3 important things we learned from the Monaco Grand Prix

• Charles Leclerc reinforced his status as a possible world championship contender with his stirring home victory on Sunday.
• We look at 3 major takeaways from the boring Monaco Grand Prix.

With his stirring home victory on Sunday, Charles Leclerc not only reinforced his status as a possible world championship contender but also raised additional concerns about Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s dominance reign.

The 26-year-old driver ended his home race curse by winning a boring and formal Monaco Grand Prix with a faultless drive from pole position to the checkered flag, while Verstappen began and finished sixth, making the Dutchman lament his lot in life.

We look at 3 major takeaways from the boring Monaco Grand Prix.

Charles Leclerc ends home curse

Charles Leclerc won the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix. Photo/SBNation

Everyone is aware that the Monaco Grand Prix is the ultimate test of a racing driver’s ability, discernment, dedication, and everything else, but it also frequently serves as an intriguing barometer of their personal growth.

Verstappen, for example, faced the sole significant obstacle to his probable ascent here in 2018 when, following an error-filled season debut, he crashed at the swimming pool during final practice, ruling him out of qualifying that afternoon.

There was a clear feeling of journey when, three years later, he returned to dominate from pole position and take the lead in the World Championship for the first time ever.

Somehow, it has always felt relevant that Leclerc’s own collision in the Monaco 2021 qualifying round, which memorably prevented him from claiming pole position 24 hours later, happened at the very same location and at the exact same point of his career.

The customary concerns at Monaco about a lone safety car at any time changing the course of the race, together with the feeling that the distance between the barriers is getting less as each lap goes by, persisted.

However, the threat that had frequently followed Leclerc through these streets was no longer there. Everything felt so cozy. Thus, Max-like.

The most noticeable aspect was his control, and it was impossible to ignore the similarities with Verstappen’s flowering right before our eyes in 2021—three years after his lowest point—again.

In the end, that curse on Leclerc’s back was ended, following all the heartache and anguish of those earlier near-misses in Monaco.

Trouble at Alpine

Esteban Ocon and Gasly of Alpine at the Monaco Grand Prix. Photo/ Autosport

Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon would not have been a good team, as anybody might have warned Alpine’s top management two years ago.

It was impossible for those two to ever form a fruitful collaboration because of their deep-seated animosity and extensive personal history dating back to their early years.

Every time they are together on track, there is a chance that things may become personal and dreaded. It certainly shouldn’t surprise anyone, especially not their managers.

An Alpine F1 team manager’s responsibility should include handling the consequences from such situations without stoking tensions further with too sentimental rhetoric.

In situations like Alpine’s, F1 teams frequently emphasize the value of cooperation in putting things back on track; nevertheless, Famin cannot even count on that from his drivers.

These two “team-mates” encapsulate the terrible state in which this once-proud squad has devolved.

What happened to Redbull?

Stewards retrieve Perez’s crashed car in the first lap of the Monaco Grand Prix. Photo/ The Independent

Red Bull have been overtaken by their competitors, and Max Verstappen and his father Jos have sent out powerful messages that they need to take immediate measures to stay the top team.

The three-time winner stated, “We’ve had this problem since 2022,” in reference to his car’s vulnerability to kerbs and riding bumps.

After all, Verstappen’s most jaw-droppingly dominating performance of the past two years was in China just a month ago.

When asked on Saturday by the media what had changed since Shanghai, Max pointed to the significant enhancements that Ferrari and McLaren had made in the weeks prior. But has the competitive landscape really altered that much in such a short period of time?

And if you looked carefully enough last year, you might have seen the warning signals as Verstappen had to take uncomfortably severe measures to neutralize Fernando Alonso’s danger in the Aston Martin.

How then will the next races contribute to this ever-growing, intricate picture?

The majority of the Montreal, Canada, landscape is made up of bumps and kerbs, so it already appears like another difficult weekend at a circuit where Verstappen called the Red Bull “not fantastic” in 2023.

To find out where everyone actually stands, all roads lead to Barcelona, which is a strong indicator of a racing car’s strengths and shortcomings.Was it truly the case that the competitive landscape shifted so dramatically so quickly?