Formula 1 TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco
22 - 25 May 2025
82nd edition
Upcoming Events
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…
