Monaco Will Always Be Like This

I am sorry to report that despite the FIA extending the program yet another year, the Monaco Experiment is still a failure. The battle between engineers trying to "make cars fast" and "let cars pass" has, at least in Monaco, resulted in racing that allows for neither and resists outside intervention. Last year's double pit stop experiment proved futile; this Sunday showed that the new regulations and slightly smaller cars still could not provide for better racing. If there is entertainment, it needs to come from racing so atrocious to watch it loops right back around to "fun," or other sessions, or, depending on your media diet, inane celebrity hullabaloo. This is why I propose we rename the Monaco Grand Prix to something more apt. The Monaco Qualifying Prix, perhaps. More like Monaco Grand Penalty Sunday. I'll work on it. Street races make for great qualifying viewing because the boundaries are so obvious; in other words, they make it easy to demonstrate how good Formula 1 drivers are at their jobs. In Monaco, the barriers, which have the faintest give, need to be kissed in order to maximize pace, providing a demonstration of the absolute limit. The margin between pole position and the wall is, as Charles Leclerc knows after heartbreak after heartbreak in his home race, very narrow. And despite Mercedes dominating from the start of the season, qualifying was any of the top three teams' game. While Driver's Championship leader Kimi Antonelli was strong, his teammate George Russell never had the pace to contest for pole. The Ferraris performed very strongly across the three practice sessions, and Leclerc topped Q1. Both Red Bulls looked pacier during the weekend, with Max Verstappen topping Q2. Verstappen looked just about on track to win pole position as well, holding the provisional place with a time of 1:12.094 before Antonelli took his final flying lap. Sector 1 and Sector 2 passed, with Antonelli notching personal best times, but no purple sectors, the indicator that he had beaten the rest of the field. Then Sector 3 passed, absent once again the telltale purple, but it was just enough: Antonelli squeaked by Verstappen by 36 hundredths of a second into pole position, and Leclerc hit the wall on his very last attempt to close out the session.