Adam Cooper F1

Sainz was able to reclaim his third place for the restart in Monaco

Lando Norris says that the red flag reprieve for Carlos Sainz after his first lap incident in Monaco was “frustrating and unfair”.

Norris was the main beneficiary when Sainz stopped at Casino Square with a puncture after contact with Oscar Piastri at the first corner, moving up from fourth to third.

The Spaniard resumed with only Zhou Guanyu – who had to thread his way through the aftermath of the Sergio Perez/Kevin Magnussen accident – behind him.

The red flag then came out, and after the timekeepers and FIA reviewed the situation it was decided to take the restart order with Sainz still in third place.

That demoted Norris to his original fourth, where he would stay for the duration of a race that saw most drivers running non-stop after taking a free tyre change at the red flag.

“It’s always fun to drive around here, but at the same time there’s just nothing you can do,” said Norris when asked by this writer about his race. 

“Especially with the red flag at the beginning, I think that ruined any other opportunities that might have come our way with strategy and tyre saving and stuff like that.

“A bit of a shame, and even Carlos got quite lucky there was a red flag, because he was out, or last, and that was his own fault. But yeah, for him to get back was obviously annoying, because it put me back down to fourth.

“You win some and lose some in those situations. A red flag, sometimes it helps you out, sometimes it hurts you a bit. Today, we lost out from it. And Carlos was the lucky one.

“But otherwise just nothing you could do, because there were no pitstops, nothing, it was just driving slowly until the end.”

Norris accepted that nothing can be done about the red flag situation, given that the provision for a free tyre change has been in place for many years.

“That’s the rules,” he said. “It’s the same as Pierre’s win back when he won [at Monza in 2020]. He won because he got a free pitstop onto some different tyres. So, unless you want to say you’re taking that win away from him all of a sudden, it’s the same situation.

“I guess this one was more that he made a mistake himself, he ran into Oscar [Piastri], and gave himself a puncture.

“So just very lucky. I don’t think it’s the most fair thing, but I’m sure there’s been moments in the past when maybe I’ve been fortunate from it, and they fixed the car a little bit, or something like that.

“So when you think of it in just a blunt way, it is frustrating and unfair, because someone makes a mistake and because of a certain amount of cars or whatever the rule is didn’t cross the line before the red flag, and blah, blah, that he gets to undo that mistake, and gets a free pitstop.

“But this is not my job. I just drive cars. I don’t like doing all of these rules, things like that’s not what I’m here for.”

During the race Max Verstappen called the race boring and wished he had brought his pillow. Norris agreed that it was not an exciting event from where he was sitting.

“To be honest, the red flag made everything more simple and less action-packed than it ever would have been,” he said. “I think there would have been at least some kind of [action] at the pitstops, and see what things might happen then, and at least you’re judging tyre wear and all of these things to that point.

“But the fact we lost the only opportunity in a Monaco race that something might happen, then it kind of throws any fun out the window, or any action out of the windows. You’re still mentally driving hard, and you’re still doing everything you can to save the tyres here, and do this and that, and be close when opportunities arise.

“Max is always just very honest in his opinions of things! But it’s clear, and I can happily say it’s not the most exciting race and you’re just kind of driving around in no-man’s land doing nothing.

“You don’t feel like there’s a lot of things to target, or aim for on a day like today. But it’s also how it’s always been.”

Russell finished fifth in Monaco after the red flag spoiled his strategy

George Russell thought he had a shot at a podium finish in the Formula 1 Monaco GP before the early red flag ensured that it would be a race of no pit stops for most drivers.

Russell qualified fifth and went to the grid on the hard tyre with a view to running a long first stint, while all those ahead were on the medium.

That gave him some encouragement, and when Carlos Sainz stopped at Casino on the first lap he moved up to fourth.

However the red flag for the Perez/Magnussen incident gave everyone a free tyre change, and obliged Russell to make his mediums last the distance.

With Sainz regaining his third place for the restart Russell eventually finished where he started in fifth, having held off Max Verstappen.

“Yeah, definitely felt like I had it covered,” he said. “I really thought we were in for a good shot today when I saw everyone starting on the mediums in front of me.

“And especially when Carlos had that puncture, I thought we’ve got a minimum chance to fight for the podium here, and maybe even more.

“We were going to play a bit of a team game to boost our chances. As soon as that red flag went out, everything went out of the window.”

Russell was told early on in the race to slow his pace, essentially to preserve the medium tyres fitted after the red flag for the 77-lap run to the flag. While he initially questioned the decision, he accepted it.

“No, it was definitely the right call,” he said when asked by this writer if it was the correct strategy. “We all know how difficult it is to pass here in Monaco, there was nothing to gain by going faster.

“But actually when I looked at the pace at the end, I think the gap was up to 30 seconds behind Charles at one point, and then we brought it down to 12 seconds, and only four seconds behind the McLaren. So yeah, a lot of positives to take away.”

Like other drivers Russell said that changes should be made to make the Monaco GP more entertaining.

“It’s so great racing here in Monaco, but we need to change something to make it more interesting on a Sunday.

“I think if we only brought soft tyres, a soft tyre wouldn’t last the whole race. And you may even need to do two stops, somebody might try a one-stop. I think just having the whole weekend on softs would solve a lot of problems.”

Max Verstappen that the Red Bull team has been “found out” as an increasingly strong threat from Ferrari and McLaren has highlighted the weaknesses of the RB20.

Verstappen said that the car felt like it was running without suspension and acting like a go-kart on Monaco’s bumps and kerbs.

He struggled throughout qualifying and could not better P6, having touched the wall on his final run. His team mate Sergio Perez failed to get out of Q1 and was left stranded in 18^th place.

Verstappen admitted that it has been a difficult day, with changes failing to improve the situation.

“We tried a lot of things on the car,” he said. “Literally, nothing made it better. So then you’re just stuck. There’s not much you can do. We really tried to optimise it.

“You can see it in the second sector, we are so bad, just because I can’t touch any kerbs, because it just upsets the car way too much. You just lose a lot of lap time. And it’s just incredibly difficult.

“We went softer, stiffer, everything. But the car is like a go-kart, it’s like I’m running without suspension.

“So it’s just jumping around a lot. Not absorbing any kerb strikes or bumps or camber changes. The last corner, I think the amount of times that I just jumped almost into the wall, just pretty incredible.

“It’s also not something new. I mean, we have had this problem since 2022. Of course, for the last two years, I think we had a car advantage, so then it gets it gets masked a little bit, because we gain into corners where the kerbs and the bumps are not that much of a limitation.

“But with everyone catching up naturally, when you are not improving your weakest point you get found out. That’s what happened this weekend.”

Verstappen admitted that life has become tougher for Red Bull as rival teams have caught up and pushed the world champions harder.

“It’s been different problems,” he said. “Probably in Miami we didn’t get the balance correct. And maybe also with the tyres.

“At Imola I think we managed to turn it around quite well. But because of all the problems, we were probably not on top of the hard tyre.

“But overall, the performance was quite okay. But I knew that this was going to be one of our most difficult weekends, and for sure it showed that as well with naturally everyone catching up as well.

“I’m just aware we are not perfect, and we need to work, we need to really understand our limitations more, and try to work on that.”

Verstappen indicated that the issues seen in Monaco will not be addressed in the short-term: “It’s a fundamental problem. So it’s not something that will be fixed within weeks.

“Already the last two or three races, of course, it has been incredibly difficult. But yeah, this is worst case scenario, I would say, this this kind of track.”

Verstappen said that the car felt Ok at some points around the lap.

“I felt quite comfortable in terms of, let’s say, medium-to-high speed, the car is quite quick, but everywhere where there are bumps, it was just jumping around a lot.

“So I’m just driving around that, and trying to optimise everything, but everything was just really difficult to control. So I was surprised for most of qualifying that we were actually that close.

“I guess some didn’t nail the lap yet or whatever. But it’s always if, if, if. You can always do better. I’m not disappointed with my laps, or trying to even improve more, because just look at where we are, we are P18 and P6. Normally Checo is always very good around a street circuit and he really comes alive there.

“I think that already says enough that he is in that position. So I cannot be disappointed with P6 in that sense.”

Asked about the title battle he said: “I don’t even think about that. You know, it’s so long. So many things that can happen and one bad race won’t define the championship. But I know that to win a title, you need to be consistent, and that’s what we have to try and be.”

Lewis Hamilton was fast on Friday but the team may make compromises

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff admits that team will probably have to compromise qualifying pace in Monaco in order to make the W15 a more raceable car on Sunday.

The Brackley outfit had a good Friday in the principality, with Lewis Hamilton topping FP1, when the team used new softs as it feared rain in the afternoon, and taking second place to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in FP2.

Meanwhile his team-mate George Russell was third in the first session and 10^th in the second after suffering a steering issue.

However while Hamilton’s one-lap pace was encouraging for a team that has endured a difficult season thus far the performance quickly fell away over a longer run, and that will probably mean overnight set-up changes that could impact the car’s potential in qualifying.

“On a single lap it was good, the car is good,” Wolff told this writer. “On a long run, it was less so. I think after lap six, seven we really lost the front.

“And then if you can’t get the car into the corner any more, then the Sunday could be pretty grim. So we need to find a compromise.”

Asked if potentially dialling out one-lap performance would be frustrating he said: “It could be, but we’ve got to see. Single lap is better than we thought. But you always need to obviously find a compromise.”

Hamilton said it had been a positive day, while conceding that the team had to do work to reduce graining.

“It’s been a good day, probably the best we’ve had so far this year, and the car is feeling very positive,” he said. This track is just amazing in an F1 car, and I’ve been enjoying my driving today – I was pleasantly surprised by the grip level and the way the car was responding, which made it a much more enjoyable ride than the last two years. 

“In the second session, it felt a bit less comfortable, and we’ve got lots of work to do overnight to improve the long runs and the front graining. It was a feeling positive on the lower fuel, and we don’t want to lose that, but our focus now is to improve on the long run.”

Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin noted: “Our long run needs some work as we’ve got to be a bit kinder on the front tyres on Sunday but we’ve got some options for that.”

Meanwhile Red Bull Racing also had issues that will require overnight changes, with Max Verstappen complaining of poor performance over the bumps and saying that he had a headache, and Sergio Perez noting that he couldn’t see at some points on the circuit.

Verstappen was still fourth in FP2, albeit 0.535s off pacesetter Leclerc, while Perez was eighth. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko admitted that the team has work to do.

“It shows that we are too stiff,” he told this writer. “To identify it is simple, but to cure it is not so simple.

“We had very good long run times, which doesn’t help here if you cannot start in the front. But we get an idea where we have to make our changes.”