CHECKERED FLAG AT MONTE CARLO
Two Sundays ago the world witnessed chaos, panic, and history at the 8th round of the Formula 1 racing series. It was attended by the nation's people and celebrities from all over the world, however, that is the least important point. The iconic race took place at the Circuit of Monaco for 78 laps, but that is without some hurdles among the ways for some.
Quick Track Facts: Circuit de Monaco
-Founded on April 14, 1929, however, the first Grand Prix took place in 1950 (the same year F1 held its first race)
-78 laps
-It's a very narrow circuit that requires pure skill to overtake and even drive in general
-Street Circuit with a length of 3.335km
-The race Distance is 260.286 km
RED AND WHITE TEARS
Ferrari driver and champion contender Charles Leclerc made history after becoming the second Monegasque to win the historic race after Louis Chiron (the same man the Bugatti Chiron is named after) in 1931. Leclerc previously had taken the pole but unfortunately, he’s never taken the podium, until May 26. Carlos Sainz said, “Winning your home race is something every driver dreams”, so for Leclerc to be able to achieve that goal, especially at such a hardcore circuit is incredible. Il Predestinato talked about all the emotions he had before, during, and after the race “I have to say that I was thinking to my dad a lot more than what I thought while driving; Obviously he’s given everything for me to be here, and it was a dream of ours for me to race here and to win, so it’s unbelievable.”. The driver lost his dad back in 2017 when he was still in Formula 2 racing for the title, so being able to win THEIR home match meant a lot to him causing him to tear up. Leclerc also dedicated the win to his late Godfather and Marussia driver Jules Bianchi who had appeared to have a bright racing career until he passed away 9 months after his crash at the Japanese Grand Prix. For him, this race meant everything, took everything, and showed everything from his desire to the teamwork and communication between him, his engineers, and Sainz to the creation of the car to be able to withstand the race. Truly, it was such an incredible event.
A better start is not always good
While for the most part, the race was quite predictable, being called “wonderfully boring!” as the top four didn’t switch almost the entire race, Leo Leclerc might not be able to comprehend the first-lap disaster. For starters, sector one wasn’t even completed without crashes happening left and right. Carlos Sainz got a better start than Mclarens Oscar Piastri, however, he understeered into him, leaving him to get a puncher and unleash a yellow flag. Luckily the damage wasn’t so bad, allowing for both drivers to continue, but the following drivers definitely couldn’t relate.
Ultimate betrayal
As the Alpines were entering the tunnel, Estabn Ocon of Alpine lunged his car into teammate Pierre Gasly. Gaslys car was damaged, however, Ocon was the one who suffered points-wise as he got a DNF (did not finish) and served a penalty of a 5-place grid drop at the Canadian Grand Prix this Sunday, June 9th. While bumping into your teammate is awful, that wasn't even the worst part of the incident as HAAS and one of the Red Bulls had an altercation, leaving many to question how it was even possible.
Lap 1 HAASn’t finished
Not even a few seconds later, the Mexican minister of defense, Sergio “Checo” Perez from Redbull got his tyre hooked onto Kevin Magnessuns car, leaving Checo to get dragged. Nico Hulkenberg passed by the incident, at first clear, but unfortunately, he got sucked into the problem, spinning him out and leaving all the cars to get destroyed. The damage was so tremendous that the race was red-flagged.
The Big Question
During the clean-up of the street circuit, the big question was how will the race restart. Will it be a full restart leaving the grid to originate to how it started, or will the race proceed with the last placement each drivers had? This was important for all the drivers, but specifically those who got damaged such as Sainz and Piastri, those who managed to overtake and gain many places such as Lance Stroll, and those who started on the hard compound tyres such as Max Verstappen and George Russell. If the race was to proceed where it left off, that meant that drivers such as Sainz (who lost a place) would be on the losing end of the stick since they have a nicked car, in addition, they’re racing on a circuit that is known to be hard to overtake in with modern cars. However, the FIA decided on a full restart to take place at 15:44 LOCAL TIME (9:44 EST) with the original grid (excluding those who got a DNF). This was saddening news to anyone who worked hard at the start of the race as it meant their grid placement automatically dropped, as well as those who started on the Hards as they had already switched to the medium tires during the red flag while those who were on the mediums switched to the Hard tires. You see, there are three main tyres, the softs, mediums, and hards. Softs are extremely fast but they degrade faster and they’re never used at Monaco since the circuit is so tedious with pit stops. Mediums, you guessed it, are in the middle while the hards last the longest but take some time to heat up and start going fast. However, this was great news, as he said, “Fortunately for me, the big accident behind meant I could restart from P3 and thankfully everyone was OK.For the restart we had new Hard tyres and it was just a matter of managing the pace until the end”.
That’s a wrap of Round 8
For the Scudiera Tifosi, this race was clearly a win, as well for the Mclaren as they achieved P2 and P4, however, as Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur said after the win, “Now we must already think about doing a good job again, a better one even, in Canada
