Sergio Perez Wins The 2022 Monaco Grand Prix After Ferrari Completely Fuck Over Charles Leclerc At His Home Race
Checo wins the Monaco Grand Prix!!
Typically, Monaco is one of the most BORING races on the entire F1 calendar. However, Mother Nature must've heard all this Monaco slander and decided to give us a wet Monaco track, which gave us a ton of chaos and mayhem that ultimately resulted in a Sergio Perez win. A major storyline of the race was Ferrari completely fucking over their #1 driver, Charles Leclerc. As a Red Bull fan, it felt like Ferrari was on our side, but as a racing fan in general, my heart is gutted for Charles. This was his race to win in front of his home crowd and previously, he never finished a race at Monaco in his entire racing career. So this race meant A LOT for Leclerc.
After last weekend's frustrating 2nd place for Checo, it was great to see him get a Grand Prix win he truly deserved. Checo is a fan favorite for a reason - he's one of the most lovable driver's on the entire circuit because he genuinely seems like such a good dude.
Here's what he had to say after the victory:
As a Red Bull fan, I couldn't be happier with the result of the day. The F1 gods were clearly team Red Bull today because the weather and some major Ferrari hiccups caused Red Bull to get the chance to secure the Monaco win. So, let's talk about the race!
A Wet Monaco Is A Fun Monaco
Rain…that's all I was thinking about before going to bed last night in anticipation for the Monaco Grand Prix. The track at Monaco is so tight, so narrow and so difficult, that it makes it extremely tough for anyone to overtake unless chaos happens. On a dry Monaco track, not much action takes place. Most people say the true race is qualifying because where you start is typically where you end the race. However, when you add race into the equation, anything could happen.
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So prior to the race starting, the FIA decided to delay the start of the race almost a full hour due to the rain in the forecast. It probably was the right call, but as a racing fan it's extremely frustrating to keep delaying the start of a race. Here's what it looked like from Charles Leclerc's POV:
So clearly, visibility was a major issue and so was the tyre grip for the cars. This resulted in a red flag before the race even began.
It also wasn't a little drizzle that caused the delay, it was coming down fairly hard in Monaco.
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After an hour passes, the race started under a safety car and you won't believe what happens next…Latifi crashes…UNDER A SAFETY CAR LAP
After 2 more laps, the safety car heads into the pits and we're off racing with Leclerc in first, Sainz second, Sergio Perez third and Verstappen in fourth.
Pierre Gasly was the first driver to switch off the wet tyres and onto intermediate tyres. He started P17 after an extremely unlucky qualifying session got cut short, which resulted in him unable to complete his flying lap. So with nothing to lose, Alpha Tauri decided to gamble and swap his tyres out early to try and gain a competitive edge. With the entire Grand Prix watching his performance, Gasly initially struggled, but then completely started showing blistering pace compared to the rest of the track.
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Throughout the next laps, virtually every driver came into the pit to swap from wet tyres to intermediate.
When racing at Monaco, because overtaking is so limited, it's extremely important to time your pit stops correctly. Ferrari was 1-2 ahead of Red Bull and needed to space out their pit stops in order to hold onto the lead for the team.
On lap 19, Verstappen and Leclerc both pit for intermediate tyres to improve their pace:
Lap 22: After the biggest brain fart I've ever seen, Ferrari tells Charles Leclerc to pit and then once Leclerc is 5 seconds into the pit lane, they audible and tell him to stay out on the track…too little and WAY too late. Listen in to the radio comms:
After telling Charles to pit, Ferrari realized they'd be giving up position to Red Bull, so by the time they realized and communicated it to Charles, it was WAY too late.
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There's simply no other way to put it, Ferrari completely fucked over Charles Leclerc and cause him to drop all the way to P4. You can hear the raw emotion in Charles' voice and he's clearly PISSED. Remember, Charles grew up in Monaco so this race means SO much to him. Couple that in with the fact he's never been able to finish a race here and…yeah I'd be absolutely fucking irate.
A few laps later, Mick Schumacher (Haas) lost control and had a really bad collision into the wall causing a safety car to be deployed and ultimately a red flag:
Prior to this lap, Kevin Magnussen (Mick's Haas teammate) had to retire his car from the race. So let's just say it wasn't the day that Haas was hoping for…
On top of it all, just yesterday Conor McGregor pledged his allegiance to the Haas F1 team. So, the McGregor curse is alive and well…
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Because the barriers were so damaged, the race resulted in a red flag where all the drivers had to return to the pits.
The race resumed under a safety car with the following lineup:
Entering back into the race, Red Bull made a fairly risky move by starting on medium tyres, while Ferrari went with hard tyres. The hard tyres will last longer, but don't give the same pace as the medium tyres. So Ferrari were betting on Red Bull to either have to pit or lose enough traction to provide Ferrari with a chance to overtake. From here on out, Leclerc was probably begging for some more chaos to unfold to earn a podium, but unfortunately for him, not much happened. Even though these 4 drivers were racing extremely tight and Sergio Perez almost lost traction at one turn, he was able to hold onto the lead and bring the victory home for Red Bull.
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Here's the top 10:
The full finish:
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George Russell continues to prove he's a top driver. This race marks his 7th Top 5 finish in a row and he's the only driver to finish top 5 in every single Grand Prix this year. Hamilton finishes P8 and it's another instance of Russell looking like the better driver…
Lando Norris had a great race finishing P6, but on the other end of the spectrum, Ricciardo continues to disappoint this year with w P13 finish. Ricciardo was called out this week from McLaren CEO Zak Brown about his underperformance:
Pierre Gasly was driving unbelievably well today, but unfortunately for him, he finishes 1 spot out of points. Regardless, he should be very happy with his race after starting P17.
Ultimately, this year's Monaco Grand Prix was full of action and kept me glued to the screen. It's unfortunate that the most notorious race is typically the most boring, but that's just motor racing baby. Thank you Mother Nature for giving us a fun Monaco Grand Prix. Lastly, Shoutout Ferrari was gifting Red Bull the win!
As for F1, I have some ideas how to make Monaco better for next year…