F1 2017: Monaco GP Review

The most glamorous and most likely most historical race of the season has taken place last weekend: The Grand Prix of Monaco has been part of the calendar since the start of the F1 world championship and from that moment on, it's been one of the favorite races for many of the drivers in the field.

Perhaps the most shocking news towards the Monaco GP came by early, with the announcement of Fernando Alonso opting to participate in the Indianapolis 500 over the Monaco GP. Last years' retiree Jenson Button was set for a one-off comeback in Monaco,

The race itself was almost anything but exciting, which may come to the cars being faster and having even more down force created by the cars to make overtaking even harder than what it usually was. The most exciting part was the crash between Wehrlein and Button, resulting in Wehrlein flipping on his side and a DNF for both drivers.

Winners of the weekend:

Ferrari:

Ferrari showed what they are capable of on Thursday and they kept that momentum during the rest of the weekend. A very solid 1-2 finish for the Scuderia also meant the first victory in Monaco in 16(!) years: Michael Schumacher back in 2001 was the last Ferrari driver to win the prestigious event. 

Carlos Sainz Jr.:

Strong, solid weekend by the Spaniard. Showing great pace over the whole weekend and also beating the Mercedes of Hamilton, these results are required for him to attract attention from the top teams. He is doing a great job all-year-long now and he should keep doing that, as I do believe he is one of the biggest talents in the F1 paddock, together with Verstappen and Ocon. 

Losers of the weekend:

Nico Hülkenberg:

Renault as a team had a tough weekend, but Nico in particular had lots of troubles to face. He did not manage to set a time in free practice 1, only 17th in free practice 2 and did not manage to finish the race due to a failure on his car. Let's hope for the German it will be his most difficult weekend, I still hope he has made the right call by joining Renault over staying with Force India. 

Lewis Hamilton:

What's said about Nico is also relative for Lewis: He struggled almost all weekend long with overheating tires. He did not manage to qualify for Q3 and, due to the type of track, he wasn't able to get forward as easy as he would have done on other tracks. He did manage to score a couple of points and that is the most important thing to do to stay in contention for the world championship battle.

Marcus Ericsson:

The awards of biggest error behind a safety car goes to..... Marcus Ericsson!!! What a **** way to finish your race, understeering off into the barriers of the first corner. With all respect to the Sauber F1 team, they signed a great talent with Pascal Wehrlein, but a horrible choice with Marcus Ericsson. He was picked over Felipe Nasr, who most likely saved Sauber with his points finish in Brazil last year, but hasn't shown that he is worth the seat for more than a year.

Fernando Alonso:

He was not in Monaco, true, but it would be disrespectful not to mention his performance in the Indy500. After a slow start dropping down to P9, he got in a rhythm and worked his way up to the lead of the race. He stayed in contention for a historical victory, until his Honda engine blew on the start/finish straight with just over 20 laps to run. He showed great pace and understanding of oval racing without taking huge risks on the track.