Monte Carlo Wrap Up

The streets of Monte Carlo delivered another unforgettable weekend, and P22 is here to break it all down. This week, Andy recaps the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix, including Kimi Antonelli’s dominant pole-to-win performance, Lewis Hamilton’s relentless pressure, Isack Hadjar’s podium finish, and the chaos that unfolded throughout the field.

Plus, construction updates, flood recovery, fever recovery, and the cruise countdown before diving into the latest F1 news. We cover Ferrari’s impressive pace all weekend, qualifying reactions from the barbershop, safety cars, restarts, crashes, penalties, heartbreak for Pierre Gasly, DNFs for Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, and Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso scoring points, and Racing Bulls’ double-points finish.

Was this the weekend Kimi officially became the title favorite? Tune in as we hand out Driver of the Weekend, P22 of the Week, and look ahead to Barcelona.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Five in a row for the young buck, bro. What's up, guys? Welcome back to P22, your F1 podcast. We are everything F1, F1 news, F1 updates, all the beefs, all the rivalries, the good, the bad, and the ugly, all right here. My name is Andy. Thanks so much for hanging out with us today. This is P22, back of the pack, front of the vibes. We have a great time on this podcast. We have fun. We're not serious. We don't know what we're talking about. But for some reason, we've been making killer predictions. Kimmy back on the bounce. Five in a row for your boy. People doubted him. People thought Ferrari had it this week. I held strong. I'm super pumped. Glad to have you guys on the pod today. Let's get rolling. Alright, the Monaco Grand Prix wrap-up. What a race. I know everyone always says it's like the boring race of the weekend, but honestly, that was amazing. Like the qualifying was awesome, practice was awesome. The race was amazing. So many, you know, um dramatic starts and flags and crashes, and it was just nuts. It wasn't like an overtake back and forth style race that we're used to seeing, but it was amazing, honestly. I loved it. I was never that uh locked in. Like I've watched all the races in the last like two years, most of the um sprints and most of the qualifying, but this was different. This was amazing. I was locked in and literally screaming at my phone watching it. It was so awesome to watch. Life's been rolling over here in Melbourne Man, construction every single day, kicking my butt. We uh once we get past one roadblock, we have another roadblock that's twice as important. So it's uh been chewing me up and spit me out, but I'm happy and uh humbled to uh keep rolling on that. We had a flood last week, which kind of threw a wrench in things, but uh we able to get back on pace where we were before the flood and uh no serious damage as of right now. So that's good. And uh we're rolling, so that is behind us officially. The fever actually are having a good weekend. Uh Caitlin Clark had a buzzer beater, which was nice and fun to see them actually scoring points and winning games. I don't know what's going on with that team, I don't know what's going on with the coaching over there, but they need to make an adjustment because they have the best basketball player in women's sports, and she's getting all this hate online, they're not winning games, the coach doesn't like her, she's hurt, she's out of shape, so something needs to go on, and they need to figure this out because they're about to destroy the first three years of the GOAT's career. We leave for the cruise on Sunday, so bunch of stuff going on in life right now. Got a full day, three more full days of cutting, and then I'm outy. I'm out this piece. So really excited for that. Be patient with me on the episodes for next week because I'm not sure how I'm gonna be able to do them. I might just do them from my AirPods or my phone or whatever, but I'm not sure what that would look like. I might even want to live stream the race on Sunday and do like a live reaction, so we'll see. Stay tuned on social media, go ahead and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcast, all the major networks. I appreciate your support, appreciate you guys sharing. Go check out my other videos. We've been getting some really good traction lately, some uh bunch of traction overseas and some random countries, which is really cool. Let me know what you're guys listening from. Message me online, let me know where you're listening from. I would love to connect with some of our followers, some of our listeners, get some more content in here that you guys want to listen to, not just hear me ramble and babble about random stuff. And the reason that we're all here, F1 News, baby. So uh we're going over Monaco Grand Prix, and we have Barcelona next week. So back-to-back races for the first time in a while, which is a beautiful thing. And uh let's get into it, man. So the championship standings are pretty crazy now. We have Kimi out ahead by 65 points, I think it is, and a new a new second placer, Lewis Hamilton, took over George Russell's spot after George Russell two DNFs in a row. Well, no, two non-points in a row, I should say. So Kimmy's out in front. Lewis and Ferrari definitely closing in. Ferrari, if they keep racing out of the racing, they're going to get that second constructor spot. This is Charles' first race, he didn't finish all season, so um lost some points there, but they're still on the bounce. Racing Bulls, huge year. I mean, they're having a great season, but to have two high points finishes like that, they should be very happy, and that should put them well ahead in like that fourth to sixth range for the constructors. They should be well ahead of all every all the mid-pack. And uh Gasly and Alpine, they will be appealing the penalty that took Gasly off the podium. He finished third. Everybody had penalties this week. Everybody had, I mean, pit lane penalties, stupid off track penalties, all kinds of stuff. So he got nicked off the podium while he was in his victory lap, which is a bummer. I know it was really hard to see for the kid, but that's how it is, man. Penalties are penalties, and I don't think that his gonna get his appeal passed, but we'll see. Feel bad for the kid. The streets of Monaco. It was sick, man. So many famous people there. There's the crowds, the hotels, the boats, the atmosphere. Like, I definitely understand why it is as important and a big deal as it is. It's very cool. I understand that it may not be the best race to watch with overtake, overtake, overtake, but I do think that for how exciting Saturday was, it made up for Sunday. And even Sunday, like, even though there wasn't overtakes, there's still strategy involved with pitting and waiting for the safety cars and knowing when to back up the traffic behind you and when to use up your battery. So I do think there's a little bit of driver skill involved in that. It's just not fully relying on, like, oh, I have a fast car, let me just go flat out. I think this race still remains a crown jewel for racing. I know that people want to see it mixed up, people want to see the track widened, people want to see different things. But if you watched that quality on Saturday, you would understand why this is one of the mechos. It's so much chaos and there's so much carnage that it just makes for glued to the TV entertainment. A little breakdown of the week. So Ferrari was untouchable in free practice one and two, like clearly out and ahead. And I was nervous. I was very nervous. And then, you know, they appeared to have the pace all weekend. But then Saturday came, and whether it was expectations, whether it was pushing to the limit, whether they changed something and they didn't have the juice on Saturday, I don't know. But Kimmy, Saturday morning before um the final free practice, destroys both of them and then goes out and qualifying and kicks everyone's ass. Lewis and Charles were third and fourth. Max got second. So there was definitely something happened on Sunday that either Red Bull and and Mercedes woke up or Ferrari made a change that had them uh dialed back a little bit. So qualifying came. Kimmy grabs poll, amazing. I'm watching it in the barbershop, washing my phone, screaming up and down, watching this dude win by literally 0.0001. It was amazing. It was on his final lap. They were all on their final lap. Charles Rex, I thought that the the session was gonna be red flagged. They let Kimmy finish his session, and I'm legitimately screaming, and it was amazing, bro. To have Kimmy up there with Max, Lewis, Charles, George, like all these studs, vets, like these guys have been around Monaco, Alonzo, Aukon, like these guys know and love Monaco, Perez, like, and he just gave it to all of them. I don't even know if the kid has pressure on him at this point. Like, I know that there's pressure to win the drivers championship, but at this point, he can have three or four third, fourth, fifth, sixth place wins, and he would still be that far ahead. He would need the next three guys to go win like ten races in a row, and him to not score points to like make it, and it's not gonna happen. Like, even if he has a bad day, he's gonna get top five. Period. His car is that fast, he is that composed, that I can't see him unless he has mechanical failure or crashes. So even though Ferrari's speed was legit and Ferrari's improving, and probably possibly the best two weeks Ferrari's had in three years, I still don't think that they can hold a hold a candle to him. I really don't. Fast forward to Sunday morning. So I was just amped up at church watching this. I I work at a church on Sundays, and we don't start till 9.30. So I had, you know, 8.50, I'm locked into my phone, and I see the formation lap, I'm you know, sweating, goosebumps, waiting for the lights to go out, and I just see Max's receptions.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Do do extra stepping.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Buddy's lights, his little yellow flashlights turn on and his car reset. And the lights go out, and everyone flies by him. Very dangerous, for one. But his race was over before it even got started. And we were gonna see something crazy because even though it's Monaco and there's not overtakes, Max would have gone for this. He would have taken that risk into turn one, he would have fought for it with everything that he had to get Kimmy off that line and possibly win the race. I don't know if it would have happened because of how quick and composed Kimmy is, but just not even be able to see it, huge bummer. Then we get rolling, you know? We got out in front, a couple crashes, a couple safety cars, two restarts. So Kimmy had to not only start perfect the first time, but he had to start perfect again. There was a late race safety flag with nine laps left, and they all, you know, they're out of their cars, they're drinking water, they were they were done. Like they were cooled off. I can't imagine what that would do to your psyche to have to, you know, talk to your engineers outside the car, have to get out, go to the bathroom. Like Lewis is riding around on this scooter, running through the cameras. It's just there's so much happening in those restarts and those red flags. And I feel like the session was closed for like 20 minutes. Like it was it was kind of crazy. And um, in that time, the stewards were just working over time, time penalties were getting slapped on because everybody had to keep keep doing these drive-through pit penalties, and they're getting extra penalties for speeding through the pit lane on the drive-throughs. It was it was insane. There was so much happening, and uh then, like I said, the Pierre Gasly heartbreak were and the final restart with nine laps left, and he thinks that he's set free to get a podium, and he doesn't. Lewis had had uh put pressure on Kimmy the entire time. Kimmy got space out in front, but after the restart, after the two yellow flags, one red flag. Lewis is on his tail, and Kimmy still didn't hiccup. Like, not one mistake, not one lockup, not one wide, nothing. Literally a flawless masterclass of a drive. Youngest ever win, Monaco. He couldn't have been more composed. At the same time, he couldn't have been more under pressure by these guys that were wanted it behind him. We're watching this kid grow up right in front of our eyes, and I truly don't know when I see him losing a race. Like, he is going to win the majority of the rest of these seas of the season, and almost to the point where like a 2023 match for Stappen, like, can he go win 20 races this year? I don't know. I I truly don't know. But on a weekend like this, where you would think that Mercedes isn't gonna go and just dominate, he still did. So, like, they don't they they didn't they didn't have the fastest car this week. George Russell proved that, and he went out and still won it. The DNFs this week were unfortunate, especially if you are a Lando, Max, or Charles fan. Very um unfortunate to see these guys DNF, but when you are pushing and pushing and pushing, and these walls are that slim and these corners are that tight, it happens, man. And Charles is blaming his brakes and the road. I get that. Not really sure what happened to Lando and Max, but mechanical failures, like I get it. It sucks. But we gotta do better, guys. We gotta make sure these cars are finished in these races. Some uh midfield winners that we have to kind of pay our respects to. Sergio Perez nearly got Cadillac's first point. I'm so bummed. He finished in ninth or tenth, and I was just so excited for us to get some points. Got bumped off with the penalty. But not all bad news because it um moved up Fernando Alonso, believe it or not, to score Aston Martin's first point in in like years. Um, which is crazy that they got on the on points with how bad that car is, but it's clearly the best the worst car in F1. Like it's it's not it close. And uh Alonso, you know, it just proves how much of a stud he is and how much he knows that track. He did it. Um Racing Bulls with Lawson and Limblad. I mean, how can you ask for better than that? I think I think they have like a 5-6 finish or something like that, which is just I mean, it's amazing. We'll get into our top three. So, in third place, Isaac Hadjar, he did not have pace this weekend. He looked very slow, but when you keep it between the lines and you don't make mistakes, and everyone else does, you get moved up. So he got his first podium, and uh he survived some technical dish some technical issues that I thought were gonna um halt him early. And it's a huge podium for Red Bull, honestly. Lewis Hamilton and P2. Clawed his way back into the championship fight. A second podium in a row. He keeps putting pressure on Kimmy, but him and Kimmy are clearly very close. And it's Ferrari's strongest weekend, I think, of the year, just between practice, quality, and race. Obviously, Charles didn't finish, but they are here to fight, and they want that constructors. I don't think they're gonna be able to catch Mercedes, but who knows, man? Who knows? Driver of the weekend. Come on, y'all know. At this point, I'm just gonna clip this part and save it for every race because poll, a win, a controlled restart, beating Lewis Hamilton with pressure, and nine laps left to go to Monaco. Five wins in a row, nineteen years old. Do I need to keep going? His name is Kimmy Antonelli.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Deep Pocket Monster.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Sorry, I always wanted to do that. Our P22 of the week, this is hard for me. I wanted to go with Stroll, but I'm gonna go with Pierre Gasly. I mean, to to you be on your victory lap and thinking you're on this podium, and then have to rip that dream away from you because of a pit lane penalty, it's very gutting and a stab through the heart. I feel very bad for the boy. So, my P-22 for this week, Pierre Gasly. Closing thoughts. Is Kimmy everyone's championship favorite? Because he's far and away my championship favorite. It's not even close. I don't think Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton can catch him or Mercedes, but I do think they can lock in second place. Racing Bulls, I think, is best in the midfield. I think that Alpine and Haas were flirting with it for a little while, but I do think Racing Bulls is the best mid-team. We have Barcelona this week, and just a heads up, Barcelona is not the Spanish Grand Prix anymore. That will be in Madrid now. So a little mix up there, and we will talk about that a little bit more in next week's episode. So I'm pumped about that. We'll get our predictions in for Barcelona and then I'll go on my cruise. So I'll see you guys soon. Love and appreciate you. P22 Andy Out.