Monaco GP: Teams and Drivers report from Monte Carlo

The Monaco GP did not deliver exciting racing despite Formula 1 and the FIA mandating two pitstops this year as the race turned out to be a tactical bore fest for both the drivers and the fans.

However, this will not reduce the significance of Norris' win as he closed on on Oscar Piastri in the drivers' championship and further away from Max Verstappen.

Mercedes had a nightmare of a weekend not scoring points while Ferrari's podium with Leclerc was not expected ahead of the weekend which cannot be said about Verstappen's struggles as his RB21 was always going to struggle around Monaco.

But here is what the other teams and drivers had to say after the 2025 Monaco GP.

Liam Lawson: "It was a great result for the team, and it's always nice to come away with points, which isn't the easiest around Monaco. Having both cars finish in the points was exactly what we needed. Everything came together nicely this weekend, and we executed the race perfectly. The strategy made sense for us today, with both cars qualifying well and showing strong pace throughout the weekend. The two-stop format didn't make a huge difference for us, it can create more opportunities but today's race played out fairly straight forwardly. The pace has been there for a few races now, so it was good to show it this weekend. Looking ahead to Barcelona, we'll aim to keep the momentum going. It's a very different kind of track, and we will need to get on top of the regulation changes, we will need to adapt as quickly as possible."

Isack Hadjar: "It was a perfect Sunday for us. I'm really happy, and honestly, there was nothing more I could have done today in the race, so I consider it kind of a small victory. We had a plan and we executed it perfectly. I'm really proud of what we achieved today as a team, with Liam also bringing home a P8 and helping me out there. It was a big team effort, and a double-points finish is a nice reward for all of us. I found it quite interesting having to do two stops; there was much more to think about before the race, and we made it work today with our strategy. Since last week in Imola, we picked up some pace and made a step forward, something that we were able to carry on to Monaco. I'm confident and I'm looking forward to going back racing in Barcelona in a few days."

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal: "What a brilliant result! It's hugely rewarding to get both cars into the points at one of the toughest races of the year. Our performance this weekend has been incredibly encouraging. Monaco is one of the most difficult races to manage from every aspect and everyone at the track, with vital support from those back in the factory, was on top of their game. Isack and Liam did not look like they were racing here for the first time in an F1 car and they have been incredible all weekend. Nothing came easily, and everyone had a very intense weekend to improve the car throughout the sessions. Ultimately it allowed us to put both our cars in Q3 yesterday. On a track where the driver really makes the difference, Isack and Liam deserve most of the credit for this result, and with the help of a great race strategy and teamwork from Liam, we got 12 more precious points. Our car is improving and now we go to Barcelona determined to keep fighting at the front of the midfield."

Pierre Gasly: "It is never good to end a race so early. Obviously, a very frustrating outcome for the team in the end, although, having seen how the race panned out, opportunities were very limited from starting far back on the grid. On the incident, I did not expect Yuki [Tsunoda] to move so much under braking. He made a mistake before the tunnel and then he started to brake on the left side of the track and then moved to the right so I was basically cornered with nowhere to go. We had pitted on the first lap and maybe that would have brought some opportunities later in the race. It appears most cars finished where they started other than retirements and penalties. We have to move forwards to Spain and aim to improve our level of performance."

Franco Colapinto: "Starting from eighteenth place today, it was a hard ask to enter the points especially in a race with such little action. I would say finishing in thirteenth was the maximum we could really do with all the traffic and different tactics from other teams on track. With Pierre's incident, we switched to do an earlier stop. From there, it was just a tough race to round off a difficult weekend here in Monaco. We struggled with low-speed balance and we just could not make the car work as we wanted here. We will continue our hard work ahead of the next Grand Prix in Spain at a more conventional track."

Flavio Briatore: "It was always going to be an uphill task given our starting positions. With Pierre, we wanted to try something different by pitting early and seeing what opportunities might come to us. Then he had an incident with Tsunoda and that was the end of Pierre's race. As we saw, other teams played games with some interesting takes on strategy. Franco did a good job, made no mistakes had good pace with what he could do in traffic and I am sure many learnings for him and a boost in confidence. Fundamentally, we are not fast enough. We will see in Spain at a more complete track with some intrigue around new wings. We will see how we fare."

Alex Albon: Today isn't how either Carlos or I want to go racing; it's not pretty but, in the end, it was a tactical game, and we had to make it work. The Racing Bulls did it first, and we knew if they started it, we had to match it. Realistically we lost the race on Saturday, and you pay the price here; you start where you finish and that was it. The weekend was a bit disappointing as it feels like we didn't maximise what we could have, but we've still come away with three good points for the team and we'll just keep chipping away at it.

Carlos Sainz: Today is not how we want to go racing and I think the way us and other teams were able to hold up the pace and build gaps shouldn't be what the Monaco Grand Prix is all about. We worked well as a team, but I understand the frustrations of the cars around us as we were victims ourselves. Looking at the positives, it's another double points finish at a weekend that we struggled more than expected in Qualifying. We now head to Barcelona for the final round of the triple-header, so I'm really looking forward to racing in front of my home crowd and hope to share with them a good weekend!

James Vowles, Team Principal: It's great to walk away with points with both drivers and brilliant to watch Alex and Carlos execute really strong teamwork to achieve that. We need to review the rules and regulations for Monaco, because racing like this feels wrong and I want us to be racing on performance and merit, and we're not quite there yet. Looking ahead to Barcelona, let's keep this run going. That's three races in a row with double points and there's lots of opportunity ahead of us.

Ollie Bearman: "Congratulations first of all to Esteban, I'm really happy the team scored some points today, it's a really nice feeling after a difficult weekend on my side of the garage. I think we did the maximum we could today as there were no points on the table with the way that the race panned out. The car was fantastic though, especially on Saturday, it was a good strategy today but with a 10-place grid penalty there were no points on offer today."

Esteban Ocon: "I think it's been a great weekend all around from qualifying to the race – we put everything together when it mattered. It's six points for the team which is a big thing, so it's very satisfying. We made a lot of progress, all the way up to qualifying, and we need to take that into account and really investigate how we can get more consistency going forward. Barcelona is a very different circuit, with a lot more downforce bias, and more engine bias – so we'll see what we can get there next weekend."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It's great for the team to get P7 with Esteban. Of course, there were so many scenarios in this race – so starting P8 and finishing P7 was a really good result. With Ollie starting from P20 we had to try something different, and we didn't quite get it right in terms of execution, but we tried everything. There were cars in front playing certain games so he couldn't make progress, but at some point, if it wasn't for the extreme gamesmanship, he would've had the chance to get up to P10. I think that's the best we could've done, but Ollie did have the pace this weekend, so he's learned a lot and it puts him in good stead for next year. The good thing was that the car was quick and drivers had pace, so the next race in Barcelona, it's a high-downforce circuit with a couple of high-speed corners, I think we're looking forward to it."

Fernando Alonso: "I had a problem with the engine since lap 15 so we were down on power. I thought we might be able to hold on because overtaking is very difficult here, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. We lost another great opportunity to score some good points today. I am happy with my performance this weekend and we move on to the next race for another opportunity to go again."

Lance Stroll: "It's Monaco, so when you have a tough Saturday, you know Sunday will always be a challenge. It was always going to be tricky starting from the back of the grid and it was not an exciting race with very few opportunities that could help us gain more positions today. We now turn the page and focus on Barcelona in a week's time."

Andy Cowell, CEO & Team Principal: "We really feel for Fernando today. A power unit issue appeared just after his pit stop and, despite managing it for a while, we eventually had to park the car. Until then, we had done everything right and had a great opportunity to score a decent amount of points. Lance's race was clean and tidy, but it proved difficult to progress up the field. The mandatory two stops rule didn't really open up many opportunities, although some of our competitors used team tactics to favour one of their cars."

Nico Hulkenberg: “I had a good start, gaining a position on the opening lap, but the rest of the race didn't unfold as we had hoped. Unfortunately, I frequently found myself caught in traffic, largely due to teams in front of us obviously executing strategic plays. Lapping three to five seconds per lap off the pace to open up pit windows for their teammates slowed me down massively and did not lead to an enjoyable race. Obviously, team plays are part of the sport, but from a racing standpoint, it was not what everyone was hoping for. Realistically, starting in the top 10 is probably the only way to avoid this, and while our own strategy and the pitstops were well executed, there was little we could do to achieve a better result.“

Gabriel Bortoleto: "Monaco has always been known for exciting qualifying and free practice sessions, but the races often end up being quite uneventful because overtaking is so difficult. Today wasn't any different, despite the sport trying something new with the tyre regulations; it didn’t really work out, and the team games that emerged made the race slow, with everyone running four or five seconds off their real pace, no tyre degradation, and overtaking impossible. My race was already in a difficult position after lap one, due to my incident with Kimi. It’s a shame because I made a solid move around the outside at the hairpin, gaining the position fairly, but then he tried a slightly optimistic move at Turn 8. He went a bit wide, and to avoid a collision with him, I ended up crashing into the wall, destroying my front wing and ultimately compromising my race. It’s frustrating because I felt that, without the incident, we could have been in a position to try playing the team game as well and maybe make some gains. Looking forward, we’ll continue working hard on the car and its set-up and, hopefully, it will help us improve our qualifying and race positions. Being consistently in Q2 or occasionally fighting for Q3 would allow us to be closer to the fight for the points."

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal: "The Monaco Grand Prix was defined by strategy and shaped more by the rules than by pure racing. On the opening lap, Gabriel pulled off a bold move around the outside at turn six to gain a position, but a late move from Kimi [Antonelli] at turn eight led to contact — I’d call it a racing incident. As a result, Gabriel came in for a nose and tyre change; we later switched to the softs on lap 35 when Carlos [Sainz] bunched up the field.

"With Nico, we boxed for the hard compound on lap 12 when Liam [Lawson] backed up the pack, and again for softs on lap 44 when Alex [Albon] did the same. On a circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult, this was a race where strategy ultimately dictated the outcome — and some teams were in a position to make the most of how the adapted sporting regulations work. It was one of those days where Racing Bulls, Williams, and Mercedes were clearly playing the team game, which definitely made things tougher for us.

“While I’d say the incident between Gabriel and Kimi was just hard racing, as a sport we do need to take a closer look at George’s [Russell] penalty and consider what can be learned — especially in races so heavily influenced by mandatory tyre usage rules like this one. Next up is Barcelona, and hopefully that’ll give us more of a chance to see some proper racing.”