To say in 2023 that the car has no weight on the final result would be hypocritical, but it would be equally hypocritical to say that the human factor no longer has any relevance. This was demonstrated in Monaco, not only by the always surreal driving skills of the drivers, who did not call into question the Safety Car despite running on slick tires in the wet. From set-up to strategies, it was in fact also team decisions and mistakes that defined the final result of the Monte Carlo Grand Prix.
The key episodes
There were three decisive moments this weekend, starting with qualifying. In Miami Federico Albano wrote that ihe talent of a driver also lies in the ability to respect the limits of your car. Max Verstappen demonstrated this in Monaco, supporting his Red Bull which was struggling to get the tires and brakes up to temperature in the first sector. And so, while his teammate crashed into the wall at Santa Devota, the world champion moved more cautiously in the same corners, to then let loose and recover everything between Rascasse and Antony Noghes.
The second key episode was the moment of the break, which coincided with the arrival of the rain. Alonso rejoined a lap earlier than Verstappen, however putting on medium tires and then stopping on the following lap to switch to intermediates. The Spaniard defended the team by saying that even if he immediately put on the intermediates nothing would have changed, but in that lap on the mediums Fernando had recovered five seconds from his rival. At the time of the second stop the gap to Verstappen was just over 19 seconds, therefore theoretically in the window to overtake him, and one would think that if that extra lap had been on intermediate tires the delay could have been even less. Aston Martin’s version, which did not believe that the track would get so wet, tells of a team which, while aiming for victory, preferred to give priority to the points of second place from a constructors’ point of view, playing with caution without risking a pass early in intermediate.
The third keystone was the final stage on a wet track. After an initial flash from Alonso, Verstappen quickly got into gear, extending his lead by 12 seconds in just over twenty laps of the race. It’s likely that the Spaniard was riding carefully at that point, but even the world champion could have caught his breath given the sizeable advantage. Verstappen, on the other hand, continued to drive to the limit, coming into contact with the walls to remind everyone that, if the RB19 goes down in history as one of the best single-seaters ever, part of the credit will also be his.
Alpine getting bigger
The title of man of the day is contested by Max Verstappen and Esteban Ocon. The Frenchman made the most of his excellent lap in qualifying, supported by a team that had the lucidity in the race to stop him at the right moment to cover Hamilton’s stop and defend himself against a possible undercut by Sainz. Monaco is an atypical track but, with the exception of Baku, from Melbourne Alpine gets better from race to race. The A523 is constantly evolving with massive updates and is now a fixture in the vicinity of Aston Martin, Mercedes and Ferrari, particularly on Saturdays.
Another expression of the human factor comes from Mercedes. The team paid for the excess of confidence on Saturday, when they took a last-minute gamble on the set-up with the hope of climbing to the front rows, a move that backfired. However, Brackely’s team shows ambition and a desire to dare, but also accompanied by excellent concreteness. The constant placements project Mercedes in the slipstream of Aston Martin in the fight for second place in the constructors’ classification, with the hope of being able to count now on a more performing car thanks to the updates. McLaren shows the same concreteness, able in Melbourne to stay away from trouble, and then in Baku as in Monaco, to exploit the opportunity to race on more favorable tracks. The MCL60 continues to be lacking especially from an aerodynamic point of view, but on those street circuits full of bends that enhance the mechanics, the Woking team has not yet let an opportunity slip by.
Ferrari looks to Spain
The Prancing Horse didn’t have the potential to fight for the win in Monaco, but the lightness of Saturday’s lack of understanding with Norris cost Leclerc the second row, another example of the weight of the human factor. Net of the conservative strategies, the pace in the race on slick tires was unpredictable, as both Ferrari drivers were blocked behind Ocon, while on a damp track Vasseur confirmed the sensations of a more troubled Red. However, Monaco has revealed another chronic shortcoming of the SF-23, the hopping both aerodynamic – porpoising – and mechanical when passing over bumps and curbs. Just the rebounds were judged by Leclerc as the biggest difference between the Ferrari 2023 and the F1-75. Similar problems could be solved by updates to the suspension mechanics, an area which in Monaco was renewed on the customer cars of the Haas team. Vasseur denies that the SF-23 will mount the same parts in Barcelona, but it is legitimate to have some doubts.
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