2023 Monaco Heroes and Zeroes

[Alianora La Canta]

Heroes

Ocon - any list of this race without him would be incomplete. That Alpine does not belong there, but he did a pearl of a qualification lap, converted the start well, defended against Sainz resolutely and handled the rain with brio. Plus he celebrated like he won, which is pleasing to see.

Alonso - the only mistake he made all weekend was in Max Verstappen's post-race interviews, when he nearly forgot to hug some of the mechanics and their reaction was audible even over the interview. Other than that, pushed Max as well as the Aston will let him and at times gave him something to think about.

Verstappen - parts of his weekend were scruffy, but he knew his car could take it. He could probably have won on cruise and collect given how much better the Red Bull was in the rain than the Aston Martin, but he chose to take risks and make it more exciting, and I want to give him credit for that.

Honourable mention: Tsunoda - This was more for one moment than for the weekend as a whole. However, when he rejoined after spinning, he avoided what could have been a terrible accident by being very careful and making sure the quartet behind him were through before getting going.

Second honourable mention: The marshals. It was remarkable how they managed to keep the race moving despite many challenges.


Zeroes:

The Ferrari communication system: When Leclerc defends his race engineer by saying he has 40 people talking to him, the correct response is to reduce the number of people talking to one person - any one person - and then ask what possessed them to think this was a good system. Not give another demonstration of why nobody should be expected to worry about listening to that many people at the same time unless they're a professional sound mixer. Because listening to that many people tends to result in running out of sensory cognitive room, which would explain why Xavi was talking about Verstappen's (admittedly fantastic) lap instead of being the spotter expected by the regulations. I think this cost Ferrari a podium.

While I don't think Sainz was seriously on for a podium in the race, he might have been less stressed going into the wet part of the race had Ferrari not claimed twice that he was being pitted to overtake Ocon. Not only was he not pitted (due to a bluff that Ferrari was lucky did not result in a penalty being issued for repeated inexplicable fake-pitting), but this fooled Sainz into thinking Ocon was his true target instead of Hamilton.

(Come to think of it, this would explain why the Ferrari race engineers have lasted so long - the drivers are probably so grateful about being protected from most of this communication carambolage that they are willing to overlook shortcomings in other areas of their practice).

Stroll - At one point, I said "Please can someone park Lance Stroll?" (This is a particularly harsh observation given that the person saying it is an Aston Martin fan). I think he took damage off crashes to 4 different cars (in 7 different impacts) and it was mildly surprising he made it as far as he did. Less surprising, given his form earlier in the race, that the rain ended his race.

Perez - Dad's reply was "Park him next to Checo Perez". He's lower on this list purely because he had fewer crashes (albeit most of his were more visually memorable). While I don't think he would ever have been allowed to take the 2023 title, it seems unlikely that he will be able to make a meaninful enough challenge now for more than minor intervention to be necessary to cement this.

Dishonourable mention - Sainz. He was lucky not to get an orange-and-black flag after ramming Ocon's car during a move that had no chance of working, was lucky not to crash again after some strange driving during lapping procedures and then shot down the escape road due to waiting so long for tyres. (Granted that the waiting so long was probably due to the communication pathways in Ferrari being so poor, but he'd been having so much trouble throughout the previous lap that it was patently obvious he needed to overrule the team and insist on stopping).

Second dishonourable mention: The journalists who kept trying to treat the ridiculous rumour about Hamilton going to Ferrari as if it were a done deal. Some people spend too long listening to Helmut Marko.

[Jericoke]

Over all, I feel it was a relatively exciting race.  We all know that qualifying order is important in Monaco.  Even without the rain, there was action on the track, some fighting, even if we weren't really going to be getting much passing.

I also feel that the modern gigantic F1 cars don't really get to stretch out at Monaco, meaning the driver means more to the results than the car (to a degree) than most other tracks, which means I think the midfield sorted out as a better evaluation of the drivers' relative skills.

Heroes

Russel had a great race, with a colossal blunder, I feel like 5 seconds for spearing into Perez was a light penalty.  I haven't seen enough replays to know what George could reasonably see, and aside from that, he drove well.

Hamilton had a good weekend.  As I said above, the car was less important than normal, and Hamilton had a great weekend.

Zeroes

Hulkenberg definitely was as dangerous as the rain out there.  (Mini hero for Haas making an indestructible F1 car?)

Perez gained a place by cutting a chicane, but received no penalty when his car was knocked back through other actions.  That was weird.

[Willy]

I always look forward to Monaco, but it usually just ends up being a boring procession.
It is all about where you qualify and if that does not go well, then you might as well relax and just enjoy the ride as you are not going to pass your way to the podium.

Today's heavier and much longer cars do not fit well around the tightness of Monaco.
And this has stopped passing in sections that historically had been used to advantage in the past.