Pick the Podium - F-1 - Grand Prix de Monaco 2023, Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo, France, May 26-28, 2023

[Retroram52]

After the decision to cancel the Italian Grand Prix for obvious reasons, F-1 moves to the annual Memorial Day race through the tight streets of Monte Carlo in France. Should be interesting to see how the battles play out because passing is so difficult and attrition can become an issue.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

MB seemingly going to run it's upgrades there.

Aside from a 100% guarantee of a parade, Monaco also offers a very high chance of car damage.

Ferrari has held of with it's upgrades for Spain.

 

[ckhokie]

Running brand new upgrades at Monaco is dumb.
I’ll be sure to tune in Saturday when the race is decided

 

[Hank Kingsley]

So a new AM resembling side pods.
Plus a new front suspension.

 

[forty_three]

Running brand new upgrades at Monaco is dumb.
I’ll be sure to tune in Saturday when the race is decided

My only guess is there is a deeper concern about something else downstream being affected by the upgrades and they can't afford a longer wait to see it in action in case tweaks are needed. They would have run it at Imola. I wonder how much they had to change to fill the new sidepods, and they cut the air inlets down a lot and the new suspension could interrupt airflow into the new inlets. Could be major cooling issues. Or worse porpoising could be back.

And if it works and they qualify at the top, then that's huge.

 

[Retroram52]

Sainz in a Ferrari paces ahead of Alonso and Hamilton with his newer upgraded car in FP-1 in Monaco.

 

[Retroram52]

In recent years, Ferrari has done quite well at Monaco.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

I've not seen P2 yet but read about P1.

Sainz, Alonso, Hamilton top 3 in P1. Max in 6th and Russell way down in 11th?

 

[Retroram52]

Hamilton crashes in FP3. Guess that answers any Ferrari speculations. Verstappen and Perez emerge as the top two going into qualifying.

 

[ckhokie]

Wild final laps in qualifying. Perez showing why no one in the RB garage can honestly take him seriously as a title contender. Crashing the fastest car in Q1 is a joke

 

[ckhokie]

VER
ALO
LEC
SAI

 

[Schmoopy1000]

Verstappen
Alonso
Sainz
Hamilton

I get a bonus point for guessing the driver that improves his starting position the most with Perez.

 

[Retroram52]

Too funny Schmoopy!

 

[Retroram52]

I'll go with:
Verstappen
Alonso
Leclerc
Sainz

 

[obxyankeefan]

VER
ALO
SAI
GAS

 

[forty_three]

VER
ALO
HAM
LEC

Ocon that close to the front is a recipe for disaster. I hope he doesn't take out one of the top 2.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

Hamilton crashes in FP3. Guess that answers any Ferrari speculations. Verstappen and Perez emerge as the top two going into qualifying.

He was never going to go to Ferrari. And Sainz crashed as well.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

Watching P2 yesterday was actually very cool.

Brundle was stationed by the pool and the cars were a blur going past him. You'd get 3 or for slow lap cars and suddenly somebody on song in a blur. At times it looked like they were going to zoom straight out of my TV at me. The new big unit is paying for itself...

It gave me a new appreciation for even the slowest guy on the grid to be out there doing that in that traffic at that speed.

I'm going with:

Verstappen
Alonso
Hamilton
Sainz

 

[Retroram52]

Verstappen takes the win followed by Alonso, Ocon, and Hamilton.

 

[ckhokie]

That was a fun MGP. The rain and scramble on tires actually made it pretty entertaining