Charles Leclerc Ends Monaco Curse with First Home Victory Amid Calls for F1 Changes
Source: instagram.com/shotbyannig
The Grand Prix de Monaco 2024 was a memorable one.
The headline was, of course, that Charles Leclerc took his first home victory, making him the first Monegasque driver to win on the home track in 93 years (since 1931). His emotional win was incredible, and I imagine you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who was not happy for him. His first return to the top step of the podium since Austria 2022 – 39 races ago. He finally broke that Monaco curse that had seen him lose the Feature Race in F2 in 2017, followed by DNFs in 2018 and 2019, a DNS in 2021, and P4 and P6 in 2022 and 2023. In his post-race interviews, he made a touching tribute to his late father.
It was clear that everyone was proud of him – including HSH Prince Albert II, who seemed more than thrilled to be awarding him the trophy. It is undeniable that Leclerc drove an incredible race on Sunday, following his excellent qualifying lap in Q3. And what joy it was to finally listen to the Monegasque national anthem during podium celebrations again.
It would be wrong to reflect on the race without reflecting on the chaos that was lap one.
There were three main incidents. The least severe was Sainz and Piastri’s minor contact in Sainte Devote. Sainz got a puncture from it, causing him to go straight on at Casino. He was lucky for it not to have impacted his position in the standing restart and to have made it back to the pits to be able to continue the race at all.
The attention of the audiences and the commentators was quickly diverted to the more shocking crash of Perez and the Haas cars. I was watching this race from F1 Arcade in London, and when the scenes were shown on the screens, everyone gasped. Checo’s Red Bull was on the main racing line as Magnussen was aiming to pass up the inside before not finding enough space, causing them to collide. It was a big contact which saw Magnussen’s car ricocheting across the track hitting Hulkenberg and causing him to spin. The Red Bull was left in pieces across the circuit. Thankfully, they were all unharmed. Perhaps slightly more bizarrely, it was never noted as an incident for investigation. All three of them left unscathed, meaning Magnussen is yet to reach the twelve penalty point maximum for a race ban.
The third of the incidents on the opening lap was between the two Alpines. Ocon attempted to overtake through Portier, causing a collision with Gasly which sent him airborne. A livid Gasly shouted ‘what did he do?’ over the team radio. Ocon received a ten-second penalty for this, but he retired his car. This penalty will, therefore, translate into a place-penalty in Canada next time out.
“Fuck me, this is boring. Should have brought my pillow.”
However, one big talking point after all this was that the race was that, aside from the opening lap and Charles’ momentous win, the race was boring. Max Verstappen said over the radio during the race, ‘Fuck me, this is boring. Should have brought my pillow.’
During interviews afterwards, he and Russell joked that they needed to go for a run because they got no exercise during the race. They then agreed that something needed to change. There were a few limited overtakes towards the back of the grid, but none of them were for points. They felt inconsequential. For the first time in the history of Formula One, there was no change in the top ten from the starting grid to the end of the race.
The early red flag turned the race into a question of tire management. At one point, Leclerc was putting out laps 12 seconds slower than his pole position time. He was, at a certain point, four seconds slower than Bottas in 16th (of 16).
Overtaking at Monaco is rare, and it always has been, given the tight walls of the track. In the modern era, this problem is only exacerbated by the cars being so big. This meant that many drivers were simply stuck behind slower cars with no opportunity to make a move. Albon got stuck behind Tsunoda. The Williams driver later commented, ‘It’s actually hard to stay focused when you’re going that slowly because you’re just not even near anything.’
So, what is left to be considered is whether F1 needs to make a change?
Many of the drivers seem to say ‘yes.’ Max and George agreed that something needs to be done to make this race, the crown jewel of F1, interesting, both for fans and drivers. Albon suggested the idea of having a mandatory pit stop after a red flag. This would definitely help the issue of the race becoming a game of tyre management. Others have suggested raising the minimum number of pitstops for Monaco. Perhaps even reintroducing the super-soft tyre for this track, to force teams to make more stops. But maybe something more needs to be done with the track? Well, while it would be nice to widen the walls or change some corners, there is little that can actually be done given that the track is a street circuit.
Many would agree that qualifying is the best part of the weekend in Monaco, unless Sunday produces a wet race. Stroll said that qualifying is fun, but the race day is not. Some, therefore, have suggested awarding points in Monaco based solely on qualifying. The whole weekend could be rearranged for this track. More stages of the qualifying format, mandatory tyre allocations, and other rule changes could make the event so much more exciting. The track does not comply with the standard FIA standard for an F1 track anyway, so what’s the harm in a few more adjustments and exceptions?
So, the ongoing debate has been between adjusting Monaco because of the races it produces and maintaining it because of its history and prestige. With Monaco’s contract up in 2025 and with Liberty Media seeming to want to take the sport in a different direction, perhaps the track risks becoming outdated – a relic of a time gone by.
