Monaco Grand Prix 2024: We’ve got a season

Max Verstappen remains the favorite, but the field is catching up as the F1 grid heads to Monaco

Whisper it if you want, but we’ve got a season.

Those were the words of noted Formula 1 analyst Will Buxton on Sunday, in the wake of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at historic Imola. While the majority of the race went true to form, as Max Verstappen clung to a lead off the start and slowly pulled away from the field, the tide began to turn over the closing laps. Slowly but surely, Lando Norris began to inch closer and closer to the Red Bull at the front. A gap of over five seconds was slowly whittled down to around two seconds, and with Verstappen powering his RB20 under threat of a fourth violation of track limits — and a subsequent five-second penalty — it was truly game on.

In the end, Verstappen held on, clinging to a narrow victory over the hard-charging Norris. But while Verstappen may have won the battle, the war may truly be on this year.

As the grid heads to Monaco for the crown jewel of the F1 season, the field looks tighter than ever. Red Bull and Verstappen remain the favorites, but this is not 2023. McLaren and Ferrari in particular look to have closed the gap up front, and the margins are razor thin in a way we have not seen in recent seasons.

And those razor-thin margins may have arrived just in time for the sport itself.

The thrilling title fight between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in 2021, which came down to the final laps of the season, seems a distant memory. Red Bull and Verstappen have been dominant since then, turning almost every race weekend into their private playgrounds. While future seasons look to provide their own drama — Hamilton moves to Ferrari for 2025, and new regulations arrive in 2026 that could shake up the field — this year began with that same sense of inevitability.

That sense of inevitability has fallen away in recent weeks.

Norris’s win at the Miami Grand Prix, his maiden F1 victory, offered a glimpse of a new day at the front. But his hard charge to the finish line at Imola truly forced Verstappen to fight for victory, and for a brief moment it looked as if Norris would eventually edge his McLaren by Verstappen at the finish.

While Verstappen held him off, that finish may foretell the bigger story of this season.

Which is that the grid is catching up to him.

Now the grid heads to Monaco, for one of motorsport’s true spectacles. And perhaps, just perhaps, a season is truly upon us.

F1’s crown jewel

Few singular words in sports can kickstart the imagination, but there a few in motorsport.

Daytona.

Indianapolis.

And Monaco.

This weekend sees two of those roar to life, as Sunday brings the 108th installment of the Indianapolis 500. The other is Monaco, and the Monaco Grand Prix, the crown jewel of the F1 calendar. Between the two, they comprise two-thirds of motorsports triple crown, with the 24 Hours of Le Mans serving as the final piece to that holy trinity.

Over the years the Monaco Grand Prix has delivered some of the most iconic moments in the history of the sport. Moments such as Ayrton Senna’s stunning pole lap in 1988. Stirling Moss’ clinical win in 1961 over the faster Ferraris behind him. Riccardo Patrese’s shocking win in 1982. The duel in the rain between Senna and Alain Prost in 1984. Daniel Ricciardo’s win — and subsequent swan dive into the pool — in 2018. Max Verstappen’s pole lap a season ago.

Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images

All those moments came amidst some of the most picturesque scenes in sports. Images that are seared into the collective memory of generations. The hairpin. The tunnel. The yachts that line the circuit, and the onlookers gazing upon 20 finely-tuned machines from their balconies or along the track. All of the glitz, glamour, and celebrity that you can imagine.

“I love everything about Monaco. It’s my favorite track and it’s one of the biggest races of the year. I always try to enjoy the week as much as possible. I try to soak up the special atmosphere and make the most of the opportunity to drive on this amazing circuit. I always feel very lucky to be driving in Monaco,” said Sergio Pérez back in 2018.

“I think everybody loves going to Monaco. It’s just such a special place. When you think of F1, you think of Monaco. Driving on the famous streets in an F1 car was a dream come true and I’m just as excited to go back there this year,” added Esteban Ocon that season. “The location is so spectacular. It’s beautiful and glamorous with an amazing atmosphere. When you arrive at the start of the week you can’t help smiling when you walk down the pit lane and see all the final touches being made.

“The fans can get really close and I think that’s important. It’s definitely the busiest week of the year. All the sponsors want to be there and every night you have events. That’s why it’s great to have the additional day so that you can fit everything in.”

If there is a weekend each year that F1 puts on a true show, it is this one.

Who will win Sunday ... on Saturday?

Monaco may remain the crown jewel of the F1 calendar, but there remains a rather poorly-kept secret about the Monaco Grand Prix.

The race itself is often underwhelming.

If you thought the overtaking came at a premium in last weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, just wait for this weekend. Take 20 F1 cars and drop them into the tight and twisty Monte Carlo streets, and it is hardly a recipe for overtaking. The last time a race winner in Monaco started outside the top three positions came back in 1996, when Olivier Panis won after starting 14th.

The opportunities to pick up places in the race itself are few and far between, so if you want to win in Monaco, you need to start up front.

Which means that Saturday is often the whole ballgame.

Qualifying in Monaco might be the sport’s ultimate test, as drivers push themselves and their cars to the limit while winding through the narrow Monte Carlo streets. Look no further than last year’s qualifying session when Verstappen extracted every last millisecond from his RB19, while using every last millimeter available to him along the way. Ocon, Fernando Alonso, and Charles Leclerc all put themselves on provisional pole late in Q3, pushing Verstappen to the brink.

But yet again, he answered the call.

“But then in qualifying you need to go all out and risk it all. My first sector wasn’t ideal in my final lap – I think Turn 1 was a bit cautious – but then I knew that I was behind, so in the last sector I just gave it everything I had,” said Verstappen after qualifying last season. “I clipped a few barriers, but of course very happy to be on pole here for the first time.”

Qualifying in Monaco is one of the biggest challenges drivers face during the season, in many ways.

“Nah, it’s of course, a lot of adrenaline. I can feel that every time you jump in the car, you know, your heart rate probably is a bit higher than on other tracks when you do a qualifying lap,” added Verstappen last year. “Because you know that when you make one tiny misjudgement or whatever, you end up in the wall. And yeah, definitely from all the street circuits we do, this one over a quali lap, definitely the hardest, I think, to nail and you feel it when you jump out of the car. You’re full of adrenaline and your heart rate is still higher than other qualifyings.”

The Monaco Grand Prix takes place on Sunday, but in many ways the race is won during qualifying on Saturday.

So you better make sure to tune in.

Charles Leclerc’s Monaco dreams

Another Monaco Grand Prix ... and another chance to revisit the list of disappointments for hometown hero Charles Leclerc.

The Ferrari driver learned to drive on these very same streets, having grown up in Monte Carlo. But he has yet to taste victory in his home race, and his results in Monaco are a laundry list of failures and disappointments. There was the brake failure in 2018, his first F1 race in Monaco. In 2019 a tough qualifying session saw Leclerc start the Monaco Grand Prix at the back of the pack, and he retired after just 16 laps due to a collision with Nico Hülkenberg.

In 2021, after a year without the Monaco Grand Prix due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Leclerc qualified on pole position, but suffered damage late in Q3 after driving into the wall.

So while he qualified in P1, he did not even start the race itself.

The following season might have been his best chance at a home win, as he qualified in pole position and started the race. But rain that morning caused a delayed start, and Ferrari made the decision to have both Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. begin the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix on the full wet compound.

Shortly after the start of the race, the rain eased and the track began to dry out. On Lap 18 Leclerc pitted to switch to intermediates, and a few laps later the team called in Sainz to switch from the full wets to the hard compound. Leclerc was given the same call to box for the hards, and started down pit lane.

Which is when the order came from Ferrari for him to stay out. It was too late, however, and the die was cast.

And Leclerc knew it. (This audio is not exactly safe for work):

2023 brought even more frustration for Leclerc. While he qualified third-fastest on Saturday, he was hit with a three-place grid drop for impeding Lando Norris during Q3. As a result he started the Monaco Grand Prix in P6, and that is where he finished his day.

Leclerc’s dismal record in his home race has become something of F1 lore, even inspiring this book which was gifted to me by my good pal — and Ferrari fan — Michael Kist:

Is this the year Leclerc finally breaks through at home?

Or will another painful chapter be written in that above story?

2024’s second doubleheader

For the second time this season, the grid faces a quick turnaround.

The year began with a doubleheader, with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix following right on the heels of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. Now, the Monaco Grand Prix makes up the second half of the year’s second doubleheader, as there is little rest for the weary following Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Some teams, such as Williams, Sauber, and Alpine, may relish the idea of getting right back in the car following a tough weekend in Imola. But the quick turnaround does not give the drivers and the teams much time to sort out any problems coming out of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

And with Saturday being so critical to the weekend, they have even one less day to get things right.