Sergio 'Checo' Perez delighted with his Monaco victory. Photo / Supplied
Don Kennedy on Formula One
It should have been a Ferrari one-two in the Monaco Grand Prix but instead, it was a one-three for Red Bull, with Sergio Perez taking his third F1 victory, and possibly the one he will remember the most.
A week earlier, Perez had questioned his team about team orders it imposed to ensure a race victory in Spain for his teammate and championship leader, Max Verstappen.
But in the end, he accepted he was on a different race strategy to Verstappen and was informed he would get his chance later in the season.
He obviously wasn't prepared to wait long, because he started third on the grid in Monaco, ahead of Verstappen, and due to the wet weather and a Ferrari botch-up on strategy, Perez was able to get ahead of pole-sitter Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari, and Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari, to take a popular win that will make Perez even more famous in his home country of Mexico.
"It's a dream come true," Perez told interviewer David Coulthard, after embracing his team members in parc ferme.
"As a driver, you dream of winning here. After your home race, there is no more special weekend to win. To do it, and the way we did it… we just made it a bit harder for ourselves at the end," referring to his mistake in flat-spotting his tyres when trying to stay ahead of Sainz.
Those words from Perez will resonate in Leclerc's mind like a bad dream. If anyone has dreamed of winning his home race and the race known as the "jewel in the crown", it is Leclerc who was born in Monte Carlo and as a child caught a bus to school near the street circuit.
Everything had gone well for him in the build-up to the race, the start of which was delayed due to the wet weather. All the drivers started on full wet tyres, but it soon became apparent that different strategies would come into play as the rain stopped and cars began to pit for intermediate tyres.
And it was at that point that Ferrari got it all wrong, as they decided to pit Leclerc for intermediate tyres rather that waiting for Red Bull to make the first move.
Whereas Leclerc was switched to intermediate tyres, Sainz, Perez and Verstappen stayed out long, but when they pitted it was for slick tyres. Leclerc had to make a second stop, dropping him to fourth place where he stayed until the end of the race. Instead of the usual undercut tactic on pit stops, Red Bull went for the overcut, pitting a lap after the Ferraris.
As a result, they came out of the pits with Perez ahead of Sainz, and Verstappen ahead of Leclerc. Given overtaking on the track is almost impossible, it was job done. For Leclerc, who had to retire from a commanding lead in the Spanish GP a week earlier, this was more pain, given he led more than half the race.
With 15 minutes to go in the race, and with Perez hanging onto the lead despite obvious front tyre wear, Leclerc's frustration began to spill over when his race engineer tried to give him some information on the team car radio.
"I don't need the feedback," he said. "I won't be able to overtake anyway. It's okay."
But of course, it wasn't okay, and it was hardly a Kimi Raikkonen "leave me alone, I know what I'm doing" moment, either. When he crossed the finish line in 4th place, Leclerc couldn't hide his disappointment.
"No words. The season is long, but we cannot do that," Leclerc said, meaning the botched pit strategy.
"Let down is not the word. Sometimes mistakes can happen, but there have been too many mistakes today overall," he told Sky F1.
"Obviously in those conditions you rely a bit on what the team can see because you don't see what the others are doing with intermediates, with dry tyres. I've been asked questions whether I wanted to go from extreme wets to slicks and I said yes, but not now. But I don't understand what made us change our mind and go on the intermediates. We got undercut and I stopped behind Carlos."
"We cannot do that-especially in the moment we are in now. We are extremely strong, our pace is strong. We need to take those… we cannot lose so many points like this. I love my team and I'm sure that we will come back stronger, but it hurts a lot."
For Sainz, this was his fourth podium of the season and 10th overall, but a race win after 147 F1 starts, still eludes him.
"It's bittersweet, especially because I was leading the race before the pit stop," Sainz said. "After the pit stop, I had a terrible out-lap behind a lapped car. It cost me a couple of seconds of race time that was enough for Checo to jump me. The race win was there but unfortunately, these things happen around Monaco."
Verstappen by finishing third has extended his championship lead over Leclerc to nine points, which is only a small margin, but given Verstappen was expecting Leclerc to win the race, having him finish behind him will be a bonus.
As Sky F1 guest commentator Nico Rosberg, a three-time Monaco winner, observed, Verstappen had been slightly off the pace all weekend, and Verstappen confirmed that with his post-race comments.
"I didn't have a great feeling in the car initially but it's also still a new car and very different to set up than the old cars," he explained. "I like a lot of front grip which I don't really have at the moment, well, sometimes, and around here front grip is very important. But I think we recovered well and you have to accept sometimes when it is not your weekend."
This was essentially a race between Ferrari and Red Bull, as they distanced the rest of the field, with George Russell in the Mercedes best of the rest in 5th place. Then came Lando Norris in the McLaren, Fernando Alonso in the Alpine and Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes. The latter was clearly frustrated being stuck behind Alonso, and he must have been having flashbacks to Hungary last year when he was stuck behind Alonso for 10 laps. Alonso was going 3 seconds a lap slower than he could have gone, looking after his tyres. Planet F1 tweeted: "All aboard the Fernando Alonso train # MonacoGP#F1."
In the first half of the race, Hamilton was stuck behind Alonso's teammate, Esteban Ocon, and made contact with him when he tried to pass the Frenchman, who the stewards deemed guilty of causing a collision even though Hamilton only had minor front left-wing damage. Ocon was given a 5 second time penalty for that, so although he crossed the finish line in 9th place, with the penalty he dropped to 11th place.
Hamilton was asked if he could have done anything to get by Alonso.
"I don't… honestly, I've not seen what was possible, but it definitely didn't help being stuck behind both," referring to the Alpines.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said Alonso was driving at F2 pace, but Alonso, who has been unlucky with reliability issues and questionable penalties in the first six races, fended off the criticism and was not apologising for going so slow and collecting 8 points.
"We had to do a lot of tyre management," Alonso explained. "After that I pushed again when they told me Esteban had to make a 5-second gap, but at that point Hamilton didn't want to push, held Esteban at the back… yeah, disappointing."
Mick Schumacher in the Haas had a huge shunt midway through the race that brought out the safety car. He lost control through the swimming pool area of the track, and the impact with the barriers split the car in half, but he was able to clamber out, feeling alright but annoyed, because he felt the car had good pace.
Probably too much it seems. Those first points in F1 continue to elude the son of seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, and although his name has been mentioned as a possible replacement for the struggling Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren, if he keeps having crashes like this one, and the one he had in Saudi Arabia, he will struggle to retain his Haas drive, yet alone pick up a drive elsewhere.
On the subject of drivers looking for a drive for next year, race winner Perez does not yet have a Red Bull contract for 2023. It should be a formality given Perez is only 15 points behind Verstappen, and six behind Leclerc, in the championship. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner seems to agree, noting what Perez has to achieve to retain his seat.
"He just needs to keep doing what he's doing," Horner said.
"He's doing a great job, we are very happy with him. He's driven extremely well so far this year."
"The delta between him and Max, as you know, has diminished significantly compared to last year. I think he's happier in the car. He's achieved that fantastic pole in Jeddah this year. He's driven some great races and is a team player. I don't think there's anyone better in the pit lane. So, he's doing a great job, he needs to keep doing what he's doing and then talks should hopefully be reasonably straightforward," Horner added.
There was an unfortunate protest to the FIA by Ferrari against both Red Bull drivers after the race, alleging they had crossed the yellow line on the pit-lane exit and should have been penalised, but the stewards ruled the grounds were "unfounded".
Ferrari would do better to concentrate on improving their race strategy, because they should have finished 1-2 in this race, and failed.
It has been 15 years since Ferrari last won the drivers' championship, and this year they've made a promising start to turn their fortunes around. But if they keep on making mistakes like they made in Monaco, achieving that next championship will remain a forlorn task.
- Sources; Red Bull Racing; F1.Com