By Carlo Platella
For the third time Charles Leclerc will start ahead of everyone on the home streets of Monaco, with the hope of finally being able to convert pole position into victory. The Monegasque and the Red were consistently the fastest on both days in the Principality, but There was no shortage of difficulties at the start of qualifying. The home idol will start ahead of Oscar Piastri with a McLaren surprised by a result that exceeds the expectations of the day before, with the awareness of a car that is still almost as capricious on the curbs as Red Bull.
Charles’ third pole
From the start of the weekend, Leclerc enjoyed immediate harmony with his SF-24, evident just a few minutes after the start of the first free practice. For the entire first day Ferrari and the Monegasque were “in a league of its own”, to quote Andrea Stella, showing off a superiority not at all affected by the 15°C more asphalt recorded on Saturday. The harmony between Leclerc and the Red team contrasts with the lack of confidence openly complained by Carlos Sainzreluctant to trust a rear lost on more than one occasion, a behavior favored by the poleman of the day.
Charles’s is the third pole position in four years on the streets of Monaco. The only exception is the last edition, where the home idol reported a clear worsening of the SF-23 in digesting curbs and depressions compared to the F1-75 of the previous year. The same aspect embodies instead the biggest improvement for the SF-24 at Monte Carloaccording to Leclerc himself, returning to savor some qualities appreciated with the 2022 Red. The excellent Kerb Riding of the SF-24, to put it in English, emerges from the excellent times printed in the central sector, but even more so from the narrower trajectories chosen at Rascasse, without fearing the dip at the entrance bypassed by the competition.
However, there was no shortage of difficulties on Saturday in Monegasque. In qualifying, as the cornering distances increase, on the city bumps the Ferrari started to take the wheels off the ground more than necessary, destabilizing a previously unstoppable Leclerc. However, small adjustments to the setup, above all a correction of the front wing flaps, were enough to crush the Red car to the ground again, allowing the number 16 to win the third pole position on home soil.
The Red Bull go-kart
Until the end, the possibility remained alive that Max Verstappen could once again straighten out a difficult weekend with his usual flair. However, the world champion hit the barriers on the outside of Saint Devote, precluding a possible front row, but for the whole weekend the Dutchman appeared to be struggling with his RB20. The Red Bull was the most competitive car on average in the first sector, confirming the notorious readiness of the front tires from the first metres. Even more, however, the good performance and aerodynamic balance of the package stands out, in a section dominated by medium-fast corners.
The problem for the RB20 in Monaco is rather of a mechanical nature, with behavior at the polar opposite of the Ferrari on curbs and dips, always ready to break down. “In the second sector we were in a bad situation, we couldn’t touch the curbs which immediately fell apart and we lost a lot of time”, says Verstappen. “We tried several things on the car, but nothing seemed to work. […] We tried to soften and stiffen, but the car was like a go-kartit jumped a lot, it didn’t absorb any curbs, bumps or changes in slope.”
“It’s a fundamental problem, It’s not something that can be fixed in a few weeks. First of all we need to understand what it is, if we knew we would have already solved it.” continues the world champion. “We have had this problem since 2022but in recent years we had such an advantage that it hid it a little.” In fact, since the advent of the new regulations, Red Bull has based the project on particularly rigid mechanics, useful for stabilizing the surface at constant heights from the ground to optimize its aerodynamic performance. Something which, if on average proves to be rewarding, ends up backfiring on citizens like Monaco, Singapore and potentially even Canada.
McLaren beyond expectations
Oscar Piastri will join Charles Leclerc in the front row. McLaren once again confirms the clear step forward in low speed corners, a chronic weak point for several years, with the improvements slightly to the detriment of performance in the fastest corners. “Looks like the car we took to Miami behaves better at low speedsperhaps even beyond expectations,” explains Andrea Stella. “Here in Monaco the sector where we struggled the most is the first, where the slowest corner is the first at 130 km/h. It is therefore a medium-high speed sector.”
“The picture of our competitiveness is starting to change and slow is no longer a clear weakness,” adds the Team Principal. However, there is no shortage of areas to work on, including the digestion of curbs and bumps, a quality also in this case envied by Ferrari. Stella continues: “We don’t seem to achieve the same behavior over bumps and curbs as other cars. Our drivers were clear that other cars can attack curbs more easily and on a track like this it makes quite the difference”.
The Woking team, however, enjoys a result in qualifying that keeps the hope of victory open, in a race where tire wear appears to be higher than usual, making the pit stop phases less obvious. More importantly though, McLaren reinforces the belief that they have it in their hands a package capable of playing its cards on every trackputting further pressure on Ferrari and Red Bull.
