All info you want to see before next Monaco F1 GP starts

May 19 - The fifth round of the exciting 2021 Formula 1 World Championship will be the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix at the Circuit de Monaco. Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes enter the weekend leading the World Drivers’ Championship and the World Constructors’ Championship, respectively.

Hamilton’s struggle with Red Bull Max Verstappen continues in the current season, as both drivers continue to find each other close on the race track and have put on some great wheel-to-wheel fights. Verstappen trails the seven-time champion by 14 points, and Red Bull is desperate to beat Hamilton and Mercedes.

The jewel in the Formula 1 crown, Monaco, has given chances to Red Bull in the past, though the Dutchman does not have a podium finish at the principality yet. In 2021, Red Bull Racing needs to put on a top performance at Monaco, and with both cars, for Verstappen to take more points off Hamilton if he has the chance. Sergio Pérez has been under pressure in recent weeks because he was not close to the Top 3 places in the previous round at Spain, but the Mexican is looking for a big result at Monaco.

Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) will likely be expecting again, to try and pounce when the front runners make a mistake

McLaren and Ferrari will resume their fight for P3 in the World Constructors’ Championship with the Maranello-based squad being tipped as a dark horse for the Monaco round, as its car looked strong at Barcelona, where Charles Leclerc finished fourth. McLaren will have a lovely Gulf livery for the race, and Lando Norris (fourth in the WDC) and Daniel Ricciardo (seventh) will try to put the Woking team ahead of its rivals and, perhaps, expect some issues at the front.

Alpine (Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon), AlphaTauri (Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda) and Aston Martin (Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll) seem to be the pack behind McLaren and Ferrari, and they’re all close in the WCC.

Alfa Romeo (Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi), Williams (George Russell and Nicholas Latifi) and Haas (Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin) continue to be scoreless this season, but Williams will surely have a big celebration, as the team will have its 750 Grand Prix, and will celebrate it by adding fans’ names on the car for the race.

2021 Monaco GP Facts & Figures

This will be the 78th Monaco Grand Prix in racing history, and the 67th celebrated under the World Drivers’ Championship format, since 1950.

The first Monaco Grand Prix was held in 1929, and William Grover-Williams took the victory for Bugatti, while Juan Manuel Fangio won the first Monaco race that was part of the World Championship, in 1950, in what was the first of his 24 Grand Prix wins.
The race was not part of the World Championship from 1951 to 1954, while one non-championship race took place in that span (1952). In 2020, the race did not take place, and it put an end to a run of 65 official Monaco Grands Prix in a row, since 1955.

The Monaco round is the most prestigious in Formula 1, and it is also one of the biggest motor races in the world, as it is a part of the motorsport ‘Triple Crown’ with the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

A win at Monaco often means something similar to a World Championship for a driver, and only 34 racers have won at the prestigious street circuit in Formula 1 history. Out of those 34, only 16 have more than one victory at Monaco, and the legendary Ayrton Senna leads the all-time table with six wins at the principality, and some iconic performances. In 1984, Senna finished second in a wet race and had the pace to win on a Toleman car that was not the most competitive on the grid.

Two-time champion Graham Hill was another Monaco master in his prime, winning five times around the streets, a tally surpassed by Senna and matched by Michael Schumacher. Four-time champion Alain Prost is the only other driver with at least four wins at Monaco, followed by Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton (leader among active racers) with three wins each.

In terms of the highly important Pole Position at Monaco, Senna also leads the table with five, followed by five-time champion and two-time winner at Monaco, Juan Manuel Fangio, two-time champion Jim Clark, three-time champion Stewart (three-time winner) and Prost with four poles at the track.

Senna also had the most podiums at Monaco, with eight. He is followed by Graham Hill, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel with seven podiums each.

Among teams, McLaren has the most wins at Monaco with 15, achieved by seven drivers.

The Pole Position will be hugely essential for the results of Sunday’s race, as 45% of the Monaco GPs have been won from pole (30 out of 66). Overall, 84% of the Monaco races were won from the Top 3 places (56 out of 66) which makes qualifying surely one of the most important of the entire season, if not the most important.

In 1996, Frenchman Olivier Panis won a crazy race after starting from 14th place on the grid (lowest grid position for a Monaco winner in F1 history), but changeable weather conditions and many mistakes from seemingly every driver helped Panis and Ligier.

Circuit de Monaco

A twisty, challenging track which allows no mistakes from the drivers, the iconic Circuit de Monaco will make drivers pay for any issue throughout the entire weekend. The track, which has not had major changes throughout its history, beyond some corners added or reshaped, is currently 3,337 km long and has 19 corners.

In Formula 1, the track layout has had some changes throughout its history to increase safety a bit, and the most notable change in Monaco history is the shape of the chicane at the tunnel exit, which was super fast in the early days and until the early 1980s. Now, the chicane forces the cars to enter at slower speeds, but it offers a slight chance at overtaking.

Other changes were the addition of the Piscine ‘S’ and La Rascasse for the 1973 race and the new shapes of the Sainte Devote and Anthony Noghes corners from 1976. The chicane at the tunnel exit was a simple left-right, fast chicane ever since the race was part of the World Championship, but it was changed for the 1986 race and it has maintained a similar feel since.

Small changes have been made since 1986, but the track has maintained its essence.

Though overtaking is highly difficult at Monaco, the circuit has seen some extraordinary battles in the modern era of Formula 1, especially in the 1992 race between Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell, or Max Verstappen’s hot pursuit of Lewis Hamilton in the most recent Monaco race in 2019.

The lap records for the track are held by Valtteri Bottas (1:15.406 in the 2019 qualifying - outright record) and Daniel Ricciardo (Fastest Lap during the race: 1:18.441 in the 2018 race).

2021 Monaco Grand Prix - Tyres

The dry tyres for the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix will be the C3 as P Zero White hard, C4 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C4 as P Zero Red soft, which is Pirelli’s softest choice for the year, which makes its first appearance in 2021.

Pirelli explained its choice with a press release: “Because of the low energy loads going through the tyres, Monaco is traditionally a one-stop race, and there is quite a wide pit stop window during which the stop can be taken. In 2019, when the race was last run, Lewis Hamilton won with a soft to medium strategy after making an early stop under the safety car on lap 11, then managing this compound brilliantly to the end. The other podium finishers also stopped under the safety car but went to hard tyres.”

Mario Isola, Pirelli’s head of motorsport, further explained Pirelli’s tyre choice for the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix:

“Monaco is unique, but its absence from the calendar since 2019 only emphasises its specific characteristics and makes us even more pleased to be going back there. Mechanical grip is key to success as is qualifying and strategy, with the renowned difficulty in overtaking. This puts the accent firmly on track position, with the drivers having to extract the very maximum from the softest C5 tyre in qualifying. Strategy tends to be reactive, with teams making their stops at the moment that gives them the maximum advantage on track, thanks also to a wide pit stop window resulting from the very low tyre wear and degradation.”

The minimum starting pressures for the tyres will be 17.5 PSI (front) and 17.0 PSI (rear).

Pirelli will give each driver the fixed allocation of eight sets of soft tyres, three sets of medium tyres, and two sets of hard tyres.

2021 Monaco Grand Prix Weather Forecast

Thursday, May 20th - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Partly sunny
Max. temperature: 20°C
Chance of rain: 0%

Saturday, May 22nd - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Intervals of clouds and sunshine
Max. temperature: 21°C
Chance of rain: 0%

Sunday, May 23rd - Race
Conditions: Intervals of clouds and sunshine
Max. temperature: 21°C
Chance of rain: 8%

Who will be on the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix Podium?

For the fifth round of the 2021 Formula 1 season, the weather is expected to give us dry race, and it will only accommodate the top teams at the front, unless they have a difficult Saturday, which could certainly be the case, as the walls are a menace, and any crash in FP3 or qualifying will put them at the back of the grid. Traffic in qualifying will also play a big role in determining Sunday’s grid.

2019 Monaco podium: 1. Lewis Hamilton, 2. Sebastian Vettel, 3. Valtteri Bottas

Red Bull enters the weekend with lots of pressure, as they have had arguably the faster car on Saturdays and an equal car to Mercedes on Sundays, but have only one win out of the first four rounds.

Max Verstappen has not had the best drives around the Circuit de Monaco in his career, but the Dutchman will certainly be right at the front and looking for a huge win in his quest for the 2021 World Drivers’ Championship.

Hamilton won in 2019 after a good battle with Verstappen, and it was his third win at Monaco. Of course, with new aerodynamic rules and a different car to previous years, the Mercedes’ stability will be on question for Monaco, and it will be interesting to see how the W12 adapts to the track.

Ferrari and McLaren will surely be big players in the Monaco weekend, and if anything happens at the front, a victory for any of the two historic brands could well be on the cards, or a podium at least. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will be aiming to finally have a strong result at home, where he has not finished a Formula 1 race yet.

The top three prediction for the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix is 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Lewis Hamilton, 3. Charles Leclerc.

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