The Magic of Monaco Grand Prix

Formula 1 has always kept our heart racing since 1950 and Monaco circuit has been tricky since 1929 and all Formula1 races on the Monaco circuit has been challenging over the years. Legends such as Niki Lauda, Aron Senna, Micheal Schumacher , James Hunt have mastered the track and dominated in time and memorial. Coming to the current season of 2022 of Formula 1 let's understand the Monaco circuit, the circuit having 3 sectors and 3.337kms of track distance cover ranging to 78 laps. The circuit being so narrow and designed to perfection there is lot of room to make errors by the drivers and making overtaking near impossible with just one Drag Reduction System (DRS) this track keep the drivers on the constant attack to secure points and overtake. The track runs on the principality of Monaco. The track being divided into 3 sectors which is sector 1, sector 2 & sector 3. The track runs through a straight followed by a hill and then through the tunnel and the final by the swimming pool and the harbour making turns very tricky and risky.

The current season of Formula 1 and the Monaco Grand Prix 2022 provided a detail insight on how the 2022 cars performed in Free Practice's 1,2 &3 (FP 1,2,3) followed by 3 qualifying sessions and the race on Sunday the 29th of May 2022. The teams performed exceptionally well but few teams which needs a highlight are Scuderia Ferrari & Redbull Racing. Scuderia Ferrari did exceptionally well in the practice and qualifying by optimising maximum and full resources as well as the capacity and capabilities of the car to its full extent. Notable being Charles Leclerc beating his own record of the qualifying lap on the Monaco Circuit resulting him achieving pole position and front row start for the Grand Prix. Carlos Sainz Jr. also being an exceptional driver and performing exceptionally well in the practices, qualifying as well as the race. Carlos Sainz Jr. managed to get a front row start just behind his teammate Charles Leclerc.

The race day the track experienced showers resulting in delay in start of the race as well as the formation lap. The track being extremely wet the ?Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) decided on a formation lap followed by a safety car rolling start looking at the weather start. Both the Ferrari's being on a front row start with DRS disabled due to the weather conditions were the perfect conditions for a Ferrari 1&2 finish at the end of 77 laps. Although the rain stopped after 20-25 minutes resulting in drying off the track and keeping the tunnel patch wet resulting making drivers shift from wet tyres to intermediate tyres. Although this gave enough pace to the Ferrari drivers to keep the Redbull's out of their rear view mirrors. The strategy was working out really well for the Scuderia Ferrari's till the time there was strategy error of pitting the cars resulting in loss of position. Monaco circuit being so precise there is hardly any chance of overtaking. Although when Charles Leclerc changed tyres Carlos Sainz Jr. chose to stay out on wet tyre compound forecasting that dry slack is the best choice which is the hard compound tyres which last long compared to the other tyre compounds. Ferrari calling in both the cars to box was a hasty call resulting failing of strategy and passing message on the radio to Charles to stay out after Charles entering the pit lane. This resulted in losing of positions by Charles slipping down to the 4th place due to slow pit stop and Carlos Sainz Jr. continuing to race at 2nd place and Redbull Racing driver Sergio Pérez being as the race leader and Max Verstappen being running in the 3rd place followed by Charles Leclerc running in the 4th place.

The race also experienced red flags due to the crash of Mick Schumacher resulting in the splitting of the car in two pieces initially resulting in yellow flag followed by virtual safety car and then the safety car being deployed following the session to stop and sending all cars back to pits. Thankfully Mick Schumacher being safe the session resumed with bringing out the safety car for a few laps and reducing the racing laps to just 30 minutes of racing as well as enabling the DRS by FIA. As the race sessions resumed the Redubulls switched from intermediate tyres to medium compound tyres which they felt is best for their cars. On the other hand the Ferrari's chose to stick to the hard compound tyres. After a brief run the Redbulls started to experience tyre degradation and graining resulting in the loss of reliability and grip of car on the corners. This gave the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz Jr. to charge and pounce the Redbull of Sergio Perez pushing him to lose breaking and try to gain an advantage by pressuring him.

Alas after all the efforts this did not work out and the Ferrari could not over take the Redbull. This resulted in the completion of the race as the FIA and F1 grants 2hours window only for completion of the event. The Redbull managed to finish on pole and 3rd and Ferrari managing 2nd and 4th place. Formula 1being a very volatile sport it changes from lap to lap and the win by Sergio Perez was well deserved. Ferrari's have a lot potential in them and have opportunity to bounce back and take the lead of the championship.

To conclude this article I would quote that all cars and teams as well as their drivers have equal potential to make a mark in this season and the event with just implementation of perfect strategies. May the best team and driver win.

Written by,

Gaurav Rajan Javeri