F1 Driver Form: Monaco Grand Prix

Max Verstappen’s Monaco career got off to a very good start as he finished second fastest in Free Practice 1 with Toro Rosso in 2015 with his first laps of the track. Since then, Verstappen’s Monaco appearances have been somewhat hit and miss.

His 2015 race here came to an early end after he collided with the rear of Romain Grosjean. He failed to finish again in 2016 in a crash-strewn weekend. He clipped the barrier at Casino in Free Practice 3, crashed out at the Swimming Pool complex in Q1 and crashed out of the race at Massenet. He also missed out on qualifying in 2017 following a crash in the final practice session.

Since then, Verstappen has scored on all five visits to Monaco, finishing on the podium for the first time with his 2021 victory. He finished third in 2022. He could have finished on the podium in the 2019 race here, if not for a five second time penalty for a pit-lane incident.

Verstappen’s best qualifying result at the circuit is second, in 2021, and he became the de facto polesitter when Charles Leclerc was unable to start the race.

Sergio Perez became a Monaco Grand Prix winner in 2022, taking victory at the famous street circuit. His fourth place in 2021 was the first time he has scored at the circuit since taking a podium finish in 2016.

From 11 Monaco appearances, Perez has scored four times, finished outside of the points four times, recorded two DNFs and failed to start in 2011 after suffering a huge qualifying crash. Despite the crash, Perez had already reached Q3, and since then he has failed to reach Q3 at the circuit only twice. He did not set a lap time in 2012, and was eliminated in Q1 in 2019.

In 2022, Perez qualified in the top six at the circuit for the first time, doing so by setting the third fastest Saturday lap time. Prior to last year, his best grid position at the track was seventh – a position which he has started the Monaco Grand Prix from on four occasions.

Charles Leclerc failed to reach the chequered flag on any of his first three appearances at the Monaco Grand Prix. He was out in the closing stages in 2018 after a brake failure, while he clattered into Nico Hulkenberg in the 2019 running of the race. In 2021, Leclerc took pole for the race before crashing at the end of the qualifying session. He was then unable to rbrn start the race due to gearbox issues.

He finally reached the chequered flag in 2022, but there was more disappointment. He took pole position for the second consecutive season but finished only fourth – a result of poor strategy. He had a Saturday to forget in 2019 when he was eliminated in Q1.

In his seven visits to the Monaco Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz has never failed to score. In 2021, he recorded his first Monaco Grand Prix podium result with second place and finished as runner-up again in 2022.

Sainz has also never missed out on Q3 at the track, and has a best qualifying result of second in 2022. He started from the pit lane in 2015, but still managed to score. 2021 was the first time that Sainz was out-qualified by his team-mate at the circuit.

Lewis Hamilton has won in Monaco three times, in 2008, 2016 and 2019. He has a 100% finish rate at the track, with 2009 being the only season that he has failed to score. He recorded his worst result since then in 2022, finishing eighth. Hamilton has finished on the podium at the Monaco Grand Prix seven times.

Hamilton has taken pole in Monaco twice, in 2015 and 2019, and has started from the front row a further three times. 2009 and 2017 are the only years that he has failed to qualify in the top ten.

In his 15 appearances, Hamilton has been out-qualified by his team-mate more often than not.

From his two appearances prior to 2022 at the Monaco Grand Prix, George Russell did not finish above 14^th place. He recorded his first points at the track in 2022, finishing fifth.

From his three qualifying appearances, Russell exited in Q1 in 2019, was eliminated in Q2 in 2021 and reached Q3 in 2022. He qualified sixth last year, two positions ahead of his team-mate. He is yet to be out-qualified by a team-mate at the track.

Russell had a weekend to forget in Monaco in 2018, as he retired from both the F2 Feature and Sprint races.

From his four previous appearances at the Monaco Grand Prix, Esteban Ocon has scored twice. He recorded his best result to date here in 2018, finishing sixth, and finished ninth last year. He has a 100% finish rate at the track, having finished 12^th on both his first appearance in 2017 and his last in 2022.

Ocon reached Q3 at the Monaco Grand Prix for the second time in 2022, qualifying in tenth. He recorded his best qualifying result at the track to date in 2018, with sixth place.

For the first time in four appearances, Pierre Gasly failed to score points at the Monaco Grand Prix in 2022. He narrowly missed out, finishing 11^th. From his three previous appearances, Gasly finished seventh in 2018 with Toro Rosso and bettered that with a fifth place result for Red Bull in 2019. He finished sixth with AlphaTauri in 2021.

Last year was also the first time Gasly has failed to reach Q3 at the Monaco Grand Prix. His best qualifying result here is fifth, recorded in 2019. He was out in Q1 last year, failing to out-qualify his team-mate at the track for the second time.

2021 is the only time Gasly has finished the Monaco Grand Prix in a worse position than where he started.

Lando Norris scored for the first time in Monaco in 2021, taking the final spot on the podium. He narrowly missed out on points on his maiden appearance here in 2019, finishing 11^th. Norris finished in the top six for a second consecutive season in 2022.

Norris reached Q3 here for the first time in 2021, qualifying in fifth place. He qualified fifth again in 2022, out-qualifying his team-mate for the second year in a row.

Norris raced at Monaco in F2 in 2018, finishing sixth in the Feature Race and taking a podium finish in the Sprint Race, coming home in third place.

Oscar Piastri secured consecutive second place finishes in the F2 races in Monaco in 2021. After finishing eighth in the first Sprint Race, Piastri finished less than a second away from second Sprint Race winner Dan Ticktum and just three seconds away from Feature Race winner Théo Pourchaire.

From nine Monaco Grand Prix appearances, Valtteri Bottas has scored only four times. He did not score at the circuit until joining Mercedes in 2017. He finished fourth that year, before finishing fifth in 2018 and scoring his first Monaco podium with third place in 2019. Om his first appearance with Alfa Romeo here in 2022, Bottas finished ninth.

He retired from the race in 2021 following a botched pit stop. It was his second retirement at the circuit, having also retired in 2014.

Like his race results, Bottas did not reach Q3 at Monaco until he joined Mercedes. He started from the front row at the circuit for the first time in 2019. In 2022, he failed to reach Q3 for the first time since 2016. Bottas gained three positions over the course of the 2022 race – it was the first time he gained positions from where he started in Monaco since 2015.

On his Monaco Grand Prix debut last year, Zhou Guanyu finished in 16^th place. He did so having set the slowest time in qualifying and lining up 20^th on the grid.

Zhou raced at Circuit de Monaco in 2021 in Formula 2, in which he won the first Sprint Race.

Fernando Alonso won the Monaco Grand Prix in 2006 and 2007, becoming the only driver in F1 history to win the event in successive years with different teams. Alonso has a further two podium finishes to his name here, both recorded with Ferrari in 2011 and 2012.

The Spaniard has retired from the event four times, while his tenth place in 2008 and thirteenth in 2021 are the only times he’s finished a Monaco Grand Prix in a position outside of the points. In 2022, his seventh place finish marked hte first time Alonso has scored in Monaco since 2016.

Alonso has lined up on the front row here on three occasions, including with pole positions in 2006 and 2007. 2010, when he failed to set a lap in qualifying, and 2021 are the only times he’s been eliminated in Q1 here, while 2015 is the only other time he’s failed to reach Q3 in Monaco.

Aside from the races which he won, Alonso has led a further three laps here. He led for a single lap in the 2004, 2011 and 2012 Monaco Grands Prix.

Lance Stroll scored his best Monaco Grand Prix finishing position so far in 2021 with eighth place. It was the first time he scored points at the event. He retired from the race in 2017 and failed to finish above 14^th on his other three appearances.

The Canadian is yet to out-qualify a team-mate at the circuit. He recorded his fourth Q1 exit at the Monaco Grand Prix in 2022, having scored his best qualifying result – and only non-Q1 exit – at the circuit in the previous season, with 13^th place. 2021 is the only time he has not qualified 18^th here.

Kevin Magnussen has scored a total of two points at the Monaco Grand Prix, with tenth place finishes in 2014 and 2017. He recorded his second retirement here in 2022, having last failed to finish in Monaco in 2016.

Magnussen’s best qualifying result here is sixth, which is where he qualified with Haas in 2019. He also reached Q3 with McLaren in 2014.

From nine previous appearances at the Monaco Grand Prix, Nico Hulkenberg has scored points on four occasions. His best finish here is fifth place, recorded in 2014. Hulkenberg has failed to reach the chequered flag twice in Monaco, in 2010 and 2017.

2016 is the only season in which Hulkenberg has progressed to Q3 at the Monaco Grand Prix. He qualified fifth that year. The German has never been eliminated in Q1 here, exiting in Q2 on every other appearance. On six of those eight occasions, Hulkenberg qualified in 11^th place. He has started from the top ten three times – having moved up to tenth on the final grid due to penalties for other drivers in 2012 and 2017.

Yuki Tsunoda is yet to finish above 16^th in his two visits to the Monaco Grand Prix so far. He finished 16^th in 2021 and 17^th in 2022. Tsunoda reached Q2 for the first time at the circuit last year and out-qualified his team-mate at the track for the first time, qualifying in 11^th place. Tsunoda has finished in a worse position than where he started on both visits to Monaco.

Nyck de Vries took two victories in Formula 2 at Circuit de Monaco. He won the 2017 Sprint Race and took victory in the 2019 Feature Race. De Vries has also raced at Monaco in Formula E. He retired from the 2021 Monaco E-Prix and finished tenth in 2022.

Alex Albon has made two appearances at the Monaco Grand Prix. He finished in ninth place with Toro Rosso in 2019 but failed to finish the race with Williams last season. Albon reached Q3 in 2019 bur was eliminated in Q1 in 2022.

Logan Sargeant has raced at Monaco in Formula Renault Eurocup, in 2018, and in Formula 2, in 2022. Sargeant secured two top ten finishes in Formula 2 here last year.