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MONACO. — Monaco kicks off Formula One’s flood-delayed European season on Sunday with Fernando Alonso sensing a chance to end dominant Red Bull’s run of success at the most glamorous and historic of street circuits.
A home race for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Monaco would have been part two of a triple-header with Italy and Spain but the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix scheduled for Imola last weekend was called off due to devastating floods.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have won all five races so far this season by some distance, and the last two in Monaco.
They will be favourites again but, despite a history of processional races in the principality, the metal-fenced streets of Monte Carlo can bite back — particularly in the wet.
Italian Jarno Trulli took the sole win of his career there in 2004 and Frenchman Olivier Panis in a wet 1996 race, with only three cars still running at the finish.
Aston Martin’s Alonso, winner in Monaco with Renault and McLaren in 2006 and 2007, will be ready for any opportunity that comes his way after securing four third places so far in 2023.
“We seem to have a car that is maybe not the fastest on the straights. We need to improve that, but we are very good on the corners,” he told Sky Sports television when asked where he might win.
“I would say that the slowest speeds of the championship, let’s say Monaco, Budapest, Singapore; these kind of circuits, I think we put our main hopes at the moment.”
Leclerc has secured pole for the last two years but has yet to stand on the Monaco podium as a Formula One driver. — Reuters
Online Reporter