Sphere3758 wrote: ↑26 May 2025, 11:55
Lazy wrote: ↑26 May 2025, 11:50
Seanspeed wrote: ↑25 May 2025, 22:09
I mean, he barely got pole and the win in very clearly the fastest car on the grid. He deserved the win, but I dont know that I'd consider it a terribly impressive performance overall.
Not sure it was clearly faster at this circuit, the Ferrari looked like it had the edge tbh.
Using Leclerc as a reference at Monaco to judge the Mclaren is unfair though. Since 2021, the guy has either been on pole or a tenth off, irrespective of the car. In a dominant car in 2022, he would have gotten pole by 6 tenths.
Should we use Hamilton as a reference instead who was beaten by Bottas by more than 5 tenths in Monaco Q twice, and on the 2nd occasion, in 2021 it would be 8 tenths at very least had Bottas completed his second run. Only he and Max was improving massively and either of them would've gotten that pole. Meanwhile both Ham and Lec had both runs but were slower than their 1st runs.
Leclerc is extremely good on street circuits of course. He is probably the only driver who says they are his favorites circuits. (most fav's are spa and suzuka, few brits say silverstone). But that doesnot mean Leclerc miraculously finds pace that is not there in the car, his pace rather comes from his ability to put all together in Q3. When it comes to his teammate, his only real reference around Monaco is Sainz. In 2021 they were dead equal on theoreticals, and Sainz was more than 0.15s faster on S1 alone, which means there was significantly more in that car. Sainz also had traffic and messed up Q3 run. In 2023 there was just 0.15s between them in Q3, less than a tenth on theoreticals. In 2022 and 2024 it was bigger - 0.25s, but still nothing really like truly incredible, given it's Sainz, who was for reference 3 tenths slower than Max in 2015 and totally nowhere next to Albon last weekend, and this time new car excuse doesn't work obviously, he was on it already in the previous couple of weekends. Ferrari is fast in Monaco, that is a fact, you can't say it's just Charles. It's barely possible to say with full confidence if it was faster or slower than the Mclaren Over one lap because Norris is no slouch in Monaco either. His Q3 lap in 2021 was the best of all in the top 5 IMO, he nearly got eventual pole in a car that was lacking so much compared with top 3.