The first Free Practice session of the Formula 1 TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco allowed Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), the title holder in the Principality, to show that he was perhaps in a position to fight for the win, although we’ll have to wait for Saturday afternoon’s qualifying to be sure. The Monegasque finished slightly ahead of Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Lando Norris (McLaren), thanks also to on-track traffic which prevented championship leader Oscar Piastri (McLaren) from completing a clear lap at the end of the session, on soft tyres.
This is already the 8th round (out of 24) of the 2025 season, and Leclerc was not very optimistic on Thursday at the FIA press conference. But it was as if the many F1 and Scuderia fans he met in the MGP Fan Zone on Friday morning had given last year’s winner a boost. He was the only driver to go under one minute and 12 seconds per lap, improving on Lewis Hamilton’s time of 1:12.169 in EL1 last year, in a Mercedes, by two tenths.
Sir Lewis changed teams this winter and spent a good part of FP1 searching for the limit, all over the circuit (9th of this session). At the top of the timesheet at the start of the session, he is aiming for an eighth podium in the Principality, like Ayrton Senna in another era. And at the end of the session, he treated the public at the Piscine to a superb jump, rally-style, after leaving the ideal trajectory at very high speed, in the corner of the famous swimming-pool. He then returned to the Ferrari pit to check that nothing was broken on his SF-25 which is clearly making progress.
Behind Charles and Max, the young father of Lily, Norris took 3rd place in this session, while team-mate Piastri, who deserved better, was blocked by a slower driver in his final attempt. As did a number of drivers, starting with Leclerc, who tore off his front left wing on the side of Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin at the start of the session, when the Canadian misunderstood what was going on at the Fairmont hairpin.
The big question this Friday is whether the Ferraris, in FP2 from 5pm, will be as convincing in race conditions as they have been so often since the start of the season. For the true level of performance, we’ll have to be patient and wait for qualifying on Saturday afternoon. As Max Verstappen said in the FIA press conference on Thursday: ‘Until we finish our very last lap in Q3, we won’t know where we stand with our car’. This is probably the case for all the drivers taking part in this Formula 1 TAG Heuer Monaco Grand Prix. Including both Ferrari drivers, of course…
📊 Here is your Top 3 from the first free practice session 🏎️
Fastest lap for Charles Leclerc 👊🇲🇨
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📊 Voici votre Top 3 de la première séance d’essais libres 🏎️
Temps le plus rapide pour Charles Leclerc 👊🇲🇨#MonacoGP #F1 #MonacoCircuit pic.twitter.com/yM92ef3efF
— Automobile Club de Monaco (@ACM_Media) May 23, 2025
Bulgaria’s Nikola Tsolov (Campos Racing) will start from pole position for the Formula 3 Feature Race of the Formula 1 TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco, on Sunday morning at 8.00am, after taking pole position on Friday morning in Group A qualifying, ahead of Spain’s Mari Boya, his team-mate at Campos. He will be joined on the front row by another driver from Eastern Europe, Poland’s Roman Bilinski (Rodin Motorsport), who set the fastest time of the 15 drivers in Group B just before midday, ahead of his British team-mate Callum Voisin.
Both sessions were briefly interrupted by red flags, but it was young Brando Badoer’s (Prema Racing) crash in Group B that had the most serious consequences for his rivals. With three minutes remaining in the session, the top drivers did come out of the pits for a last flying lap, but too late to do better than Tsolov in Group A.
On Sunday’s grid, the championship leader after six races, Brazilian Rafael Câmara, who has already won twice this season (in Melbourne and Bahrain), will be on the 4th row, on the side of the grid allocated to Group B, behind Roman Bilinski, Callum Voisin and a third driver to keep a close eye on, German Tim Tramnitz (MP Motorsport), currently 3rd in the championship.
Tramnitz will be joined on the 4th row by Charlie Wurz (Trident), who set the 4th fastest time in Group A. The young Austrian is the son of Alex Wurz, a former Benetton and Williams F1 driver (69 GPs contested, 3 podiums between 1997 and 2007).
Frenchman Giusti on pole for the Sprint Race
The good news for French fans is that they will see a French driver on pole position for Saturday’s Sprint Race, based on the principle of the inverted grid (for the top 12): Alessandro Giusti (MP Motorsport) was lucky enough to set the 6th fastest time in qualifying, in Group B, and will therefore be ideally placed to win this Sprint of 23 laps (or 40 minutes + 1 lap), on Saturday at 10.45 am.
On Sunday morning, the Feature Race will be contested over 27 laps (or 45 minutes + 1 lap). Tsolov will be on pole, with Bilinski alongside him, and another Frenchman, 17-year-old Théophile Naël (Van Amersfoort Racing), an F3 rookie, will start further back on the 12th row. It will be very early (8am). Time to wake up!
F3: Tsolov en pole positon https://t.co/8VSDrWlpc9#MonacoGP #F1 #MonacoCircuit pic.twitter.com/4HiWCUQTHs
— Automobile Club de Monaco (@ACM_Media) May 23, 2025
Saturday’s qualifying session was one of the main topics of this afternoon’s FIA press conference, with several drivers expressing their views in very precise and enthusiastic terms. Including four-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen, of course.
For Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing), who is aiming for a third win in the Principality, ‘we won’t know where we stand with the car until the last lap of Q3 late on Saturday afternoon. We’ve made a lot of progress since the start of the season and we’re learning every day in F1’. Red Bull made so much progress that Verstappen already won twice this year, in Japan and at Imola last week, on “two fast tracks”, Max underlined.
Also asked about the specific nature of the Monaco circuit, the young father of Lily, born last month, added that ‘the current F1 cars are really big, so it’s not easy. You never feel totally at ease in Monaco, and it’s very difficult to do a perfect lap in qualifying’. And his incredible lap in 2023, for a last minute pole position, ‘wasn’t the best of his life’, he judged, because he had missed the first two sectors.
Charles Leclerc (Scuderia Ferrari) was initially very measured in what he had to say, before offering a hopeful analysis for Ferrari, in response to a very pertinent question from a journalist: ‘In general, we are not good in slow corners, and in Monaco there are only slow corners. But as we don’t have to look for a compromise between slow corners and fast sections, on this circuit, perhaps we’ll find a set-up that suits us…’. All Scuderia fans hope so.
Hadjar pays tribute to Senna
‘This is the best qualifying session of the year,’ said Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls), as enthusiastic as ever despite never having driven in F1 at Monaco. But he really enjoyed his qualifying session last year in Formula 2 and should have won the race, which he led from start to finish, were it not for a premature pit stop by one of his rivals at the start of the race and a safety car that spoiled everything at the end. But Monaco remains a special place for him, as it was there that he signed his very first contract with Red Bull, ‘at the age of 16’, with Dr Helmut Marko who had spotted him, he recalled on Thursday. And to pay tribute to one of his childhood idols, Ayrton Senna, Isack has put all the Brazilian champion’s Monaco stats on his helmet for this very special round.
To spice up this Formula 1 TAG Heuer Monaco Grand Prix 2025 even more, the FIA has introduced a novelty, just for this race: all drivers will have to stop at least twice in the pits. But nobody knows what it will mean on the track, as everything will depend on whether the safety car comes out. ‘Either it will be straightforward, from start to finish, or it will be a lottery,’ said Charles Leclerc. As for Williams driver Alex Albon, he fears a manoeuvre between team-mates from the same team, which would allow one of them to block the pack while the other gets a ‘free stop’. Referring to the Haas drivers’ strategy during last year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix…
Pierre Gasly (Alpine) also spoke about the two stops and Alpine’s hopes on this circuit, which generally suits him, as he has already finished in the points five times in Monaco. He also spoke about Wednesday’s football match at Stade Louis II between the Barbaguians and the Nazionale Piloti, of which he was captain. He had very seriously considered a career as a footballer… ‘until the day I got into a go-kart’, he confided.
On Friday, two free practice sessions are on the menu, at 1.30pm and 5pm. The fans can’t wait…
Dutchman Robert de Haan, the designated successor to Larry ten Voorde, the now-retired master of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, left it to no-one else to set the fastest time in free practice late on Thursday afternoon in Monaco.
Best rookie of 2024, and rewarded with the number 1 on his pink Lechner Racing Porsche, de Haan beat two compatriots, Huun van Eijndhoven and Jaap van Lagen, followed by two Germans, Theo Oeverhaus and Alexander Tauscher, and another Dutch driver, Kas Haverkort.
Of the 28 drivers entered in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup this year, there are 7 Dutch and 6 Germans, but there are also 3 French drivers. In this first session, it was Marvin Klein, Robert de Haan’s new team-mate at Lechner Racing, who was the best, with the 8th fastest time of the day, ahead of Alessandro Ghiretti (Schumacher CLRT), 10th in the session, and Mathys Jaubert (Martinet by Alméras), 11th.
Qualifying is scheduled for Friday, between 18:45 and 19:15. This will mark the end of a marathon day, with seven sessions including two free practice sessions for the F1 cars and drivers, eagerly awaited by the thousands of fans who have come to the Principality for the Formula 1 TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco 2025.
📊 Résultats de la séance d’essais libres en Porsche Mobil1 Supercup #MonacoGP #F1 #PorscheMobil1Supercup #MonacoCircuit pic.twitter.com/d5etjrSsfP
— Automobile Club de Monaco (@ACM_Media) May 22, 2025
Frenchman Victor Martins (ART GP), a Formula 2 veteran at just 24 years of age, got his Monegasque weekend off to a flying start by setting the fastest time in free practice on Thursday afternoon (1:21.715). At the end of a very intense session, just like the Formula 3 session just before, interrupted ten minutes before the end by a red flag after Belgian driver Amaury Cordeel (Rodin Motorsport) went off the track at Sainte Dévote.
When the session resumed, the final laps completely changed the standings, except for Victor Martins who managed to improve his time again to finish six tenths ahead of Luke Browning (HiTech), currently 2nd in the championship, and one second ahead of Luca Fornaroli, 2024 Formula 3 champion and therefore a very promising rookie at this level.
A member of the Williams Driver Academy, Martins has often been at the front in F2 since his arrival in 2023, on the heels of an F3 championship title in 2022. But he accumulated a lot of bad luck, taking only 5th place in the championship in 2023 and 7th in 2024. As a result, he has seen several rivals move up to F1 this year, including his compatriot Isack Hadjar, now a very consistent driver at Racing Bulls, the Junior team for Red Bull.
The current championship leader, Ireland’s Alexander Dunne (Rodin Motorsport), could only manage 8th place in this session, behind Italy’s Gabriele Mini (Prema), a two-time F3 winner in Monaco and logically promoted to F2 this season. Mini set the 4th fastest time, ahead of Sweden’s Dino Beganovic (HiTech), another F2 debutant like himself.
F2 qualifying will take place on Friday, for two groups of 11 drivers, between 3.10 and 4.00 pm. This is between the two F1 free practice sessions, and there are still a few places available in the grandstands, at the ACM sales desks at Direction du Tourisme and in Rue Notari, close to the circuit.
📊 Results from the Free Practice session in F2
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📊 Résultat de la séance d’essais libres en F2 #MonacoGP #F1 #F2 #MonacoCircuit pic.twitter.com/WLIANuNVyz
— Automobile Club de Monaco (@ACM_Media) May 22, 2025
The one and only free practice session for Formula 3, early Thursday afternoon, got the 82nd edition of the Formula 1 TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco off to a good start, with a fierce battle right up to the end of the scheduled 45 minutes, and only one major interruption to the session (5 minutes) by a red flag, when Dane Noah Stromsted (Trident) hit the safety rail at Sainte-Dévote.
Far from dampening the spirits of the young F3 drivers, this run-off by the 2nd-placed driver in the championship after just six rounds spurred them on to give it their all in the final minutes of the session, which was run in the sunshine and in front of well-stocked grandstands, with a last-minute 30-euro grandstand prize for latecomers on Thursday morning.
When Stromsted crashed out, the Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM) marshals, as efficient as ever, evacuated his car in record time, and Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov Campos), on his final lap, stole the show from Germany’s Tim Tramnitz, currently 3rd in the championship. He set a best lap of 1:25.622 in his small but fast single-seater with a Red Bull livery.
The third driver in the session had a famous name: Charlie Wurz (Trident). He is none other than the son of Alex Wurz, the former Benetton and Williams F1 driver (69 GPs contested, 3 podiums between 1997 and 2007). Before and after F1, Alex won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in 1996 and 2009. He keeps a close eye on his son’s progress and, like many F1 drivers past and present, lives in Monaco.
Camara 4th
Much-anticipated Brazilian Rafael Camara (Trident) has already won twice this season, the Sunday morning feature races in Melbourne and Sakhir (Bahrain). He took 4th place in this inaugural session, very close to the top three, and took care to learn this track well, which he was discovering in an F3, like many other young drivers entered this year.
There are 30 young drivers registered for this 2025 edition, just twenty years after Lewis Hamilton’s victory in 2005. The two Frenchmen, Théophile Naël (Van Amersfoort) and Alessandro Giusti (MP Motorsport), were far from ridiculous. Naël, 17, finished in the Top 10 of this highly competitive session, and Giusti, 18, took 13th place. This augurs well for Friday’s qualifying session, which will take place in two groups of 15 drivers between 11am and midday.
📊 Results from the Free Practice session in F3 👀
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📊 Les résultats de la séance d’essais libre F3 👀#MonacoGP #F1 #F3 #MonacoCircuit pic.twitter.com/FpZJyaRx7P
— Automobile Club de Monaco (@ACM_Media) May 22, 2025
The Formula 1 TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco 2025 weekend really gets underway on Thursday afternoon with three 45-minute free practice sessions for the support races: FIA Formula 3 at 1:10pm, Formula 2 at 3pm and Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup at 4:30pm, to round off a first day with still a few grandstand seats available, for 30 euros only.
F2: Dunne and Browning lead the way
Alexander Dunne (Rodin Motorsport) and Luke Browning (HiTech) lead the Formula 2 field arriving in Monaco, having taken the first two spots in the feature race at Imola last Sunday, and the big points that went with them. The provisional podium is completed by 24-year-old “veteran” Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport), who also won a feature race, in Jeddah. Dunne is the only one to have already won twice, in seven races, since the feature race on Sunday morning in Australia was cancelled due to bad weather. And there have been six different winners, including Joshua Dürksen (Aix Racing) and Josep Maria Marti (Campos Racing), who arrived from F3 and is closely followed by Red Bull, same as 17-year-old Arvid Lindblad (Campos).
So there are plenty of title contenders in a rejuvenated field, as six F2 drivers from last year have been promoted to F1 as fully-fledged regulars. These include the top two finishers in the 2024 championship, Brazil’s Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) and France’s Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls), as well as 18-year-old Italian prodigy Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), who has only spent one full season in F2 (2 wins, 6th in the championship). Frenchmen Victor Martins (ART GP) and Sami Meguetounif (Trident), already seen here last year in F3, will be able to gauge their ambitions during free practice this Thursday.
F3: rookie Camara already in front
Just 20 years after Lewis Hamilton’s victory in 2005, a new motorsport hopeful may be burning up the track. Brazilian rookie Rafael Camara (Trident) won two feature races, the Sunday morning ones in Melbourne and Sakhir, and took points in the other one, but no point in the sprint races. He managed to open up a 21-point gap over Denmark’s Noah Stormsted (Trident), closely followed in the standings by Germany’s Tim Tranmitz. Camara, 20 at the beginning of May, seems the most serious candidate for the title in his first F3 season. He has a wealth of experience in single-seaters, after brilliant results in karting, and has contested an astronomical number of races over the last three years: 48 in Formula 4 in 2022 (Germany, Italy, Emirates), with team-mate Kimi Antonelli, and 70 races in Formula Regional Europe and the Middle East over the last two seasons. A frequent winner (20 successes) and consistently placed (52 podiums), he has the ideal profile to dominate F3, in Monaco too…
Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup: time for the youngsters!
The Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup is a highly spectacular category, the one and only top-of-the-range single-brand series to be run as a curtain-raiser to eight European Formula 1 Grands Prix. The soap opera will continue until Monza at the beginning of September, with new headliners as three-time champion Larry ten Voorde retired at the end of 2024. To ensure his succession, Lechner Racing is counting on compatriot Robert de Haan, best rookie of 2024, and Frenchman Marvin Klein. As for the French Schumacher CLRT team, 2024 champions with ten Voorde, they are still counting on Alessandro Ghiretti, now their top driver. And three cars are entered by another French team, Team Martinet by Alméras, including that of Mathys Jaubert. Engines.
The paddocks for the Support Races are easy to access and you can meet drivers easily there. You just need to walk…
Paddock Formula 2: Parking du Chemin des Pêcheurs, at the end of the Rock, just under the Old Town
(accessible in 10 minutes maximum, walking from the MGP Fan Zone)
Paddock Formula 3: Parking of the Monte-Carlo Country Club (tennis club, East of the Principality, a 20 to 30 minutes walk from the MGP Fan Zone)
Paddock of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup: Chapiteau de l’Espace Fontvieille (the same as for the Festival du Cirque de Monte-Carlo)
A few places left!
There are still seats available in the grandstands for Thursday, at the one and only price of 30 euros. You will be able to find them at the usual sales points near the track, at Direction du Tourisme & Rue Notari.
In one year, everything has changed. McLaren, the Constructors’ World Champion at the end of 2024, has become the team to beat, having won five of the first seven Grands Prix in 2025, four of them thanks to the sheer talent of championship leader Oscar Piastri. And Max Verstappen, the four-time reigning Drivers’ World Champion, is no more than an outsider… at a very high level, since he managed to win twice, in Japan and at Imola, in his Red Bull. The third winner at the start of the season was Lando Norris, in the other McLaren. All the others had to make do with crumbs…
As we come to the end of the Cannes Film Festival, a word about the supporting acts, this year Mercedes and Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton’s old and new team. At the Formula 1 TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco, their drivers will be doing everything in their power to upset the odds. And they can, on a circuit like no other, at a very special Grand Prix already won by just four of the 20 drivers on the 2025 grid: Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, the three World Champions, and of course Charles Leclerc, the local hero who finally won “his” Grand Prix last year, on his sixth attempt.
Beyond the expected duel between McLaren and Verstappen, the public at this 82nd edition will want to experience some surprises, and most spectators are hoping to see at least one Ferrari driver on the princely podium, like Charles last year on the highest step. Even if the start of the season hasn’t lived up to the huge buzz created by Sir Lewis’s arrival at Maranello, there are a few reasons for hope, both for the Italian tifosi and for the Principality’s fans. After all, Leclerc finished on the podium in Jeddah, and Hamilton has just finished at the foot of the podium in Imola, on Italian soil, after a “remontada” worthy of his best years as a young McLaren driver, from 12th to 4th place, last Sunday. He also won the Chinese Sprint Race in Shanghai on Saturday.
Three Frenchmen ready to pounce!
When it comes to predictions and possible bets for pole position and victory on Sunday, don’t forget the Mercedes drivers. Italian prodigy Kimi Antonelli, 18 years old, still seems a little young to win on the streets of the Principality, but who knows? And the late Ayrton Senna, a little older at the time, left his mark on the 1984 edition, on his Monaco F1 debut (2nd behind Alain Prost in a rain-shortened race). As for George Russell, the new leader of the German team, he has shown a fine consistency since the season opener in Australia: four podiums in all, which puts him ahead of the two Ferrari drivers in the championship standings.
There’s no real favourite for this Formula 1 TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco, in fact, because this 2025 season is one of tightening performances, with minimal gaps in qualifying between single-seaters that are nearing the end of their development. Because next year, in 2026, new technical regulations will come into force for chassis and hybrid engines. As a direct consequence of this situation, we can even imagine a totally surprising result, like in 1996, just 30 years ago, when Olivier Panis won in a Ligier. Three French drivers are ready, in the event of extreme circumstances and multiple race incidents, to create a huge surprise: Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Esteban Ocon (Haas) and even the new kid on the block, Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls), who amazes with every outing and continues to accumulate experience.
Two compulsory stops…
To muddy the waters, in addition to the highly uncertain weather in this stormy month of May, there’s also something new this year in the Principality: a minimum of two compulsory pit stops for all competitors, whereas in recent years some have tried a one-stop strategy. It remains to be seen whether, in addition to spicing up the race, this constraint will be more favourable to the top or the mid-table teams. As the English say, “wait and see”.
A few places left!
There are still seats available in the grandstands for Friday (F1 free practice, F2, F3 and Porsche Supercup qualifying). To find out more, visit www.monaco-grandprix.com as soon as possible, or visit the following ticketing outlets:
On the occasion of the Formula 1 TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco 2025, the Automobile Club de Monaco is proud to announce the arrival of its official mascot. Named Vrooom, this cheetah in the colors of the Principality joins the ACM universe and its events to strengthen the bond with spectators and bring a friendly, engaging touch.
Designed as a strong symbol, Vrooom embodies speed, precision, and the overall spirit of motorsport. The choice of the cheetah – the fastest animal on Earth – naturally reflects the agility and performance values upheld by the ACM. Its outfit, inspired by the track marshals’ uniforms, pays tribute to the Club’s identity and to those who work tirelessly behind the scenes. With this mascot, the ACM aims to enhance its connection with the public and enrich the fan experience, especially during its most iconic event: the Formula 1 TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco 2025.
At the Heart of the Action
Throughout the weekend, Vrooom will be visible in the liveliest areas of the Monaco Circuit. Fans can meet the mascot at the MGP Live Fan Zone on Place d’Armes — on stage or roaming through the crowd for photo opportunities. Vrooom will also make appearances in the grandstands and near the stars of the top-tier motorsport discipline. This first appearance, right at the heart of the event, will be one to remember.
A symbol that will last
Vrooom isn’t just a fun nod to the 2025 edition. The ACM’s mascot marks the start of a new chapter: approachable, identifiable and full of energy, it will be a fixture at all the Club’s future events… and he’s already making his way into people’s homes with the miniature cuddly toy available for sale from the ACM Official Store.
𝙇𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙡𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣,
We are honoured to present the official mascot of the Automobile Club de Monaco: 𝗩𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗼𝗺 🤩🇲🇨
Looking forward to seeing you at the Formula 1 TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco 2025 🤗
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𝙈𝙚𝙨𝙙𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙚𝙩 𝙈𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙚𝙪𝙧𝙨,
Nous… pic.twitter.com/L0dDP7w1BE
— Automobile Club de Monaco (@ACM_Media) May 19, 2025
The 8th and 9th editions of the Monaco E-Prix has left a huge impression! A real popular success, attracting a whole new public. And what better way to relive this exceptional weekend than with a quiz!
The Automobile Club de Monaco is offering a brand new format: a quiz in 3 rounds between two teams made up of two drivers from the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship and two content creators.
Discover the Electric Quizz!
To prolong the pleasure of these successful 8th and 9th editions from A to Z, motorsport fans can now watch a new twenty-minute video. The concept? To bring together drivers and influencers for a memorable quiz to be found exclusively on the Automobile Club de Monaco’s YouTube channel.
On the programme: 3 rounds of questions on Formula E, the Principality and general knowledge to decide between the two teams: Nico Müller (Andretti) and Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra) are joined by Idreau and LucasParleF1 to take on Stoffel Vandoorne (Maserati) and Norman Nato (Nissan), allied with Depielo and Seb Delanney.
Who will win the quiz, presented by the ACM’s official speaker Alexandre Khaldi, which is all good fun, laughter and even bad faith? You’ll know after watching it!
Version only with French speaking participants !