo even finished since he was non existent during the race. Another terrible result. This time at one of the crown jewels of the season, and with McLaren publicly stating they expect more from Daniel. His F1 career could be coming to an end sooner than later.
Alpine had a result that appeared to be above what the car was capable of. I am not certain what Alonso's motives were in the race, in fact I am not convinced he didn't crash the car on purpose in quali to protect his starting position. The car didn't ever to appear to fast, but it wasn't 3 seconds off the pace slow that Alonso was doing ahead of Hamilton. Was he just playing mind games? Ocon got into the points but was a victim of a 5 second penalty. A bit strange that a penalty was given so long after the contact, and after Hamilton spent several laps complaining about it. It appeared to be a racing incident to me.
Alfa Romeo have to be somewhat satisfied with some points. The car was likely much better and probably had the speed to finish ahead of the Alpine's, but track position is everything at Monaco and Bottas just never was in a position to get the most out of his car. Zhou is starting to look like he really doesn't deserve to be in F1 being so far behind his teammate. But that safe under braking was jaw dropping!
Aston Martin gets the last point with Vettel. Monaco isn't a track to see if the team can to grips with their new Red Bull body work. But a good drive from Vettel for sure. Stroll compromised his own race by hitting the wall and picking up a puncture before the race started. The team still missed the change to get him on the right tires while he was in the back of the pack.
AlphaTauri had a just miss weekend with Gasly. Just missing the lights in quali to get one last lap in, which terribly hurt his starting position. The team decided to be aggressive by going to inters early, and that strategy was working for him, but the car is just too slow to make it count for points. Yuki gets credit for out qualifying Gasly, but managed to find more run off at Monaco than race track. Horrible performance by Tsunoda.
Williams really looked to struggle in the wet conditions, and the dry conditions, and while being parked after the race. Albon who has carried that team all season couldn't even drive that car and ultimately DNF'd. Latifi as usual can barely get out of his own way and managed to crash behind the safety car, hold up the leaders while being passed, and was still the slowest driver on track.
Haas. An expensive weekend for them. Some PU issues during the weekend. Magnussen DNF's for an unknown reason since the TV coverage didn't even mention it. Schumacher did have a very strange snap oversteer that threw him into the barriers and completely destroyed their car. It was expected their development was going to suffer over the season compared to other teams, so one must feel that their opportunities for good results are going to get less and less. A costly crash like that one will not make things easier to say the least.
Driver of the Day: Sergio Perez. His in lap and out lap were so fantastic it's really what won him the race. Then to have tires grain up badly and a very fast Ferrari right down his tail pipe and not make any mistakes. Plus it's possible that Red Bull pitted Perez early as a pawn to disrupt Ferrari and benefit Max. Perez gave a big middle finger to anyone that doubted him today.
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Originally Posted by SS454
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