Aussie watch ahead of the F1® Monaco Grand Prix 2024
Matt Clayton
Thursday, 23 May 2024
There’s nothing quite like Monaco and Formula 1® – and the final weekend in May brings together a track of the past with the machinery of the present, a combination four Aussies will be looking to capitalise on.
The jewel in Formula 1’s crown, the must-see race of the year, an event that demands a calendar slot in perpetuity.
An anachronism, a high-speed procession, and a two-hour traffic jam.
They’re all acceptable definitions of the Monaco Grand Prix (May 24-26), with the 81st running of the event around the Monte Carlo streets set for round eight of the season this weekend.
Five of this year’s grid has saluted from the sport’s most unique podium before, including – memorably – Daniel Ricciardo back in 2018 for Red Bull Racing, when the Australian atoned for the one that famously got away two years earlier.
Ricciardo is one of four Aussies in action this weekend – FIA Formula 3® is back on track with Christian Mansell and Tommy Smith, too – so here’s what we’re watching.
Ricciardo on the brink …
No, not that brink – Ricciardo’s plans post-2024 aren’t sorted yet and won’t be until Red Bull Racing decides the future of 2022 Monaco victor Sergio Perez – but the past three rounds have suggested a complete weekend for the RB driver is more imminent than fanciful in a season where he’s still yet to score a point in a Grand Prix.
Ricciardo outqualified teammate Yuki Tsunoda and was running inside the top 10 before Lance Stroll used his Aston Martin as a battering ram in China, then had a superb Saturday followed by a shocking Sunday in Florida. Then came Imola last weekend, where all the promise of a first Q3 appearance of the season was lost within seconds when his (and Tsunoda’s) RB machines went nowhere off the line at the start, Ricciardo falling out of the top 10 and not making it back at a track where passing chances are few.
Another start like that at Monaco – speaking of circuits where it’s hard to overtake – and Ricciardo may as well head home to his apartment near the track for an early shower. He’s not scored a point in The Principality since – remarkably – 2019, but four of his 32 podiums have been earned in Monaco, making it his equal-best circuit for top-three finishes with Singapore.
Piastri due some good fortune
In an adjacent universe, Oscar Piastri could have already surpassed his podium trophy collection from last year (two) in the first seven rounds heading into Monaco. Fourth in Saudi Arabia and Australia, the McLaren driver was one spot shy of the rostrum’s bottom rung again at Imola, six seconds behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the end of 63 rapid, yet unfulfilling, laps.
Piastri has had pace but zero luck of late – he was ahead of teammate Lando Norris and in podium contention in Miami before being hit by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and dropping to the back, while a front-row start became fifth at Imola after he was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Kevin Magnussen’s Haas in qualifying. Finishing 13th and fourth in a pair of races where he had Norris’ measure either in the race or qualifying – and watching the Briton finish first and second – made smiling for the obligatory team podium-finish photo a little harder than usual.
The 23-year-old grabbed a point for 10th place in his Monaco F1® debut last year, but that was when McLaren was struggling in the early part of the campaign, not the front-running force it has become since the mid-point of 2023. Both Norris and Piastri were lapped by race-winner Max Verstappen in Monaco last May; if you had to select a team primed to upset Red Bull this weekend, McLaren would be your first or second pick.
Leclerc’s love-hate homecoming
It’s been a methodical season for Ferrari star Charles Leclerc so far in 2024, one where headlines have been eschewed for consistency. In seven Grands Prix, Leclerc hasn’t looked like winning a single one – yet he’s second in the world championship standings after finishing every race inside the top four.
The Monegasque – one of five drivers in the sport’s history to count its signature circuit as a home track – has endured a putrid time of it in his own backyard since his 2018 debut. From sitting out the end of Q1 to save tyres before being eliminated in 2019 to damaging his chassis and not racing after crashing when taking pole in 2021, from a Ferrari strategy blunder denying him a podium from pole a year later to last year’s non-descript run to sixth – Monaco often feels like it should be Leclerc’s race to lose, and he somehow manages to.
A good sign for Leclerc this weekend? Ferrari’s engine, which often runs out of puff at absolute top speed on some of the calendar’s longest straights, won’t be an impediment in Monaco. The Ferrari powerplant’s signature characteristic – instant response and great initial acceleration out of low-speed corners – could be a huge positive at a circuit where seven of the 19 turns are taken at less than 100km/h.
The Formula 1® Monaco Grand Prix 2024 will be available to watch live on Foxtel and Kayo. See our article What time does the F1® Monaco Grand Prix 2024 start for Australians? for your local timings.
