The standings after the GP of Monaco 2023 plus some things you need to know for this morning’s coffee.
The GP of Monaco seemed to be an old-fashioned boring race again. The only thing they said was: whoever takes pole has the best chance of winning. And oh yes, qualifying is more important than the race. Those are tasty killers, of course.
But luckily there was a lot of rain that turned things upside down in one go. In that respect, rain is always very welcome. Not that overtaking can be done on a wet Monaco, but it does shake up the whole field nicely.
Of course we have all the positions and overviews for you today. Not only that, there were also some things we noticed about the race.
How Perez sinks through the ice!
Of course we (the press in general) are hyped up that Pérez is Verstappen’s only challenger. In addition, Pérez must score on the jobs where he is strong and actually beat Verstappen on his own a few times on tracks other than street circuits. But actually, Pérez broke his own glass by eliminating himself – completely unnecessarily – in Q1. It is not a problem that Sergio is less than his teammate, but it is that he already chases a top car into the guardrail in Q1. And in the race he overshot Stroll. In short, a weekend to quickly forget, while this weekend was supposed to be the opportunity to stay somewhat on the same level.
Verstappen (once again) very strong
On the other hand, Verstappen was incredibly strong, also (or perhaps especially) mentally. It was not easy for the Dutchman at the beginning of this weekend. Sure, he was riding in the upper echelons, but he didn’t seem quite comfortable. However, in one sector (the third) of the last qualifying session, he immediately dealt with the first part of this weekend. The way he drives that car past the guardrail is unprecedented. Of course, once in the race he could quite easily build up his lead and the rest couldn’t, but it’s a great performance that clearly shows that Pérez has no claim to the title.
Does Monaco really have to?
We always talk about the atmosphere at Monaco, but that’s mainly because very little is happening on track. The chess game is certainly nice and the qualifying session is entertaining. The problem is that the race just isn’t fun because the race cars can’t race freely. Nowadays a Formula 1 car is about 5.5 meters long, which is longer than a long Mercedes-Benz S-Class. If you can’t overtake, why organize a race there? Overtaking is the reason for holding a race at all, isn’t it? And yes, that rain makes up for a lot, but let’s be honest: there was still no overtaking.
Alonso unprecedented
Fernando Alonso has taken 15 points every GP weekend so far. So it should come as no surprise that Fernando is once again handing over his business card. He did a great job in qualifying and was also impressive in the race. Too bad the team opted for the medium tire instead of betting on the intermediates. Now Alonso was still able to make a safe change, which indicates how much margin he had. At no time was his P2 in danger. It’s not that Fernando is just a savvy person, he’s just really fast.
Ferrari continues to blunder
Somehow Ferrari is unable to get everyone on the same page. Particularly in the camp of Carlos Sainz, there seems to be more and more dissatisfaction. Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari prodigy, is getting preferential treatment, but is that right? In itself yes, but then Sainz should not make mistakes like he did on Sunday. It is quite special that both absolute podium candidates do not get further than P6 and P8. There seems to be a bit more peace under Vasseur, but it could be a bit better.
Ocon unprecedented
Esteban Ocon is such a talent that can deliver an exceptional performance every now and then and sometimes drives his laps invisibly. Especially when it is wet or crazy things happen, he can excel. He already won the GP of Hungary once. Laurent Rossi (Alpine’s CEO) was extremely critical of his own team. It had to be better! Well, that team understands that too. Whether it helped, let’s not say, but last weekend Alpine did good business with Esteban Ocon as the bright spot. He drove a stunning qualifying, did what he could in the race and was nimble in the rain.
Is Russell as good as we think?
George Russell has to become a bit of Hamilton’s successor. He is considered an absolute super talent. Now it is absolutely not the case that George is doing badly this season, but again he has a big job with Lewis Hamilton. And just when the race goes differently than you expect, Hamilton is still of a special outdoor category.
Drivers Championship
Instead of Checo closing the gap, it is Verstappen who runs out. In fact, Checo must seriously watch out for Fernando Alonso who is rapidly approaching. Hamilton remains well ahead of Russell and Sainz is still ahead of Leclerc. Special. Of course Ocon makes a nice jump to P9 with 15 extra points. Both McLaren drivers also take points, great.
The standings after the 2023 Monaco GP in the Drivers’ Championship are as follows:
PositionrunnerTeamPoints1VerstappenRed Bull1442PérezRed Bull 1053AlonsoAston Martin934HamiltonMercedes695Russell Mercedes506SainzFerrari487LeclercFerrari428StrollAston Martin279OconAlpine2110GaslyAlpine1411NorrisMcLaren1212HülkenbergHaas613PiastriMcLaren514BottasAlfa Romeo415ZhouAlfa Romeo216TsunodaAlphaTauri217MagnussenHaas218AlbonWilliams119SargeantWilliams020De VriesAlphaTauri0
Constructors’ Championship
The most important thing for Laurent Rossi is that shouting seems to help. Because not only Ocon drove in the points, Gasly did that too! It causes Alpine to move up a place. The difference with McLaren (which was previously Alpine) is also big. These teams don’t take points that often, so a P3 cuts in nicely.
The standings after the GP Monaco 2023 in the Constructors’ Championship are as follows:
PositionTeamPoints1Red Bull Honda RBPT2492Aston Martin Mercedes1203Mercedes1194Ferrari905Alpine356McLaren177Haas Ferrari88Alfa Romeo Ferrari69AlphaTauri Honda RBPT219Williams Mercedes1
Qualifying match
It was a great qualifying session. That much is clear. Strangely enough, not much changed in the qualifying match. In many cases the first rider was faster than the second. At Red Bull the difference was very big: P1 against P20. What is also striking: Alonso still has Stroll in his pocket (P2 against P14). Lewis Hamilton is an exception, he backed down a bit from George Russell. Sargeant and de Vries drove pretty well in qualifying this weekend, but couldn’t give their teammate a hard time. Magnussen is also doing good business, he was once again faster than Hülkenberg.
The standings after the GP Monaco 2023 in the qualifying game are as follows:
runnerrunnerVerstappen4Pérez2Alonso6Stroll0Russell4Hamilton2Leclerc4*Sainz jr.2Norris5Piastri1Ocon4Gasly2Hülkenberg4Magnussen2Guanyu2Bottas4Tsunoda5de Vries1Albon6Sargeant0
Fastest race lap
Lewis Hamilton should never be written off. Yesterday he kept his cool and drove as fast as he could when the opportunity presented itself. Don’t forget that Hamilton was also right behind Estban Ocon. The British seven-time champion also did great in qualifying. Deep bow.
The standings after the GP Monaco 2023 in terms of fastest race laps are as follows:
runnerTeamNumber of fastest race lapsVerstappenRed Bull2ZhouAlfa Romeo1RussellRed Bull1PérezRed Bull1HamiltonMercedes1
Driver of the Day
The voters love the underdog and Esteban Ocon is the ultimate underdog. Every now and then he knows how to surprise and that was no different at the GP of Monaco. Of course there are too many races where the Frenchman drives around anonymously in the midfield, but if the opportunity arises, he will take it. And it certainly wasn’t a fluke. He did an excellent job both in qualifying and in the race. A deserved Driver of the Day nomination.
The standings after the GP Monaco 2023 in terms of Driver of the Day nominations are as follows:
runnerTeamNumber of nominationsSergio PérezRed Bull2Max VerstappenRed Bull2Fernando AlonsoAston Martin1Esteban OconAlpine1
Did the Autoblog editors predict the race correctly?
Um, no, absolutely not actually. Wouter guessed the wrong Alpine on P3. Jack has 0 points. Wouter takes five points because he had correctly predicted Alonso on P2. Michael has to make do with one point. Oh, and everyone thought that Nyck de Vries was going to get a point, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.
The position after the GP Azerbaijan 2023 in the editorial ranking is as follows:
EditorPointsJaap (LEC, PER, SAI)47Wouter (HAM, ALO, GAS)35Michael (ALO, RUS, PER)20
Good driver = 1 point, good driver in the right position: 5 points.
These Grands Prix have already been held:
March 5 | Bahrain GP March 19 | Saudi Arabia GP April 2 | Australian GP Apr 30 | GP of Azerbaijan May 7 | Miami GP
These Grands Prix are still on the calendar:
DatumRace02 Jun. – 04 Jun GP of Spain Jun 16 – Jun 18 Canadian GPJun 30 – Jul 02 Austrian Grand Prix Jul 07 – Jul 09 Great Britain GP Jul 21 – Jul 23 Hungarian Grand Prix Jul 28 – Jul 30 Belgian GP Aug 25 – Aug 27 Dutch GP Sep 01 – 03 Sep. Italian GP15 Sep. – Sep 17 Singapore GP Sep 22 – Sep 24 Japanese GP Oct 06 – Oct 08 Qatar GP Oct 20 – Oct 22 United States GP Oct 27 – Oct 29 Mexico GP Nov 03 – 05 Nov. Brazil GP17 Nov. – Nov 19 Las Vegas GPNov 24 – Nov 26 Abu Dhabi GP
The first meters of the GP of Spain will be held on Friday September 2 at 11:00 am.
This article Stand after GP Monaco 2023 and 7 things that struck us first appeared on Ruetir.
