Championship Antonelli’s “to lose” – Russell
George Russell says this year’s world championship is Kimi Antonelli’s “to lose”, repeating his comments following his retirement in Montreal. The Englishman starts the European leg of the season forty-three points behind after the engine failure in the race. Monaco is expected to be at the quarter mark of the way through the season.
Speaking ahead of this weekend, he told BBC News, “If I look at it from my competitor’s position, you’re kind of in a position now that you’ve got such a buffer, it feels like you can only keep it or you can only lose it.”
“It’s his to lose. My mindset is to enjoy every single race, try and win every single race, the same as I’ve done this whole season. I’m going to fight the same, I’m not going to change my mentality at all, nor am I going to let this put any more pressure on to me.”
His teammate Antonelli has won four races in a row, while Russell’s only grand prix victory this year was in the season-opening race in Australia. While Russell did win the sprint events in China and Canada.
Russell has been unlucky, with technical issues in GP qualifying in China, a safety-car intervention in Japan that handed the lead to Antonelli and the Canada problems – but says he has no reason to feel he cannot bounce back.
Adding, “I don’t feel like I need to get every single result possible, because the season’s long enough that over the course of the season, it will swing if you’re the guy who’s on top.”
Russell pointed to Monaco 2018 when driving in F2 in the opening three Grands Prix weekends, he broke down five times, then went into qualifying, only managing a handful of laps in practice and didn’t qualify anywhere decent.
Adding, “I broke down on other occasions. The engine stalled, but then still went on over the course of a year to win the championship. So I take inspiration from those moments. And I think for everyone every year, you have a run of races where, I don’t know why or how, everything just goes your way.
“That’s just how it goes sometimes when things turn. It’s just a mentality I’ve got. I’m in a very good head space. The pressure feels off now. And there’s just a huge amount of time to go.”
He also believes its too early to be talking about the championship, though he is fighting in only his second season, he is aware opportunities like this don’t come along every season.
Leclerc commits future to Ferrari
Charles Leclerc has agreed to a new long-term contract with Ferrari for the “coming seasons”. The Monegasque signed his last deal in early 2024 with the team not saying how long the deal is, and it comes ahead of his home Monaco Grand Prix this weekend.
The Monegasque has competed in one hundred and fifty-five races for the Italian outfit since joining in 2019, winning eight times, and he is currently third in the drivers’ championship. He has a mixed record in Monaco, which we will explore in the next story.
Leclerc said, “I couldn’t be happier to continue this journey with Scuderia Ferrari. It has always been so much more than just a team to me. It’s the team I’ve loved and dreamt of being part of since I was a child, and after all these years, it has become a second family.”
“Together we’ve shared incredible moments and some tougher ones, but I believe in this team more than ever, and I’m deeply grateful that we will keep pushing side by side toward our shared goal of bringing the World Championship back to Maranello. Being a Ferrari driver is a dream, but it’s also a responsibility I never take for granted.
“I’ll continue to give absolutely everything I have to bring this team back to where it belongs, at the very top, for everyone in Maranello, and above all for the tifosi, whose passion is the heartbeat of this Scuderia.”
Leclerc has been with the team for a decade and won the 2017 F2 championship before a year with Sauber and joined Ferrari in 2019. The Monegasque should pass Michael Schumacher’s record for the team. He was first signed to the FDA at the age of fourteen.
He referenced how joining them had been like “living a dream”. He said Ferrari were “family”, adding: “Maybe that is exactly what makes this moment so special. For me, it’s always been clear. The dream is still alive, and I’m proud to continue chasing it together.”
That dream is to win the world championship together. And it remains as elusive as ever. Since joining Ferrari in 2019, Leclerc has both established himself as one of the absolute elite F1 drivers, and won only eight grands prix. However its nineteen years since the team won a drivers and eighteen years since their last constructors.
Ferrari’s perennial underachievement in the past two decades. This season’s new regulations marked another moment of hope and promise, which is as yet unfulfilled. But there was nowhere for him to go, despite Max Verstappen’s threats to quit, Mercedes and McLaren have locked in their drivers.
Why Monaco could be Ferrari’s best chance of a win
In the build-up to this weekend, there has been a lot of focus on Ferrari as the team searches for its first Grand Prix victory since Mexico City 2024. There has been so much focus on them, and it’s expected that the unique layout is expected to suit the strengths of the Ferrari and mask some of its weaknesses.
Ferrari’s drivers have been keen to point out how good their car is in corners and that it loses most of its lap time on the straights. That combination has seen the Italian team struggle to remain at the front this year when it has led races early on, but in Monaco, where there are so few straights and so many low and medium-speed corners, the Ferrari could be better placed to fight for victory or retain the lead should one of its drivers get out in front.
Between them, they have four wins, as well as several pole positions around the streets of Monte Carlo, which could give them cautious optimism. If these theories are to come true, they will need the pace advantage of Mercedes to be reduced as well as confidence to take risks this weekend, but that can be easily wiped out by a single mistake.
Hamilton has looked happier in his Ferrari at recent races; you’d still put money on Leclerc finding every last thousandth of a second around the unforgiving circuit. Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull will all be competitive too, meaning a small mistake in Q3 could be the difference between the front row of the grid and starting seventh or eighth.
Leclerc has a love-hate relationship with his home race, crashing twice in a month during the Historic Grand Prix and did not start both in 2021, after a crash in Q3 and Ferrari opting not to do a precautionary gearbox change overnight, and as he completed his laps to the grid on Sunday, a driveshaft failed and forced him to miss the start.
If the 2021 incident stood alone, it could be dismissed, but there were multiple incidents of bad luck and driver error prior to and after that.
In 2017, in F2, he retired from both races despite starting from pole, his first race for Alfa Romeo also saw him retire after a brake failure, and his Ferrari debut saw him knocked out after opting not to do a second run in Q1.
His only luck came with victory in the 2020 virtual Grand Prix, where he finished third, but that included a strategy error by Ferrari.
Leclerc took pole position again in 2022, only for Ferrari to mistime the switch from intermediate tyres to slicks during the race and cost him the lead. By 2023, the Leclerc curse was considered F1 lore and gained extra credence when he qualified third but received a grid penalty for blocking Lando Norris in qualifying, dropping him down the grid.
2024 saw him finally win, after he admitted that a layer of tension had built up during his race weekends at Monaco as a result of his bad luck in previous years. Regardless of the disappointing track record over the years, he has always been remarkably quick in Monaco and will likely be among the favourites for pole position this weekend.
This weekend should bring Ferrari back into play as they in Monaco, with so few straights and so many braking zones for corners, that shouldn’t be a problem. The exact opposite, having an abundance of electrical power, has led the FIA to decide against designating any straight-line mode areas on pre-event track maps, which have been used at every other circuit so far this year to allow drivers to make use of active aerodynamics to reduce drag.
However the question remains what impact will this have because in recent years the criticism has been the cars have been bigger and they have been made smaller, but that could be slightly easier with the overtake mode will provide some extra punch for the attacking driver at the end of straights, but don’t expect any miracles: this is still Monaco, and it will still be very tricky to pass.
Lastly, the FIA has ditched the mandatory two-stop rule that turned midfield battles at last year’s Monaco Grand Prix into something of a farce. The normal one-stop rule, whereby drivers have to use two compounds of slick tyres, applies.
McLaren admits challenging season but not giving up hope
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has admitted the d the team have been “below our expectations” after a “challenging” first part of the season. For the second grand prix this year, both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri failed to score points last time out in Canada in a major blow to their title ambitions and McLaren’s Constructors’ Championship defence.
Meanwhile, Mercedes has won five Grand Prix and three sprint races so far this season, meaning they have a seventy-two point lead over Ferrari, with McLaren a further forty-one behind. Stella told Sky Sports, “The start of the season has been challenging. We have had issues of a different kind.”
“If you think the first race, we had the issues with Oscar in the laps to the grid, then China [with a double DNS], it was a painful one with a problem on the electrical side of the power unit. In Canada, we had issues pretty much in all areas of racing. From the sporting and racing side to reliability and an accident, so there’s definitely lots to take away and review.”
However, Stella pointed to encouraging signs in both developing the car and what they are learning in terms of power unit exploitation. Accepting that was below what their expectation was of fighting for the championship.
McLaren had been on an upward trajectory after challenging Mercedes for victory in Japan and Miami, with Norris winning the sprint from Piastri at the latter. Over the last three years, McLaren has been the benchmark when it comes to development but the front wing they brought to Canada was taken off the car following practice, suggesting it did not work as expected.
But Norris has confirmed the front wing will be reintroduced either in Monaco or at the more conventional track at the Catalan Grand Prix next weekend.
However, Stella is not writing off McLaren’s title hopes but is wary that the team have already lost a lot of points to Mercedes.
He said: “We don’t think very much of what’s been. We just try to learn every day so that, for the next race, we are as prepared as possible. We are definitely believers that the championship is not signed off. We want to be in this championship, and we want the championship to be decided in Abu Dhabi. I think this is a strong determination that we have at McLaren and we want to make this happen.”
McLaren’s 1,000th Grand Prix livery
McLaren has revealed a special black and orange livery to celebrate their 1000th Grand Prix at this weekend’s race in Monaco. This weekend not only marks the teams 1,000th Grand Prix but the sixtieth anniversary of their debut at the Monaco Grand Prix.
However, due to the team’s double did not start in Shanghai, and the US-Israeli War in Iran causing Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to be cancelled, the 1,000th race start will be next weekend in Barcelona, having been pushed back from Miami. The team say the livery symbolises the message that “McLaren never quits”.
McLaren chief executive Zak Brown said, “Lining up on the grid to race McLaren’s 1000th grand prix in Monaco this year provides a perfect opportunity to recognise our rich history in motorsport. We’re only the second team [after Ferrari] to reach this incredible milestone, so what better moment to reflect on our past, our present and our future.”
Last Time Out … Montreal
Practice saw Kimi Antonelli lead a Mercedes one-two after setting a 13.402 to put himself just under a tenth faster than his teammate George Russell, with the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton six tenths further behind. Hamilton put himself eight hundredths faster than his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, with the Ferrari duo seven and three-quarters faster than Max Verstappen.
Sprint qualifying, Russell beat Antonelli by just under seven hundredths to take sprint pole with a 12.965 as the Mercedes duo left it late in SQ3 to secure the front row. The closing moments saw the Mercedes pull ahead with a three-tenths advantage over the McLaren’s. Lando Norris was around a quarter of a tenth behind the Italian as he put himself three hundredths faster than his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.
In the sprint race, Russell converted pole position into a one-second victory. The Mercedes driver held the lead at the start despite a challenge from his teammate Kimi Antonelli, pulling nearly an eight-tenths lead on the opening lap and taking control of the race despite a slow start. Norris took advantage of the collision to get himself into second and finish nearly six tenths ahead of the Italian.
In GP Qualifying, Russell beat Antonelli by just under seven hundredths to take pole. The Englishman found a slight improvement to snatch pole away from the Italian, Norris on the Briton’s first run, with Russell’s first lap on his final run good enough only for third. Hamilton also looked to be in the mix for pole. The six-time pole sitter in Montreal was second on his first attempt, but a moment at Turn Six saw him unable to improve and nearly nine hundredths behind Piastri.
Antonelli took a dominating ten-second victory in an action-packed Grand Prix. The Italian was able to pull ahead after an intense battle with Russell, who suffered a technical issue and retired on lap twenty-nine. Russell, up until that point, looked to be fighting hard with his teammate, with them at one stage banging wheels and at one stage Antonelli running wide in a race where there was plenty of action.
Behind Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who were engaged in their own fight in what was appearing to be the battle for the final podium place Hamilton was aided by two virtual safety cars, which kept him within touching distance during the middle part of the race the seven-time champion was back on Verstappen’s tail and they went into the last thirteen laps with the Ferrari less than a second adrift.
Hamilton kept asking his team for more power, but he kept his patience, and at the start of lap sixty-two, with six to go, he finally made it through, with a delicious move around the outside of the Red Bull into the first corner.
Talking Points Monaco
Round six of the season kicks off the European season at the most famous and prestigious Grand Prix of them all, the Monaco Grand Prix. Once, Nelson Piquet likened racing round the course to “riding a bicycle around your living room”. Monte Carlo is very much one of the drivers’ favourites, although the racing is often a procession around the circuit.
A fortnight ago, Kimi Antonelli made it four wins in a row after a dramatic Canadian Grand Prix where his Mercedes team-mate George Russell retired due to a power unit issue, which brought an early end to their epic battle. Russell now trails Antonelli by 43 points in the Drivers’ Championship, but the Mercedes pair are not expected to have it all their own way this weekend.
But Monte Carlo is the most unique circuit of the season, short, narrow and unforgiving with no real straights. McLaren will be looking to bounce back from a miserable Canada where they failed to score points in the Grand Prix after strategic errors, driver mistakes and unreliability.
Following that disastrous weekend, Lando Norris was quick to label Ferrari as the favourite for Monaco, which was backed up not much later by his team principal, when Andrea Stella held his media session. He pointed to the data, which showed Ferrari is competitive in low speed corner and the way it rides the kerbs, coupled with the power deficit, is why it believes it will suffer less from its power deficit in the principality.
As a result, some of the pre-Monaco comments should be taken with a pinch of salt, but Ferrari’s strengths are a separate matter. They mean that Fred Vasseur’s team unquestionably looks like a force to be reckoned with on the streets of Monte Carlo.
Max Verstappen revealed after qualifying in Montreal that Red Bull had not followed his set-up feedback. The Dutchman also highlighted another issue: despite an entirely new set of regulations, the ride issues over bumps and kerbs are still there. This might be another difficult weekend as Laurent Mekies as suggested fixing the issues would make the car slower
Like Verstappen, the team principal expressed confidence that the issues can still be solved in 2026 through other means, although the question remains on what timescale. In that respect, Monaco will provide a first test.
Qualifying is always a spectacle in Monaco, but there is the expectation the characteristics of this circuit might give us the first flat-out qualifying of the season as energy management shouldn’t be as critical here. The stop-start street circuit has plenty of braking zones and corners to recharge the battery and not enough long straights to deploy all that energy.
Add to that the normal things the narrow streets, and risks of crashing, impeding and getting strategy calls, this could be a very interesting weekend. Drivers moaning about being held up by cars on prep laps or cool-down laps are a frequent feature of modern grand prix qualifying, and none more so than around the tight streets of Monaco where there is little room for manoeuvre.
The forecast predicts a dry and bright weekend of racing in Monte Carlo. Friday’s practice sessions and Saturday’s qualifying are set to be sunny with a gentle breeze, with temperatures reaching a high of 24C. For Sunday’s grand prix, which starts at 15:00 local time, the weather will be pleasant once again, with a top temperature of 25C during the race.
EXPLAINED | Active Aero ban
This weekend, the FIA has banned the use of active aero, a system that allows greater speeds on straights and more grip in the corners. But it will be off limits to them at the Monaco Grand Prix, and locked in maximum downforce cornering mode, for safety reasons.
The new regulations introduced this season mean the cars dynamically adjust the angle of both their front and rear wings depending on where they are on any given circuit. On the straights, the flaps move to their ‘open’ position and engage a low-drag mode, flattening the wings to reduce drag and increase top speed, while in the corners, the flaps sit in their default ‘closed’ position to maintain downforce and help provide grip.
Effectively, the cars will be locked into ‘corner mode’ all weekend, as there are no straights which are long enough. Monte Carlo is effectively corners linked by slightly curving ‘straights’ or flat-out sections, like between Portier (Turn Eight) and Nouvelle Chicane (Ten-Eleven).
In short, cars will effectively be locked in Corner Mode for the entire Monte Carlo weekend. The FIA have made this decision with safety in mind, given that the street track features few straights and is otherwise made up of tight, twisty sections.
Several factors are considered when the FIA sets these zones, including a minimum zone duration, tyre grip margins and speed control in critical corners. In terms of minimum durations, each zone must last more than three seconds, thus avoiding extremely short activations that would add to driver workload and deliver little benefit in performance or fuel efficiency.
Overtake Mode, which replaced DRS (the Drag Reduction System) as a new power mode that allows a driver to recharge more electrical energy, and generate an additional electrical power profile, so they can sustain a higher speed for a longer period.
However, like DRS in previous years, there is only one zone along the start/finish straight – as mentioned above, one of the few straights around the lap. A slight tweak in this area will see the introduction of a ‘Rev 1’ engine map, which limits power from the MGU-K (Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic) earlier than normal.
While the electric motor usually delivers the maximum 350kW boost until cars hit 290 km/h, the Rev 1 map will force MGU-K deployment to start reducing in power from the 200 km/h mark, again with safety in mind.
Binotto sets out Audi’s objectives
Mattia Binotto has very clear ideas about Audi’s objectives, especially in the long term, which is crucial as it means having a precise roadmap of the steps required to turn ambition into success. The team in their first five races have appeared to build a strong foundation with the Italian claiming the team has the fourth-best chassis in the field.
The team, which currently sits ninth in the constructors’ standings, is presumably behind Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren in Binotto’s eyes, with Red Bull currently further back but credited with the second‑best engine.
Binotto told the Beyond the Grid podcast, “I’m very pleased by the chassis. Even discussing that with drivers, not only GPS telemetry analysis. First, we got a good correlation with the wind tunnel and the simulator.”
“That’s in terms of platform from the engineering, that was the most important thing. Again, in our process and methodologies, we’ve done a step forward. But, I think our car is pretty fast in the corners. We believe that maybe we’re even the fourth team in terms of chassis, which as an ex-Sauber, it’s an outstanding result.”
This conclusion backs up what Binotto has been saying all season, Audi is still lacking on the power unit side, however. The team has faced reliability issues so far this year, with one of its drivers missing the start due to technical issues at both the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix.
Despite that, Audi has made a solid start as a brand new manufacturer and looks on par with Red Bull/Ford. But there is still margined to improve compared to top teams, the goal is to make a decisive leap forward with the power unit.
Binotto believes that closing the gap as early as 2027 is unrealistic, making 2028 a far more credible target regardless of how the regulations evolve. 2028 would be halfway to the 2030 target when they want to be fighting for wins and podiums, but he is aware they need a mixture of both power unit and aero.
Binotto has mapped out a step‑by‑step path, because transforming one of F1’s smallest teams in terms of personnel into a championship‑calibre operation takes time. It is a journey that will require advances through both people and infrastructure. Adding, “the roadmap is first to become competitive as a team and maybe a challenger, and then a true, let me say, potential competitor for the win and final win.”
“Now, 2026 is our very first season as Audi, and somehow to become competitive is really what we have set ourselves as an ambition and a target objective for the season, which is not the number of points, not the number of maybe Q3 or whatever positions in the championship. It’s the mentality transformation.”
Bottas dismisses speculation about future
Valtteri Bottas criticised the “b*******” rumours linking him to an early exit from the Cadillac outfit after a tricky start to the season. There has been rumour from certain outlets and sources that the Finn could lose his seat during the season, which were prompted by him being out performed by teammate Sergio Perez.
But with a two-year contract at Cadillac, Bottas is ignoring the rumours as the 10-time grand prix winner thinks “headlines” and “clicks” are the only reason they started ahead of Monaco this weekend.
Bottas, whose seat was constantly under question during his five-season stint at Mercedes between 2017 and 2021 said, “It’s part of the sport, it’s not the first time I face those kind of rumours, but it’s a bit of a shame that somebody just makes up complete bulls***.”
“But that’s normal in this sport, and I know my situation, team knows my situation, they support me 100%, so that’s why from my side it was okay in the end.” Both Cadillac drivers are used to these kinds of questions given there experiences with Mercedes and Red Bull, when they were teammates with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
Cadillac is without a point this season having been a backmarker as expected and it is not since round two in Shanghai that Bottas has finished ahead of Perez on the road.
You can join us for coverage of this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix with reports and analysis on our website and in This Grand Prix, on Sunday evening. FP1 starts Friday 13:30 CEST / 12:30 BST, Qualifying Saturday 16:00 / 15:00, and the Grand Prix Sunday 15:00 / 14:00
