The three support categories of the 80th Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco are now in charge, since last year, of opening the party on Thursday afternoon, with three free practice sessions that are crucial for fine-tuning the cars before Friday’s qualifying sessions. With a large contingent of French and Monegasque drivers at the wheel.
The first free practice session on the day’s menu, at 1:30 pm, was due to mark a great comeback for F3s in the Principality, after a long absence since 2005. An absence filled by GP3 and Formula Regional Alpine. The last time F3 raced in the streets of Monaco, a certain Lewis Hamilton took two wins in two F3 Euroseries races, before moving up to F1 two years later, with McLaren.
German Oliver Goethe, who holds a driving license at Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM), is starting F3 this year and holds 6th place in the series after four races. His compatriot Sophia Floersch, returns to F3 after a stint in endurance racing. She suffered an horrendous crash at Macau F3 GP in 2018. She is the only female representative this weekend in Monaco, in a championship dominated until now by Brazilian hopeful Gabriel Bortoleto.
From 3:00 pm, the Gang of Five of Formula 2 was announced, starting with Théo Pourchaire (ART GP), the leader of the championship after four rounds and eight races. The local man, from Grasse, has already won in F2 in Monaco two years ago, and he holds a three-point only lead (65 to 62) over Dane Frederik Vesti (Prema), whom he will have to watch out for all weekend.
Pourchaire leads the list of French-speaking drivers, with a very talented compatriot in his team, Victor Martins, a member of the Alpine drivers’ Academy, who is making his debut in F2 after winning the F3 title last year. Also worth watching closely are Clément Novalak (Trident), in his second F2 season, and two other debutants, Arthur Leclerc (DAMS), Charles’ brother, and Isack Hadjar (HiTech), winner of the 2021 Formula Regional Alpine race in Monaco. The same year as Pourchaire in F2.
The grand master of Porsche Supercup, Larry ten Voorde, lost his crown last year. For the 31st season in the history of this very spectacular category, the experienced Dutchman will try to regain his domination. We may start to find out this Thursday, from 4:30 pm, if Frenchman Dorian Boccolacci, 3rd in 2021 and 2ndin 2022, is able to climb on the highest step of the princely podium, on Sunday morning…
A special programme for this 80th edition.
For viewers from France and the Principality of Monaco, a full live programme is waiting for you, including the broadcasting of all the sessions on Monaco Info.
This weekend will also be an opportunity for the Canal+ group to celebrate 10 years anniversary of broadcasting Formula 1 on its channels. A studio will be set up on the Port and will receive numerous guests throughout the event. Canal+ viewers will be joined by four-time winner Alain Prost for the commentary. A special anniversary documentary will also be broadcast on Sunday morning for the occasion.
For the third year in a row, the Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco Trophy will be presented in a bespoke Louis Vuitton Travel Case as part of an ongoing partnership between the Maison and the Automobile Club de Monaco.
Hand-crafted in the House’s historic Asnières workshop on the outskirts of Paris, the trunk showcases Louis Vuitton’s traditional know-how while drawing inspiration from the heritage of the Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco.
The iconic Monogram canvas is adorned with the red shade of the Monaco flag while the red lines, tracing the “V” for “Victory”, are rimmed with a white strip, reminiscent of the unique urban route of the track where driving excellence goes hand in hand with power and precision.
This tailor-made trunk, in the colours of the Principality, will hold the trophy depicting the 19 turns of the 3.337-km track. The trophy will be awarded to the winner of the Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 80th edition. Stay tuned on Sunday, May 28th, for the Podium Ceremony.
The Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2023 is coming soon! The most awaited weekend of the year will take place from Thursday 25 to Sunday 28 May. A rich sporting programme awaits you with practice sessions, qualifying and races in Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 3 and Porsche Supercup, all in the very special setting and atmosphere of the Principality of Monaco.
Although Sunday 28 May is sold out, tickets are still available for Thursday 25, Friday 26 May and some for Saturday 27 May. Don’t wait any longer!
Find the different ticketing points and their opening hours below:
To enjoy an immersive experience, join us to the Fan Zone MGPLive located at Place d’Armes, with free entrance! Many activities are waiting for you: live drivers’ interviews, simulators, pit stop challenge, diffusion of the track sessions, live music…
Opening days and hours:
Dress in the colours of the Monaco Grand Prix
You can also find the different points of sale of the Official Shop of the ACM:
For any other questions, please consult our FAQs.
New Zealander Nick Cassidy (Envision Racing), who started 9th on the grid, won the 6th Monaco E-Prix on Saturday, holding off his fellow Kiwi Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS) and England’s Jake Dennis (Avalanche Andretti) until the end of a very exciting race.
This is the 2nd straight win for Cassidy this season, after the second race in Berlin last month. And the 3rd consecutive podium for Evans in Monaco, after a 3rd place in 2021 and a 2nd place in 2022. The Envision driver takes the lead in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.
After a disappointing qualifying session, Cassidy took a great start, then passed Evans at the right time and never gave in to the Jaguar driver’s pressure. The race ended in slow motion, behind the Safety Car, following a collision at Sainte Devote between Sam Bird, the other Jaguar driver, and Nico Müller (ABT Cupra).
It may be a surprise for some but it is a well-deserved result for the NEOM McLaren Team, on his debut season in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship: rookie Jake Hughes, contesting his first season in Formula Electric, will start on pole position for the second time this season, this Saturday at 3:03 pm local time. He earned that privilege at the 6th Monaco E-Prix at the end of a qualifying session that concluded with a stewarts decision: his rival in the final Duel, Frenchman Sacha Fenestraz (Nissan), used too much power in his last qualifying lap, so he will start next to Jake Hughes, but still on the front row of the grid, this Saturday afternoon.
Fenestraz, a Franco-Argentinian 23-year-old, first got through a very tough Group A, from which Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne, the two DS Penske drivers, were eliminated, as was the championship leader, Pascal Wehrlein (TAG Heuer Porsche). Group A was dominated by his Nissan teammate, Norman Nato, and the Top 4 was completed by Dan Ticktum (NIO333) and Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS), the poleman last year.
Group B was also very intense, concluded with a Top 4 made of two Monaco-based Maserati drivers, Maximilian Günther and Edoardo Mortara, a NEOM McLaren driven by Jake Hughes, and Sergio Sette Camara in the other car entered by NIO333. The Duels could start and the quarter-finals looked exciting: Fenestraz dominated Ticktum, then Nato joined him in the semi-finals by beating Evans. In the other half of the board, Hughes beat one Maserati, Mortara‘s, and the other one, Günther‘s, lost on the track but then benefited from Sette Camara‘s time being wiped out.
Both Nissan drivers had to fight it out in the first semi-final and Fenestraz beat Nato in style: a record time of 1:28.773 for the Franco-Argentinian, the first driver to go under the 1:29 mark on Saturday, posting the new Circuit de Monaco record in an electric car. And achieving a second pole position this year after the one in Cape Town for Round 5, on the day he also posted the highest average speed (159.4 km/h), over one lap, in the history of Formula E.
Then Günther could do nothing in the other semi-final against Hughes, who set a time of 1:28.942. The final was won by Fenestraz, as Hughes made a small mistake when braking at the harbour chicane, losing a few precious tenths. Then Fenestraz lost the benefit of his performance, for having used too much power at that time, in excess of the 350 kW limit. He will console himself with a front row finish, next to Hughes on the first row, on Saturday at 15:03 CET. Keep watching…
Norman Nato, the French Nissan driver, inaugurates this Saturday in Monaco a new helmet carrying the colors worn by his great friend Jules Bianchi at Monaco Grand Prix 2014, several months before his tragic accident in Japan. A way for Norman to bring back good memories of Jules, a great hope of F1 and the sporting godfather of Charles Leclerc.
Maximilian Günther (Maserati MSG) perfectly managed the second free practice session of the 6th Monaco E-Prix and set the best time in 1:29.269. That’s only 7/1000 ahead of Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS), who was the fastest in the first session earlier this morning.
This nice performance marks the return of the Italian brand in the Principality, over fifty years after the last participation of Maserati in a Monaco Grand Prix, with an engine placed in 1969 in the Cooper of Vic Elford. Since then, the Monegasque circuit has seen many vintage Maseratis pass on its track during its historic event, but Formula E is a new adventure that looks pretty encouraging from the start, judging by the performance of the drivers entered by the former Venturi team, still based in Monaco.
Behind Günther, who has already won three times in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, and Evans, who just won two races out of three in Sao Paulo and Berlin, 3rd place in this session was taken by Jake Dennis (Avalanche Andretti). The Briton finished ahead of Sergio Sette Camara (NIO 333), Stoffel Vandoorne (DS Penske), the reigning world champion, Sam Bird in the other Jaguar, and Sébastien Buemi aiming for a third success in the Principality.
Günther‘s time in his brand new GEN3 electric single-seater is already six tenths of a second better than Evans‘ pole position mark last year (1:29.839). This is very promising for the next big event of the day, from 10.30 a.m. onwards: a 2-phase qualifying session for the 6th Monaco E-Prix.
The man in form at the moment, Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS), was the fastest in the first of the two free practice sessions for this 6th Monaco E-Prix. The New Zealander, who has just won two of the last three races, set the fastest lap in 1:30.361, ahead of the reigning world champion, Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne (DS Penske).
By way of comparison, Evans, who finished second last year behind Vandoorne, managed to go almost one second faster than Nyck de Vries‘ time in the first free practice of the 2022 edition. Proof, once again this season, that the new GEN3 electric cars are more efficient, thanks to higher power and a radical design, among various assets.
Behind Evans and Vandoorne, the first surprise of the day came from the Maserati MSG drivers, Maximilian Günther and Edoardo Mortara, who immediately showed the ambitions of the former Venturi team, still based in the Principality. They were ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne, winner here in 2019, in the other DS Penske, and René Rast, the new kid on the block at NEOM McLaren. Two serious customers, Sébastien Buemi (Envision Racing), in 8th place, and Sam Bird in 10th, in the other Jaguar, also made their mark.
The only minor incident in this session was when Lucas di Grassi, the former FIA Formula E champion, lost the rear of his Mahindra at Sainte-Dévote and prematurely interrupted his session.
Next free practice session, from 9:10 am on Circuit de Monaco.
My first is the reigning world champion and has already won in Monaco, in GP2 and Formula E.
My second has just won two races out of three this year and is a Monaco resident, just like my first.
My third lives very close to the Principality and has driven for Monegasque team Venturi.
Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne (DS Penske), New Zealander Mitch Evans (Jaguar) and Cannes-born Norman Nato (Nissan) have fond memories of Monaco races, so they talked about them in front of ACM cameras.
In a long format posted on the ACM YouTube channel, Vandoorne recalls his first visit to Monaco, in 2013, racing in the World Series by Renault. For Evans, it was for a GP3 race, in 2012, in his debut season concluded by the championship title. For Nato, it was at the Monaco Kart Cup, then a prestige race for all the young kartmen of the region. In the last edition of the event, Charles Leclerc also won, just like Nato, but in a different category.
“It’s a special place, everything is clean, there are beautiful cars in the streets, and it’s a great place to relax between races,” says the Belgian. When the Mercedes EQ team left the sport, after four consecutive world titles (drivers and constructors, two years in a row), Vandoorne started a new adventure with DS Penske, alongside Jean-Eric Vergne. He really appreciates the Monaco circuit and will enjoy it even more on Saturday at the wheel of a more powerful, lighter and therefore faster GEN3 single-seater.
For Evans, one of the major players in Formula E, Monaco has become a second home, several thousand kilometers from his native country. Like Vandoorne, he especially likes the Bureau de Tabac section on the harbour, because it is “very fast” and “difficult to get it right from start to finish.” For Nato, the favorite section is the Place du Casino, because “it’s an incredible feeling to pass there, very fast, with a race car”.
“It’s a perfect circuit for Formula E, you can be very creative and overtake just about anywhere,” adds Evans, pointing out the number of overtakes at any Monaco E-Prix, compared to other categories racing every year in May in the streets of the Principality. The other interest of Monaco, for the three local drivers, is that the asphalt is always of good quality, and often new, which ensures a very good grip.
For Nato, the Monaco E-Prix is always an “exciting” race and for Evans it is above all “unpredictable”. So the Kiwi driver does not make any prediction for Saturday, but he would like to do slightly better than usual: he almost won in 2021 and finished second in 2022, behind a Belgian guy called… Stoffel Vandoorne!