1. Why didn’t Haas start from the pits?
Both Haas drivers were disqualified from qualifying because their rear wings did not comply with the regulations. The new Monaco wing had been incorrectly adjusted, so that when the DRS was activated there was too large a gap. Starting positions 12 and 15 were gone, but Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen did not start from the pit lane, but from the end of the starting grid. Haas had asked the FIA whether they could carry out the adjustment while adhering to the parc ferme rules. The International Automobile Federation agreed. Only a breach of the parc ferme would have led to the start from the pits.
2. Who was to blame for the Perez crash?
Officially, no one, because the stewards did not even start an investigation into the incident. Perez blamed Kevin Magnussen, the Dane, naturally saw it the other way around. In the paddock, many believe that the accident was not investigated more closely in order to spare Magnussen a race ban. The Haas driver already has ten penalty points. Two more penalty points would mean an involuntary break.
3. Why was Sainz allowed back to third place?
After the start, Carlos Sainz lightly touched Oscar Piastri at the exit of turn one – but hard enough to damage his left front tire. In turn four, the Ferrari driver braked so hard that the entire field passed him. Despite this, he was allowed to start from third place at the restart after the race was interrupted. Why?
The regulations are not clear about the restart order. It simply states that the restart will take place in the order that could last be determined before the race was stopped. But what does that mean? The TV images clearly showed that Sainz was not third at the time of the stoppage. However, the normal procedure is for the race management to use the last timing line as a basis.
The problem in this case: Zhou Guanyu was unable to pass the scene of Perez’s accident for a long time. That is why he had not yet finished the first sector when the race was stopped. Race director Niels Wittich ultimately used the timing data from the second safety car line as a basis.
4. How badly was Piastri’s McLaren damaged?
In contrast to the Perez-Magnussen crash, the mini-contact between Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri was investigated. There was no penalty, Sainz had only misjudged the situation very slightly. But Piastri’s underbody was slightly damaged. The McLaren engineers were able to measure a loss of 20 points of downforce, which corresponds to about half a second. During the race break, the mechanics were able to make makeshift repairs to the car. The sidepod was replaced and the underbody repaired. Despite this, the car was still missing around ten points of downforce for the rest of the race.
5. Why did many pilots deliberately drive slowly?
No other track has pace management as extreme as Monaco. Due to the lack of overtaking opportunities, drivers can almost choose their pace. Leclerc said he drove around 3.5 seconds slower than he could have. There were two reasons for this: firstly, he didn’t want the gap to George Russell in fifth place to become too big. This would have allowed Lando Norris to make a pit stop without losing any place. Secondly, Leclerc wanted to save his tyres as much as possible.
But even further back in the field, some drivers deliberately drove slowly. Fernando Alonso held up a whole group behind him because he was thereby able to give his teammate Lance Stroll a free stop without losing position. The drivers did not like the slow driving. Many drivers complained after the race that they were bored and had little fun.
6. Did McLaren miss the pit stop with Norris?
On laps 53 and 54, the pit stop window for Lando Norris briefly opened up. The McLaren driver could have stopped in fourth place without losing a position. But it was too risky for McLaren. “If the stop had lasted just one second longer, we would have lost the position to Russell,” explains team boss Stella. “And even if it had worked, the result probably wouldn’t have changed.”
7. Why were there (almost) no pit stops?
There were only seven pit stops in the race, two of which were made by Lance Stroll, who got a flat tire due to a driving error. The reason for the lack of action in the pit lane was the race being interrupted after lap one. All teams took the opportunity to change tires. In Formula 1, there are no mandatory pit stops, just the rule that two different tire compounds must be used. Because tire degradation and wear are minimal in Monaco and overtaking is impossible, almost everyone just changed tires during the race break.
8. Why was Alpine so angry with Ocon?
Esteban Ocon collided with teammate Pierre Gasly on the starting lap. Before the race, there had been clear instructions that the driver behind him should not attack. Ocon had started from eleventh place, Gasly from tenth. Despite this, Ocon tried an over-motivated maneuver in Portier. What was particularly bitter was that his car was so badly damaged that it could not be repaired during the race interruption. The stewards also imposed a 10-second penalty, which will be converted into a grid penalty in Canada. Ocon will then have to move back five places. Team boss Bruno Famin announced consequences, speaking of ‘difficult decisions’. There are rumors in the paddock that Ocon has already signed with another team.
9. What misunderstanding occurred during Hamilton’s stop?
10. Why was Alonso happy with a point?
Fernando Alonso was delighted to have won a point when he crossed the finish line – but only finished eleventh. It was only when the team radioed him the result that the experienced driver realised that he hadn’t scored a point. Alonso had lost track of things at the restart and hadn’t factored in Sainz in third place. When he opened up the gap for Stroll, he thought his team-mate was in tenth place. Due to Stroll’s driving error and additional pit stop, Alonso ended up thinking he was in tenth place himself.