Monaco Grand Prix Recap

Once again we find ourselves at the tail end of the annual procession that is: The Monaco Grand Prix. For our eighth race of the 2025 season, we are in the midst of an inter-team struggle by leading constructor Mclaren’s drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Peripheral to the struggle for the lead in the World Driver’s Championship, there are several storylines emerging that all factor into the Grand Prix de Monaco.

At a glance, the struggle that is Red Bull - Ferrari mediocrity - shake ups at Alpine - and lastly Mercedes’ no good, terrible, very bad weekend.

In his second race of the season, Franco Colapinto - Alpine’s replacement for Jack Doohan - found his way to 13th, marking his best finishing position of season so far, and further, Alpine’s best of the day as Gasly saw a retirement from the race.

Ferrari have been struggling as of late, currently running fourth in the Constructors Championship. To my personal dismay, Charles Leclerc did, in fact, sell his soul to win Monaco last go around. Despite a second place finish today, having had pole position snatched from his hands by Lando Norris during qualifying with the best lap ever recorded at the circuit, a spectacular 1:09:954, feels oddly reminiscent of the curse I had hoped was broken. Further evidence to this is whatever it was that Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was trying to achieve in free practice, that resulted in him easing out in front of a faster Leclerc and colliding.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton had an alright race - after a mediocre set of practice sessions and qualifying, finishing 5th. We got yet another all-time Ferrari radio message in Lewis’ message to race engineer Riccardo Adami: “Are you upset with me?” said by Hamilton during the cool-down post race.

Red Bull continues their plight of only having one competitive car. Max Verstappen both qualified and placed 4th in the race itself, whereas second driver Yuki Tsunoda qualified a middling 12th and managed to finish the race two laps down, and in 17th. Channeling his inner Checo Perez. Tsunoda has yet to see a finishing result higher than 9th this season.

It simply was not the weekend Mercedes had hoped for. Qualifying saw both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli exit in Q2, the former by power issues, and the latter via a minor crash coming out of the tunnel. The race, unfortunately, saw similar luck - with Russell finishing just outside of the points in 11th, and Antonelli finishing in what was last in 18th following retirements from Alpine’s Gasly and Aston Martin’s Alonso.

Williams had another successful weekend from their pairing of Alexander Albon, and Carlos Sainz, with both drivers finishing in the points at 9th and 10th, respectively.

Similar can be said for Toro Ro… Alpha Tau… Racing Bulls. Isack Hadjar found his best finish to date, coming 6th. Liam Lawson found a similar position and finished 8th. The pair was split by Haas’ Esteban Ocon, who had his second best outing of the season thus far.

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