F1 heads to the Monaco Grand Prix for its second stop during this triple header. After his race win in Imola, Max Verstappen closes the gap to the McLaren drivers. The top three drivers are within one race win’s worth of points — one DNF could change the entire complexion of the championship.
Home race woes
The 2025 season has not been kind to its hometown heroes. McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s only non-podium finish this season came at his home race, where a mistake saw him fall from P2 to P9. Jack Doohan was also unfortunate in Australia, crashing on the first lap. In Japan, Yuki Tsunoda failed to score points on his debut for Red Bull. Last race, rookie Kimi Antonelli DNFed in front of his home crowd.
The Monaco Grand Prix is Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc’s home race. Leclerc’s home race luck consists of DNFs, crashes, and poor strategy calls. Last year, Leclerc finally scored his maiden home race win after six years in F1. Will he be able to do it again?
The track
Circuit de Monaco is a classic street circuit and quintessential Formula 1, with its inaugural race hosted in 1950. The F1 Monaco Grand Prix is a part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport alongside the Indy500 — which is occurring on the same weekend — and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Ayrton Senna currently holds the record for most wins around this track. The circuit is 3.337km in length with 19 corners, with one short straight and one DRS zone.
What happened last year at the F1 Monaco GP?
Charles Leclerc broke the infamous “Monaco curse,” scoring a maiden win at his home race. Oscar Piastri finished in P2 ahead of Carlos Sainz in P3. History was made this race, but not for the reasons you might expect — the 2024 Monaco GP marked the first time the top 10 drivers in qualifying finished a race in the exact same order.
How did this happen?
Lap 1 chaos causes red flag
On Lap 1, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen started drifting towards Sergio Perez’s racing line. Magnussen and Perez made contact and veered into Nico Hulkenberg, who was trying to pass the collision. Stewards called a red flag, and the three drivers were taken out of the race.
At the same time, Piastri and Sainz made contact while fighting for P2, causing Sainz to puncture a tyre and run wide. He dropped from P3 to P16.
The Alpine drivers also made contact, with Esteban Ocon attempting an overtake on teammate Pierre Gasly. Ocon was forced to retire as his car received damage from lurching into the air. Gasly also punctured a tyre.
Sauber driver Zhou Guanyu started at the back of the grid and made his was slowly past the damaged Haas and Red Bull cars. Since he had not passed the first timing sector before the race was suspended, the grid reset on the restart. Sainz and Gasly benefitted from changing tyres under the red flag and resuming their initial starting position.
Monaco pitstop controversy
Many drivers benefitted from the red flag, which allowed them to complete their mandatory pitstop without losing track position during the race. Because of this, the race became a tyre management game, with drivers going a slow as possible to prevent a second pitstop. Hence, we had the top 10 drivers remain in the same position.
To prevent this from happening again, the FIA changed the sporting regulations to make the 2025 Monaco GP a mandatory two-stop race. Hopefully, this will lead to a more interesting race than we saw last season.
2025 F1 Monaco Grand Prix Schedule (Track Time)
Free Practice 1: 1:30-2:30pm CEST
Practice 2: 5:00-6:00pm CEST
Practice 3: 12:30-1:30pm CEST
Qualifying: 4:00-5:00pm CEST
Race: 3:00pm CEST
Tune in to see if Leclerc can score a second home race win, or if the mandatory two-stop can spice up a race that’s typically decided on Saturday.
