Three things we learned from MonacoGP 2023! Championship OVER???

​Well for Monaco at least it was a semi decent race, thankfully that’s mostly because of the rain which came around lap 50 but it was this that spiced the race up nicely and made it a very interesting affair. I certainly found this race better then Miami even though apparently Monaco you can’t overtake on and what’s nice most of all about Monaco is you don’t need the fakery surrounding it, it is still F1’s jewel in the crown. Monaco of all circuits is meant to be the toughest of the lot and is most trickiest of all driver circuits that’s out there. However here are my FOUR takeaways… (Even though it’s called three things we learned) 

Perez Championship Hopes are OVER!

When Perez crashed, okay, I thought how detrimental it would be for weekend but as Horner said maybe top10 would’ve been a good damage limitation and ultimately in the race his day and weekend didn’t get any better but only worse and effectively became a RedBull Guinea pig… I mean he was a little hamster spinning on his wheel in his little cage but in one of those science labs. And sorry for the animal/pet analogy’s but that’s exactly what Checo was this weekend and more so in the race. 39 points now behind Max Verstappen, I’m sorry Checo but the is now no way back from this. Championship OVER one can truly and once say for all. Checo would do well now to finish within 80 to 90 points of Max Verstappen, I never been one of those people who ever thought Sergio stood much chance anyways in winning the championship but I did think If he can do well and score consistently top5s or top3s then he might keep the championship closer and longer alive then most would predict. But now I can see Max winning once again his third title with at least 3 or 4 rounds to spare.

Monaco delivered the goods!

I think that actually besides Australia is the second most exciting race we’ve had all year. Yes the first 50 laps was a snooz fest but once the rain hit and way it came over the circuit being localised in some place more heavily then other places made it a real intriguing dilemma for teams and drivers with Alonso and AstonMartin getting strategies slightly wrong but seeing drivers in one part tip toeing around and then in another part able to push was great enjoyment to see and it caused a fair amount of chaos with drivers banging the walls left, right and centre and in Stroll case was just steering his car into the walls! I’ve never seen actually cars hit that many walls and not DNF… truly amazing stuff and the was a number of mistakes and yeah just a fascinating last 20+ laps or whatever it was.

Qualifying was epic!

I mean that Q3 was pretty much Monaco summarised perfectly. Monaco is always been known for qualifying, whoever gets pole win the race and okay that was nonetheless true here but also what’s also was true was the fact that we had 4 cars all marginally so close to each other. It was nice to see 4 cars split by less than 0.200 tenths, that’s what Monaco is about and how Max found 0.400 basically in the last sector to take Pole Position is beggars belief. Truly incredible work and Ocon is also another huge mention only being 0.188 tenths off Pole.

A fifth team has joined the party 

So far this season been a bit weird for Alpine because the is a good car there. We saw in Australia good decent performance, in Miami they had a very solid race and now in Monaco they was for me besides RedBull and Aston Martin the stand out team. Okay it was a mixed bag in terms between the two teammates with one on the podium and the other down in P7 but overall a very impressive and nice points tally for them this weekend. If Alpine can deliver this more often then maybe a hunt for P4 is on the cards in the Constructors standings.

Anyways Spain is next and looking forward actually to Spain later this week because we shall see the return of a old layout cutting out that silly Micky mouse last sector now for the much faster layout. So I am hoping this makes the race a little more enjoyable to watch.