Prime Tire: Why Ferrari's Monaco GP pace is 'miles ahead' of Red Bull; Readers rate Imola (2024)

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Welcome back to Prime Tire, where we’re sorry thatMcLaren’s Ayrton Senna tribute livery reminds us of a Sprite can.

I'm sorry, I can't un-see it pic.twitter.com/skGWmsNJyb

— Pat(rick) Iversen 🏁 (@eyeversehen) May 24, 2024

It’s a beautiful livery and a wonderful nod to Senna’s Brazilian heritage. But (and I’m not the first to point this out) they make me thirsty for Sprite.

HappyMonaco GP weekend, everyone.Follow our live coverage of practice and qualifying here. I’m Patrick, and Madeline Coleman will be along shortly from trackside. Let’s get to it.

Readers react to the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

By far the most positive results we’ve had so far for a Max Verstappen win. It’s not a big surprise. As Luke Smith wrote this week,Lando Norris’s last-gasp charge was something F1 fans have craved for a while. Here’s a sampling of responses.

5 – It was amazing!

“Real racing!”

“An almost certain win for Verstappen all of a sudden becomes a race to the finish to see whether Norris was able to catch Max. Very exciting and thoroughly enjoyable.”

“Lando just ran out of track. One more DRS detection zone, and he would’ve taken it. McLaren has the car and the driver to challenge. Amazing.”

“Perhaps my definition of ‘amazing’ has been downgraded by the constant barrage of RB wins, but it had been some time since that level of last-lap excitement for a win.”

4 – It was good!

“Imola is a track that requires great chassis balance and accurate driving. You saw which teams have both in the last 20 minutes.”

“Despite two bracing mugs of hot coffee, I fell asleep at some point around lap 30 and woke up to see Max celebrating first place. Imagine my surprise two hours later when I discovered what I missed in those 15 laps.”

“The expectations bar was set low, given that there were only six on-track passes last year. The increased action this year, plus Lando making the last quarter of the race interesting, eked the rating up to a four.”

“The last 10 laps really saved this from being a standard Imola snooze fest. It was thrilling to watch Lando get the signal to start trying. Closest finish I can remember for a while.”

“Good beginning, the middle was boring AF, but then the last 15 or so laps were obviously quite exciting!”

“Hmmm. McClaren and Ferrari step it up. Red Bull has issues? Pérez not even in the mix? Let’s see Monaco.” Pat note: I think “Hmmm” also sums up my feelings after Imola. Norris winning in Miami was interesting. But threatening to do it two weeks in a row? 🤔, indeed.

“If the race had a couple of more laps, it would have been amazing. Actually, in this race, Max wasn’t really able to increase the gap, as he used to do – he got to a point where he was able to maintain a gap at the expense of almost being punished for track limits. So, something was there already long before Lando started closing that gap …” Pat note: 🤔🤔🤔

3 – It was meh!

“A bit more interesting due to Lando’s race pace, but the lack of overtaking was disappointing.”

“The last 10 laps were amazing! But let’s not forget that the first 53 were an utter snooze.”

“Would be a 1, but the exciting finish bumped it up to a 3.”

“Uneventful, not very competitive. Ferrari failed to challenge the McLarens, and while Lando closed on Verstappen, in the end RB had ample margin. On the other hand, having grown up with Watkins Glen, I love Imola – good to see a real racetrack again! Alas, we need more of them …” Pat note: Love the shout-out to Watkins Glen, one of my favorite tracks.

“Undelivered hope.”

2 – It was bad!

“The end of the race was only very briefly compelling… then we all remembered that it might be impossible for Lando to pass on that track anyway.”

“Sorry that Lando put a wheel wrong with a couple laps to go — might have been a more exciting finish.”

1 – It was awful!

“Procession. The last few laps slightly salvaged it but didn’t make up for 60 laps of too-big cars on an old-school track.” Pat note: Good thing the racing at Monaco isn’t anything like that. Right? Right, guys? *taps mic* Hello?

“It should have been three laps longer.”

From the first Monaco GP winner to World War II hero

Our reporters arelive from Monaco this week, working on a few stories we’re excited to share with you soon. This week, the first batch came in, including Luke Smith’s piece on the first man to win the Monaco GP, William Grover-Williams.It’s an incredible story. When World War II broke out,Grover-Williams enlisted as a British spyand deployed behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France. There, he helped organize local resistance until he was captured and executed.

Grover-Williams’ story is truly unique in the annals of F1 history.Make sure you take a look this weekend.

Now, let’s throw it to Monaco Coleman. I mean Madeline, live from Monaco, on her conversation with Liberty Media boss Greg Maffei.

Inside the paddock with Madeline Coleman

Formula One is no stranger to Las Vegas, racing aroundthe Caesars Palace parking lotin 1981 and 1982. Other third parties wanted to bring the grand prix back, but for F1 itself, it was never more than a fleeting thought. But around three to three-and-a-half years ago,the dream of returning to the city came true.Liberty Media, which owns F1, decided to be the race promoter and selected the Nevada location for numerous reasons.

“It’s close to our home in Colorado,” saidLiberty Media CEO Greg Maffeion Thursday night in Monaco, “a place where we thought we could work with the partners, a place where we would not have a need to work with a foreign government, a place where we could cut deals, and build a site and invest. We did invest, $650 million between what we brought and the property and what we put into it.

“That’s a scale of investment that I think tops any other investment someone’s put into a site for a Formula One race, we did that because we saw the opportunity, we saw that it would have an opportunity on so many levels.”

The circuit came together in 15 months but wasn’t without skepticism or criticism early on. But in the end, the Las Vegas Grand Prixended up being a thriller, withchanges needed for year two.

“I think we’ll be smarter, we’ll be more efficient, we’ll probably be less disruptive to the community, we’ll probably understand better and better what fans want,” Maffei said.

Friday practice notes: Good day for Leclerc, Hamilton

I think we’re in for an interesting Saturday, folks.

On Thursday, Charles Leclerc said he expects to be “in the mix” for pole in Monaco. He backed that up with a blistering pace on Friday in FP2, setting a silly 1:11.573s lap on mediums that nobody on that same compound came close to touching. Leclerc still topped the FP2 charts after most of the grid bolted on softs with a 1:11.278s lap. Please note that Verstappen’s pole-setting lap in 2023 was 1:11.365s.

“You could see through the exits of the corners just how much Leclerc was pushing, going half a foot closer to the wall at the exit of Casino Square than some of the least-committed drivers,” Luke Smith reported on our live blog. “He had one brief moment when I was watching at Loews where he appeared to carry a bit too much speed and almost went straight on, only to get the car stopped in time.”

The Ferraris have shown promising form heading into the weekend sessions. In particular, Leclerc seems to be in top form, with a strong chance of claiming the third Monaco pole and his first pole since Las Vegas last fall.The team’s performance suggests that they are the only ones who have already found their rhythm for the weekend.

Lewis Hamilton was the only driver to finish both sessions in the top three. This is … shocking? No, that’s too harsh. But Hamilton topped FP1 and finished second-fastest in FP2, the only driver that session to come within two-tenths of Leclerc’s mega lap. We’re still skeptical about Mercedes’ prospects – even when winning championships left and right, the team from Silverstone always seemed to fight things a bit at Monaco. And this season, Mercedes tends to have good Fridays and drift backward by the time of the grand prix on Sunday. So, we’ll see. George Russell, meanwhile, spent a lot of time in the pits in FP2 addressing some wonky steering.

As for Red Bull, Verstappen complained at one point that he was “bouncing around like a kangaroo” and driving on a “knife edge,” dangerously skirting the barriers numerous times across both sessions. Neither he nor Sergio Pérez impressed in either session, backing up Verstappen’s Thursday claim that Monaco is “one of the more difficult tracks” for Red Bull.

After practice on Friday, Pérez and Verstappen admitted that Ferrari is better this weekend.

“Every time we go over (bumps or curbs), we lose a lot of lap time because the car doesn’t ride well,” Verstappen said. “It is hampering us, at the moment, to go faster. There is no clear direction or solution for the weekend to be able to solve something like that.

As for Ferrari? “Miles ahead,” Verstappen said. “I’m not even thinking about that. I just want to solve the issues that we have to make it more drivable. Then we’ll see where we are.

“I don’t expect miracles.”

Further down the field:

• Williams’ brutal stretch continues. Logan Sargeant nicked the barriers in FP2, and Alex Albon complained late in the second session that the car’s performance was “2023 all over again.” For reference, neither Williams driver finished on the lead lap last season. Albon did manage to finish FP2 in the top ten, though.
• Oscar Piastri kept catching Luke’s eye from trackside. “He’s using every inch of the track on each exit in his McLaren,” Luke reported. Piastri finished in the top three in FP1 but only P12 in FP2.
• Steady day for Aston Martin, which put both drivers in the top ten in both sessions. Fernando Alonso, who finished P3 in FP2, looked as quick as he did here last season when he narrowly missed the win.
• It was a rough day for Stake, as Zhou Guanyu brought out the red flag in FP1, and the team generally looked like one of the slowest cars on the grid.

The drivers in the Thursday presser were asked what their favorite movies were (because the Cannes Film Festival is nearby, I guess?). Here’s what each driver said so you can judge them:

• Esteban Ocon: “The Dark Knight Rises”
• Yuki Tsunoda: “Transporter” (“I love Jason Statham,” Tsunoda said.)
• Russell: “Casino Royale” (Pat note: We’re best friends now.)
• Verstappen: “The Wolf of Wall Street” or “The Hangover”
• Albon: “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
• Leclerc: “Harry Potter”

“Actually, Harry Potter was probably my favorite growing up, and it remains one of my favorite movies,” Leclerc said. “Oh yeah, big fan, huge fan. Yeah, I knew the lines. When I was 10 years old, I knew the lines of the movie. Everybody was telling me I was looking like Harry Potter as well.”

Is that true? Computer, Potter-fy!

Ah. Yep. I see it.

Outside the Points

We put together a guide to attending the Monaco GP on a budget. Hint: Hope you like trains and picnics?

Hamilton debunked rumors that the budget for Apple’s F1 movie project involving Brad Pitt has swelled beyond $300 million. Hamilton is a producer on the film. “I don’t know whether it will be in Cannes, I don’t know. But the stories are incorrect.”

A couple of drivers spoke about their futures this week. Carlos Sainz said he’s giving himself “as much time as I need” to decide who he’ll drive for next year. Zhou, who has an expiring contract with Sauber, insisted he’s “very calm” about his F1 future. His teammate, Valtteri Bottas, seemed more urgent about his next contract, saying, “I would like to be sorted soon.”

And finally, six U.S. senatorsare calling for the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate F1’s rejection of Andretti Global.According to a copy of a letter obtained byThe Athletic, the bipartisan group of senators suggested the rejection “could violate U.S. antitrust laws.”

Top photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images, Clive Rose/Getty Images via Getty Images