F1. Monaco 2025 Review

By Gavin Huet, Chelsea Wintle, Aiden McLaughlin, Graeme Woolf and Peter McGlashan

Driver of the Weekend

Peter: Isack Hadjar – obviously benefited from our own Liam Lawson but to have several fender benders over the course of the wknd and still do what he did on Sunday was impressive.

Graeme: I’ve been pretty harsh on Lando Norris recently, but he thoroughly deserves my Driver of Weekend award this week. He was up there throughout all Qualifying sessions before setting the weekend alight with the fastest Monaco lap in history in Q3 to grab Pole from home favourite Charles Leclerc. Starting from Pole is crucial at Monaco and he duly went on to win the race, but not without Leclerc heaping the pressure on him over the final third of the race. A classy drive from Norris.

Gavin: Lando Norris. Under pressure within his own McLaren team, and trailing Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari who had dominated every session in his hometown so far, he put in a fantastic Qualifying 3 lap to ensure pole which at Monaco is an almost certain race win. He survived the first chicane and flat spotting his tyres and kept out of trouble even when he was behind Max Verstappen, who was on a different strategy, to eventually cross the line and take the chequered flag. His entourage looked suitably happy with the result too.

Chelsea: Remember all the way back in March, when Isack Hadjar was sobbing into Anthony Hamilton’s shoulder after his formation lap crash in race one? That incident seems a long way in his rear vision after a season-best placing of 6th, thanks in part to teammate Liam Lawson helping to defend him from behind. Hadjar now has 15 points in the driver’s championship – more than both Tsunoda and Lawson combined – and is presumably a matter of races away from being rotated into the cursed seat next to Max Verstappen. Don’t do it, Isack! Save yourself!

Aiden: If there’s anything harder than going full pace around the streets of Monaco, it’s continually not going full pace around the streets of Monaco. Credit to Lando Norris for his track record to secure pole position on Saturday, but my first prize this time goes to Liam Lawson for perfectly executing an unusual, but ultimately rewarding race strategy to ensure both he and his teammate Isack Hadjar scored valuable points for their team. A few teams talked (privately) pre-race about this sort of thing, but Racing Bulls got in there first and Lawson’s control of pace meant Hadjar could fit in his two compulsory pit stops and then remain in track position to finish a career high sixth, while Lawson scored his first points of the season in eighth.

 

Talking Point

Peter: The Talking Point was how blissful the start of FP2 was watching live with just ambient sounds of the footage and no commentators! A blissful, auditory delicacy!! Or did I imagine that because all the replays have commentary?!?

Graeme: There was only one wasn’t there? After last years Monaco Grand Prix, which was a procession due to an early crash after which everyone pitted early, the FIA decided to add something to make the race this year more interesting and made it mandatory for each driver to pit at least twice. Unfortunately, this backfired in a big way with the race becoming more about slowing down & stopping rather than driving & racing. First the Racing Bulls and then Williams both employed the slowing down tactic to get each teammate into the pits, but they used the rules to their advantage and both teams scored double points. The Williams drivers in particular weren’t overly happy and they used the phrase “that’s not how we want to go racing” multiple times in the post-race wraps ups. Clearly, a rethink is needed before next year (see “Gossip Time”).

Gavin: Did the mandatory two stops work? In a word “no”. I do think it was important to try something to make the race more of a spectacle especially after last year’s early red flag which allowed everyone to change tyres and then follow each other around, but it did not have the desired effect. The way it transpired we got a couple of teams slowing down rivals in order to allow cheap pit stops for team mates, clever but hardly exciting. It also gave us the weird situation of George Russell overtaking Alex Albon who was holding him up by driving off the track but being happy to take a drive through penalty as opposed to giving the place back as he could more than make up that time by getting past. Was this any more contrived than teams ordering drivers to slow or speed rivals for their own gain (looking at you Carlos Sainz in Singapore 2023), no. Monaco has to stay, and they cannot make the straights longer or faster because there is no run off area for when things go bad so there really is a limit to what they can do. Nothing much can change until the cars themselves become smaller again, but in the meantime maybe the rule should be tweaked to two pit stops with a change of tyre compound for each, AND if there is a virtual safety car, a safety car, or a red flag in the first ten laps you cannot pit for tyres? Worth trying it and seeing what happens.

Chelsea: The new mandatory two stop rule for this weekend was intended to add an extra dimension to the weekend’s racing, but instead turned it into a whole new level of farce. The pack still ended up paralysed in position but even more ridiculously so – Gasly ran into the back of Tsunoda and hobbled into the pit lane on three wheels, Russell threw a tanty and cut a corner to overtake a sluggish Albon before refusing to give the place back, and lamer still – Verstappen was first across the line but ultimately finished fourth. Why? He’d realised that refusing his second mandatory pit stop, and taking a 30 second penalty, would result in the same finishing position as if he actually followed the rules. More to the point, if he stayed out and the race was red flagged, he could even have benefited. No slight on Max, who I’ve always admired for his willingness to exploit loopholes – but the new rule plainly did not work. Back to the drawing board.

Aiden: Credit to the powers that be for trying to mix things up at Monaco last weekend. For a while now, there has been frustration at the lack of overtaking opportunities at this historic track – with these big modern day F1 cars, Max Verstappen even said at the weekend that F2 cars are just about able to pass each other. It certainly kept everyone on their toes watching a minimum of two pit stops per car and also seeing what new strategies the teams would come up with. Credit to Racing Bulls, they took the lead, Williams followed, and although the purists won’t have liked it, scoring points is the name of the game. Shout out to the crowd members in the grandstands who couldn’t understand why Verstappen pitted late, seemingly throwing away victory; news of the mandatory two stops didn’t reach everyone.

 

Gossip Time

Peter: How painful Lando Norris’s Dad is becoming with the product placements and branded gear. From his outfits to what seemed like a deliberate effort to consume an energy drink in shot when Lando got pole, “Dad, stop embarrassing me!”

Graeme: After the race, George Russell was asked for any ideas he had to spice up Monaco even more, seeing as making 2 pit stops mandatory didn’t have the desired outcome. Russell suggested that each driver has a button in their car and at any stage in the weekend, they can push that button and water will be sprayed onto the track, which would mean tyre changes all round. But with it being able to happen at any time, no one can plan for it. What a great idea, let it ride I say.

Gavin: Lewis Hamilton and his race engineer Riccardo Adami need to go on one of those corporate communication retreats to sort it out. During Qualifying 1 Lewis was informed that Max Verstappen was behind him, but was told he was on a slow lap when he clearly wasn’t. This resulted in Lewis getting a three place grid penalty which meant Lewis was unable to help teammate Charles on race day. During the race Lewis asked about timings and was given a lot of information but not the timings, he ended up asking again before being given the correct information. At the end of the race Lewis was met with silence from Riccardo and was forced to ask “Are you upset with me or something?” Ferrari need to sort this out as it is going to cost them at some stage this year, it is only surprising that it did not cost them even more this weekend.

Chelsea: Calling the F1 move “F1: The Movie” is the dumbest thing ever. Also dumb is F1’s pairing with Disney, which will inevitably leave me nauseated through 2026. Also nauseated is Sky correspondent Naomi Schiff, pregnant with her first – congratulations Naomi! Also Naomi is Naomi Campbell, once again visiting Monaco, 23 years after her split from Alpine Team principal Flavio Briatore. I remember when those two were the darlings of Woman’s Day. Whew.

Aiden: They can’t change again…or can they? With Hadjar looking like the second best Red Bull driver and Yuki Tsunoda looking anything but, will the line-ups be changed again? I have no idea what sort of sponsorship the Frenchman has but maybe that will prevent any move this season. Lawson must secretly be glad that he escaped the top team and ended up back at Racing Bulls where he can rebuild his confidence and show the rest of the teams his ability. Just like Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon before him, I think Lawson will fly away from the Red Bull nest and excel elsewhere in due course. It’s now his former teammate Tsunoda that is really under pressure.

 

Looking Ahead

Peter: It will be interesting to see if Kimi Antonelli can bounce back after two pretty tough wknds. Young charger had been doing well but will test his resilience and support network.

Graeme: They need to make more of a feature of the cooldown room after the race. For those not aware, after the post-race interviews are done, & before the podium, the first 3 place getters head into a room with a screen & couches and they generally chat for a couple of minutes about the race. This weekend’s one was one of the best I thought. Norris, Leclerc and Oscar Piastri had a great chat about things and it’s that sort of behind-the-scenes access that I love. I know they have other formalities to get to, but even a 5 minute “Podcast” after each race would be brilliant.

Gavin: Next up is Barcelona (on a NZ public holiday Monday morning, now if only Sky NZ can get the race replay up in a timely manner please) where the rules for all the “flexi-wings” change. Will this result in McLaren falling away and Red Bull dominating again? Only in Christian Horners’ dreams (and let’s not go into that dark place). I suspect that what we will see is not much difference to race speed or cornering at all, though tyre wear could be affected as this is harder to simulate. If that is the case you may as well hand the Constructors to McLaren, and maybe even the Drivers too though to which driver is the underlying question.

Chelsea: This week’s mailbox included the following from a new fan: “Monaco – I get that it’s this iconic track from way back, but it feels like a pageant, not a race? A pageant of the ultra-rich drinking their champers and flashing their $10,000 Rolexes, but the racing kinda seems to suck? It’s a street, no-one can overtake, they can’t go full speed, they finish in the same order they started (near enough). What’s the appeal?” Well, quite. There’s not much chance of it falling off the calendar any time soon thanks to the history, prestige, and spectacle of the event. I think we just have to accept that the excitement of Monaco falls on a Saturday, and spend the rest of the weekend distracting ourselves with Ms Campbell’s unfathomably poreless skin.

Aiden: It’s off to Barcelona this weekend and with Lando Norris rediscovering his qualifying mojo, it’s anyone’s guess which of the McLaren’s drivers will be on top. With Verstappen’s quality still allowing him to put the Red Bull where no-one else can, at the 1/3 stage of the season, we have a genuine three-way contest for the driver’s title. Further down, can Racing Bulls and Williams continue their points accumulation or will the likes of Mercedes come back up the pack. There’s plenty to watch out for and look forward to.

 

Bonus Picture

Alex Albon footing the bill to apologise for holding George Russell up during the race.

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