Sundaram Ramaswami
The Monaco Grand Prix, although a historic event otherwise, didn’t produce the most exciting of races on Sunday. No yellow flags, no safety car periods, minimal overtakes and bizarre telecast cuts. Yet it provided a refreshing and welcome change when some unexpected faces took to the podium after 78 long laps. That result coupled with Mercedes’ disastrous race strategy and pitstop brought up more than a few interesting stats and facts.
Here are all the numbers from the 2021 Monaco GP –
GENERAL –
- Surprisingly, the race ran incident-free without a safety car appearance, a first since 2009.
- Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris are the only drivers to score points in every race this season.
- Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren shared the podium for the first time since USA 2012.
- This was the third-youngest podium in F1 history (average age of 23 years 11 months and 18 days). The youngest and second-youngest F1 podiums, Brazil 2019 and Italy 2008 respectively, too saw a Red Bull-owned team take the victory.
- Sunday’s race saw three drivers making their maiden Monaco GP podium appearance, something that last happened in 1996. That day, David Coulthard, Olivier Panis and Johnny Herbert, all stood on the Monaco rostrum for the very first time.
RED BULL –
- Verstappen became the first Red Bull driver to lead the drivers’ championship in the hybrid era. A feat, 7 years in the making.
- Verstappen is the only driver to stand on the podium in all five races this season.
- Sergio Perez scored his first points at Monaco since his podium appearance at the 2016 race.
- Whenever Red Bull have led the championship standings in an F1 season, they’ve eventually won the title later that year.
- A Honda-powered team leads the Constructors standings for the first time since 1991.
FERRARI –
- Carlos Sainz’s second-placed finish meant he kept his 100% scoring record at Monaco intact.
- Charles Leclerc’s home-race curse continues. This is his fifth non-finish at the Circuit de Monaco in as many attempts.
- Ferrari took their 6th podium at Monaco in 7 appearances during the hybrid era.
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McLAREN –
- Norris brought McLaren’s first podium at Monaco since 2011.
- Daniel Ricciardo endured a tough race and failed to score points in Monaco for the first time since 2014.
- With that, his 15-race points scoring streak, starting from the 2020 Belgian GP, came to an end.
ASTON MARTIN –
- With a P5 finish, Sebastian Vettel accumulated his first points since the 2020 Turkish GP.
- The four-time champion has seen the chequered flag 11 times at Monaco and has finished in the top-5 on each of those occasions.
- This was Aston Martin’s best race finish in F1. Their previous best was sixth at the 1959 British GP.
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MERCEDES –
- Mercedes’ 53-race streak as a championship leader came to a halt on Sunday, having previously led both championships since Germany 2018.
- This was Mercedes’ worst Monaco performance since 2011, where Michael Schumacher retired and Nico Rosberg finished 11th.
- The reigning champions were beaten by two of their customer cars (McLaren P3 & Aston Martin P5) on Sunday.
- Since the Sakhir GP, the third place on the rostrum has always been taken by a Mercedes-powered team.
- Mercedes have gone nine races without a one-two race finish, the longest they’ve ever been without one in the hybrid era.
ALPHATAURI –
- Pierre Gasly has scored in each of the last four races accumulating 16 points against Tsunoda’s 0.
ALFA ROMEO –
- Antonio Giovinazzi brought Alfa Romeo’s first points since the 2020 Emilia Romagna GP.
HAAS –
- Nikita Mazepin out-raced his Haas teammate for the first time this season.
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