F1 Teardown: Monaco GP 2023
Absurd Yachts, New Sidepods, Tax Breaks, Floor photography and more.
Many want to rid Monaco of the schedule. I disagree with passion.
What it lacks in passing, it gains in an electric qualifying session.
Let rain enter the equation, and right behind will be pure chaos, followed by a TV producer that can’t keep up, Crofty barreling his pipes in disbelief, and Brundle— who fancies Monaco the “Everest of F1”—gasping at the driver mistakes. Layer in the decadence, some of the world’s best-heeled humans, and giant, unfathomable yachts; you have Monaco.
Even the name of the city rolls off your tongue.
Monaco is the real “home” race for many of the F1 drivers, as they can ride their bicycle home after work including hometown hero LeClerc.
Why would Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg, Nyck de Vries, and Alex Albon all live in Monaco?
Taxes: Monaco has no federal income tax or capital gains tax.
Privacy: Monaco’s wealthy population limits crazy fans, and the government requires written permission for all professional photography in the country reducing the paparazzi drivers have to deal with.
Location: The Nice airport is only 15 miles from Monaco making International travel easier for drivers.
This year’s GP didn’t disappoint unless your aerodynamic engineer.
Perez might have blown his championship hopes, but getting his car hauled away by the crane had team boss Horner shaking his head. Coveted secrets lie on the bottom of that floor, and every—I mean every—engineer in the paddock is doing their homework on any photograph they can find right now.
Aston Martin might be the team that benefits in the short term considering the similarities in design approaches.
Tom McCullough, Aston Martin Performance Director: “Yes, we saw the the Red Bull floor at Monaco. Our photographers took some very good images. We are already analysing them and I can tell you that we have extracted a lot of very useful information.”
The other surprise; Mercedes Benz has sidepods. So this is more like knowing what you're getting for your birthday type of surprise, but still the “B-spec” has arrived.
Any Monaco data from the new concept wasn’t worthwhile as the car didn’t even use 8th gear. Zero learning, but great team results with the assist to Ferrari—poorly timed “double stack” pit sequence—allowing Hamilton to capture P4 while Russell, despite his lobbying over the radio was P5; both gaining much-needed points.
As the yachts sounded their horns when Tom Holland waived the checkered flag, Max won by domination, escaping any rain madness. It was an impeccable drive that he set up by winning the qualifying session on Saturday over Alonso. The entire Q3 came down to the last second of the last lap in the last sector; Max made up 3 tenths to take the pole. He put it all on the line, even scraping the barrier on the straight coming to the flag.
Perez ended up P16 after starting dead last due to hitting the barrier in qualifying. It was a weekend of shame for the Mexican driver. I appreciate his optimism, but to win a championship and beat Max you have to be perfect. Each weekend you must execute and “bring the fight”; Sergio did the exact opposite.
"I still have hopes of fighting for the title. I knew my mistake in qualifying was extremely costly. It's 25 points lost, so [I'm] very disappointed." “But still, I have some hope, but I know I can't afford another zero in the championship, so I really hope I can get back to my normal level in Barcelona."
After tending to his flowers, Alonso took his best shot on Saturday knowing Sunday would be a follow-the-leader type of race unless Max botched the start. A dumb pit call for slicks over intermediates when the rain arrived really gave him no hope to beat Max. He kept the car clean and it was a solid P2 for the ageless Alonso. His teammate had a day to forget including knocking his front wing off. P20 for Stroll as he was the lone driver not to make the finish.
I like happy drivers, and Ocon was the happiest driver on the grid with a P3. He took home some cool hardware, and I would also say his team boss has a job as we might see the Alpine bosses calm their rhetoric after Ocon’s performance. Ocon was never a threat on the tight, twisty track, but he, like Alonso, kept the car clean and avoided any disasters. Gasly was P7 rounding out solid points for the team.
Ferrari did “Ferrari” things including the drivers providing their own thoughts on strategy. The additional communication and poor pit decisions highlighted what comes across as a chaotic team right now, add rain and it clearly gets worse. LeClerc was P6, and Sainz P8.
The rest?
McLaren rounded out the points with P9 (Norris) and P10 (Piastri). They did win the best dressed for the outstanding triple crown livery. Someone from the team needs to explain why they didn’t run with that all year long.
Alfa Romeo finished P11 (Bottas) and P13 (Zhou). The team managed the rain well by timely pitting both drivers.
Alpha Tauri told Tsunoda his brakes were fine then 3 laps later they failed. P15 for Tsunoda, but de Vries made some improvements and posted P12. No points, but hopefully that will give the rookie some confidence.
The one exciting part of Williams racing is team boss James Vowles's insight into what is happening during a race weekend. Crofty & Brundle were gleaming schoolboys every time they asked him a few questions. His prognosis on how each qualifying lap would play out, including knowing every competitor’s tire situation was impressive. Unfortunately, his driver’s results weren’t. Logan Sargeant, P18, was just a moving roadblock for everyone in the race while Albon, P14, faired better. In Vowles's world, they definitely lost on the weekend as he called Alpha Tauri their “main competition.”
Haas was no good, P17 for Hülkenberg & P19 for Magnussen, as both drivers found themselves off track and hitting the barriers in the rain. The team left Magnussen out on hard tires during the rain for whatever dumb reason; perhaps it’s Guenther’s way of saving more money.
Overall the results are what many expected after qualifying, but how we got there was sure an adventure, and the rain mayhem made for a great race.
Not Important Notes
Helmut Marko on Lewis Hamilton:
- "Lewis Hamilton is upset that he is not the highest paid driver."
- "Apart from the sporting perspective, Lewis is anything but happy that he is no longer the highest earning driver in Formula 1. That's now Max Verstappen."
- “At least he can change that with Ferrari's help."
- "He is no longer world champion and it will be hard for him to become one again in the future," Marko explained.
- "He knows there is no place for him at Red Bull. And whether Ferrari is better for him than Mercedes in the future is not certain.”
Rumor is Alonso planning on staying until the end of 2026 with Aston Martin and is in talks with Honda to race on the Indy500 with a Japanese-powered racing team, presumably Andretti Autosport.
After weeks of evaluation, Red Bull has now finalized how the new-look AlphaTauri team will operate. It had considered the sale of the team, but that has now been ruled out. AlphaTauri's current Faenza base near Imola will remain the team's main hub, but it will also employ more staff from its UK outpost in Bicester. Helmut Marko says: "The decision has been made. AlphaTauri will remain fully owned by Red Bull and will continue to be run as a junior team.”
The Race reports Honda wants current AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda to make himself a candidate to be an Aston Martin-Honda F1 driver in the future.
- "We’re hoping that he will become a candidate."
A 17-year veteran of Red Bull, Rob Marshall will move to McLaren next year as its technical director of engineering and design
Alfa Romeo is set to join Haas in a Formula 1 title deal from the 2024 season, potentially worth $20 million per annum
Hope you learned something,
🏁Brent🏁
PS Most epic photograph of the weekend goes to the Indy 500. It was a scary scene when this tire was hurled from Kyle Kirkwood’s car into the grandstand. Thankfully it missed and hit a car parked nearby instead.
