20/05/2019
NEWS STORY
Monaco is Formula 1's original street circuit. It featured on the inaugural World Championship calendar in 1950, since then the track layout has stayed largely unchanged. It's the shortest track of the year, yet it remains one of the greatest driving challenges in the world.
Many of the race's traditions from 70 years ago remain in place today, such as the first two practice sessions happening on the Thursday, not the Friday, and the race winner having dinner in the Grimaldi Palace with Prince Albert on Sunday evening.
Carlos Sainz: "Monaco is such a special race on the F1 calendar. The history, the track and the atmosphere the whole week makes it something absolutely unique. Obviously, it can be very tricky to overtake here, so setting the car up on Thursday and Saturday morning is more crucial here than anywhere else for a strong result in quali and hopefully the race. My focus this weekend is on consistency and finding the limit with patience and confidence in the car. I've always been in Q3 and scored points here in the past, so the target is to keep that record going for this year and improve as much as possible."
Lando Norris: "I'm looking forward to heading back to Monaco, it's a really cool circuit and I managed to get on the podium there last year in F2. This track requires all your concentration and there's never really a break anywhere around the lap.
"There's a lot of focus on getting it right on Saturday – it can really make or break your weekend as there aren't many overtaking opportunities there come Sunday. My target is to put in a good performance in quali and place ourselves in a position to take advantage of any mid-race drama. The key to scoring points here is to ensure we have a clean race."
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: "Monaco presents us with a unique challenge within the F1 season. The importance of qualifying is even higher there than at other tracks and it will be especially important that our trackside processes and operations work as they should. Points are on offer, but only if we ensure that the weekend runs smoothly.
"We've also been working hard since the test in Spain to analyse the information gathered and understand more about the characteristics of our car and the upgrades we brought there, and apply that learning this weekend.
"Given the nature of the Monaco circuit and the scenarios that regularly play out there, pit-stops and the right strategy calls can often play a pivotal role in the outcome of the race. In Spain, we proved that we can execute the fastest pit-stops on the grid and that we have a strategy team which excels in making the right calls in the heat of the moment. Maintaining and improving this high standard is one of our priorities for this weekend."