Articles by Mark Schofield

There is beauty in dominance.
In inevitability.
For example, consider the years where Tiger Woods was inevitable. Every time he hit a tee shot, you expected the ensuing “Tiger Twirl” of the club. Each time he entered a tournament, you expected a win. The dominance was there week-in, and week-out, and we celebrated it. We cherished it. We appreciated the dominance of the moment, a master of his craft who made every week exhilarating, even if it was inevitable.
Now let’s talk about Red Bull and Max Verstappen.
Through six races of the 2023 F1 season, Verstappen, Sergio Pérez, and Red Bull have been the clear class of the field. The RB19 is unbeatable on the track, and Red Bull has seen one of its drivers secure victory in each of the five races this season. Thanks to a win in Miami from Verstappen, with Perez posting a second-place finish, Red Bull has locked out the front row in four of the five six this season. Only Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso broke that streak, with Hamilton’s second-place finish in the Australian Grand Prix, and Alonso’s second-place finish in Monaco.
And the most inevitable finish of them all was perhaps three weeks ago in Miami.
Despite starting in ninth, Verstappen roared through the field, pushing his way into second place by Lap 15. Starting on hard tyres, it was just a matter of time before Pérez, who was on the mediums, would need to put, and in the process give Verstappen the lead. When he did, the defending Drivers’ champion pulled away, posting scorching lap after scorching lap on tyres that should have been slipping away from him. Instead, on Lap 35 – and on 35-lap-old tyres, Verstappen posted the fastest lap of the race.
Dominance.
And while Verstappen still had a pit stop of his own coming up, he came out of the box just 1.6 seconds down to his teammate Pérez, sitting in P2 Everyone at Hard Rock Stadium, or watching at home, knew what was coming.
Pérez could not even hold him off for a full lap.

The only thing that was missing was the Sunday red, like Tiger wears.
But as masterful as Verstappen was in Miami, perhaps his weekend in Monaco was even more impressive.
First there was what we saw Saturday in qualifying. Qualifying is basically the ballgame in the Monte Carlo streets. With overtaking almost impossible in the Grand Prix, if you want to win in Monaco you better be starting near the front.
As time wound out in the third and final qualifying session Fernando Alonso was sitting on provisional pole, and it was looking like Alonso was going to be starting up front on Sunday. Verstappen was on the track for the final qualifying run of the day, but was behind Alonso’s time through the first two sectors. Only the final sector — with seven of the track’s 19 turns — remained.
Somehow, some way, Verstappen pulled it off.
This split-screen view shows how both drivers worked through the final sector:

And here you can see how Verstappen closed the gap to Alonso:

Then there was the Grand Prix itself, when Verstappen managed to hold off the rain, and the entire field, for his second win in Monaco. On a week when Red Bull — and Verstappen himself — admitted it might be their toughest test to date, he came away with both the pole, and the win.
As fans, we cherish competition. We live for the home run in the bottom of the ninth. The game-winning drive in the final minutes. The game-winning three at the buzzer. But there is true beauty in what we have seen from Red Bull — and both Pérez and Verstappen — this year.
The RB19 has been the standard this entire season, dating back to pre-season testing. And despite those lofty expectations, and the host of praise thrown their way leading into the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Red Bull has not faltered. They have not wavered. Six wins in six races. Double podiums in four of the six, and a commanding lead in the Constructors’, putting them on course for a second-straight title.
Of course, there should be a massive amount of praise for Pérez, who through six races has turned this into a potential heavyweight bout for the Drivers’ championship. With wins in both Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, Perez has put himself right behind his teammate in the standings. While Pérez had a weekend to forget in Monaco, there is still time for him to remain in the fight.
Which would be a tremendous accomplishment, given the form of his teammate. Because as good as Perez has been, Verstappen has been that but better. And when you are talking about two of the best drivers in the world, every slim margin counts.
Verstappen is Thanos, snapping his fingers to hump from P9 to P1 like he did in Miami, or from P15 to P2 in Melbourne. Yes, it seems inevitable, and it might not make for great television. But there is beauty in the inevitably. In the dominance. In the execution. Every time Verstappen gets to engage DRS, or drives hard into a corner, we expect magic. Like every time Alex Ovechkin or Connor McDavid touches the puck, or Patrick Mahomes drops back, or Tiger tees it up.
Because as much as we love competition, we equally appreciate greatness. Or so we should. And that is what we are seeing right now. There are battles to be seen all over the grid each week. Those hoping to see overtakes, strategic decisions backfire, the ensuing consequences, and everything else motorsport has to offer can work their eyes through the field. Miami, for example, saw fantastic battles between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, or even Leclerc and Kevin Magnussen.
In Monaco while the fights during the Grand Prix were mostly at the back of the field, given the tight and tricky layout of the Monte Carlo streets, qualifying came down to the final moments and a true fight between Verstappen, Alonso, and Esteban Ocon.
There are fights all over the grid that we can enjoy.
But what is happening at the front is dominance right now, and yes, we can appreciate that too.
Because it does not last forever.
Just ask Toto Wolff, the Mercedes Team Principal.
After all, for a stretch of time Mercedes was the dominant team in the sport, and Hamilton was the best driver in the world, winning four-straight titles and six of seven from 2014 until 2020. That had the rest of the field trying to chase the Silver Arrows, and when Verstappen and Red Bull closed the gap, it set up one of the most memorable title fights in recent years, one which came down to the final lap of the season.
“F1 is a meritocracy,” said Wolff following the Monaco Grand Prix. “It’s sport, whether it is good for the show or not. Obviously a strong fight between 10 drivers or at least two, is much better for all of us but it is not happening, that is why you have to just accept that and work to get back there.”
Red Bull worked to get back there, and now they are the dominant force in the sport, with Verstappen leading the way.
“They have just done a good job,” Wolff added. “The car is fast in all conditions, the driver is at the top of his game, even on Sunday going off at times but to not DNF is a skill. You can see that he pushed, so all credit to them. We just need to do a better job, we need to catch up, find intelligent solutions. Hope that our learning slope, our development slope is steeper than theirs and eventually fight for this again.”
That is a cycle that Red Bull boss Christian Horner knows well. At one time, prior to the run of success from Mercedes, it was Red Bull at the front of the field. But Red Bull had to find a way to close the gap. Writing back in 2020, on the cusp of Red Bull’s 300th Grand Prix, Horner had this to say about those years:

“Winning becomes like a drug and you become addicted to it and when you are not winning, it hurts. However, our goals today remain unchanged.
“Mercedes have had an incredible run of success with their seventh world championship and you have to have a lot of respect for what they, and Lewis Hamilton, have achieved.
“They have set the bar very high but it is something for us to strive towards and match. Sport is always cyclical and you want to make sure you are on the upward trend and always in the fight.”

Teams — perhaps Mercedes themselves — will close the gap. They will put in the work, the hours, the development, to surpass the Bulls at the front of the field.
After all, returning to the Tiger analogy, that’s what happened on the golf course. He set the standard, and everyone chased him. Eventually, they caught up.
Success breeds innovation, competition breeds improvement, and competitors find a way to get back in the fight. But until then, Verstappen may remain up front, and may put on a dominant show each week.
A show that we should all appreciate while it lasts, a competitor at the absolute top of their game.
Because it will not always be this way. […]

Daniil Medvedev arrived at Paris looking to build off his performance in the Italian Open, and show that he could finally make a deep run at the French Open.
Instead he’ll have to look for the positives as a qualifier sent him packing in the first round.
Thiago Seyboth Wild stunned the tennis world on Tuesday, bouncing the second-seeded Medvedev out of the first round, winning 7-6(5), 6-7(6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the second round.
Seyboth Wild entered the French Open needing three wins to get into the field, and as the 172nd-ranked player in the world.
Medvedev was ranked No. 2 heading into Paris.
The 2021 U.S. Open winner has historically struggled on clay — at one point declaring “[y]ou like to be in the dirt like a dog” during a loss on the surface in the 2021 Italian Open — but Medvedev’s run to the Italian Open title improved his record to 10-2 on clay this season.
“I always want to believe in myself and I always want to win the biggest tournaments in the world. But at the same time, I didn’t think I could win a Masters 1000 on clay in my career because usually I hated it, I hated playing on it. I didn’t feel good on it and nothing was working,” said Medvedev after he defeated Holger Rune to win in Rome.
“Before this tournament already in Madrid and Monte-Carlo I wasn’t feeling too bad. I thought, ‘OK, let’s continue’. Then when I came here I felt so good in practice and I told my coach, ‘I don’t know what is happening but I am feeling amazing, so let’s see how it goes,’ he added. “But then you have to play the toughest opponents in the world to try to make it. I am really happy I managed to do it and to prove to myself and everyone else that I am capable of doing it.”
After the loss, Medvedev praised his opponent, and how he was able to play in the conditions and take control of the match. “[Big hitters like Seyboth Wild] have big advantage with these balls, because they can create easy power, which I don’t have,” Medvedev said. “That was a little bit the case today. He was controlling almost all the points, and I was suffering a lot.”
The loss drops Medvedev’s record this season on clay to 10-3, as that part of the calendar comes to a close. For the Russian, that might be a welcome silver lining.
“Because of the wind, dry court, I had a mouthful of clay since probably the third game of the match, and I don’t like it,” he said after the loss to Seyboth Wild. “I don’t know if people like to eat clay, to have clay in their bags, in their shoes, the socks, white socks, you can throw them to garbage after clay season.” […]

McLaren F1 announced a major personnel move on Tuesday, one that is likely to send shockwaves through the paddock at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. Rob Marshall will join McLaren as the team’s Technical Director, Engineering & Design, at the start of 2024.
Marshall has spent the past 17 years with Red Bull, most recently as the team’s Chief Engineering Officer, a role he was promoted to in 2016.
McLaren announced the move on Tuesday on their website.
“I am incredibly pleased that Rob will be joining McLaren. With over 25 years working in motorsport, Rob comes to us with a wealth of expertise and experience, elevated by his tenure and track record at Red Bull Racing,” said McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella. “Rob’s appointment is one of the fundamental steps and a natural fit to aid the team’s journey to get back to our winning ways.”
Marshall, along with Red Bull Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey and the team’s former Head of Aerodynamics Dan Fallows, helped Red Bull narrow the gap to Mercedes, building towards their recent run of success. Marshall was also part of the team that designed the RB19, which has been the class of the field this season.
Fallows, however, made a move to Aston Martin prior to this season, and is in part responsible for the AMR23, the car which has put Fernando Alonso and company in a position to perhaps challenge Red Bull at the top of the table.
The design of the AMR23, and its similarity to the RB19, even led to some quips from Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner this season. Following the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, which saw two Red Bulls and an Aston Martin on the podium, Horner had this to say: “So, they’ve obviously done a good job over the winter. They say imitation is the biggest form of flattery, and it’s good to see the old car going so well.”
“And I think that it’s flattering to see the resemblance of that car to ours, so it was great to see the three of them on the podium,” he added.
Now McLaren is hoping for a similar developmental curve.
“We are a team with the ambition of fighting for championships, but over the last couple of seasons we have not shown a steady upward trend from an on-track competitiveness point of view. Over the last few months, we have worked towards inverting this trend. The approach we have adopted is comprehensive and is based on strengthening the team from a people and expertise point of view, along with the ongoing projects to upgrade technology and infrastructure that will shortly come to fruition,” said Stella, adding “…the addition of a high-end and skilled individual like Rob will further consolidate our ability to establish the highest technical standards at McLaren and be in condition to design winning F1 cars.”
The addition of Marshall is not the only personnel change McLaren has announced in recent months. Earlier this season, the team restructured their personnel department, creating a new Technical Executive Team with three Technical Director roles and moving away from a single Executive Technical Director model.
At the time of that announcement, McLaren CEO Zak Brown pointed to a lack of technical development.
“It’s important now that we ensure we have a solid foundation as the next phase of our journey. It has been clear to me for some time that our technical development has not moved at a quick enough pace to match our ambition of returning to the front of the grid,” said Brown. “I’m pleased that, having completed a full review with Andrea, we are now able to implement the restructure required to set the wheels in motion to turn this around.”
As for whether this addition leads to the technical improvements McLaren are hoping for, at least one F1 analyst believes so. Lawrence Barretto, who does a tremendous job covering the sport for F1.com, shared his thoughts after the news on social media:

Big scoop for McLaren recruiting Rob Marshall from Red Bull. He led engineering there, and has spent 17 years with the multiple world champions. A great addition to technical team at McLaren that will have strength and depth #F1— Lawrence Barretto (@lawrobarretto) May 30, 2023

Now McLaren can hope for their own Aston Martin-like rise up the table starting in 2024. […]

They were supposed to make history.
In a way, they did.
The Boston Celtics, after falling down three games to none in the Eastern Conference Finals, rattled off three-straight victories to force a deciding Game 7. In the process, Boston became the first team in NBA history to not only force a deciding Game 7 after losing the first three games of the series, but the first team to have Game 7 in their building.
However, the thing about history is that it is written by the victors.
Unfortunately for the Celtics, as well as the Boston Bruins, the history that will be told about their respective 2022-2023 seasons will be crafted by authors from South Beach.
Weeks after the eighth-seeded Florida Panthers bounced the Bruins — the best team in NHL regular-season history — out of the opening round of the NHL playoffs by winning a Game 7 in Boston, the Miami Heat wrote a little history of their own. The 8-seeded Heat never faltered and went into a raucous TD Garden to pen the final chapter of Boston’s story.
A story that Boston fans will likely see titled “A Spring of Boston’s Discontent.” A story that saw both the Bruins and the Celtics lose at home, in Game 7, to an 8 seed:

So, history was indeed made. Now the Celtics will join the Bruins on the couch, watching the rest of their respective playoffs.
Just like the rest of us.
Both Game 7s began ominously for the Boston teams. In Game 7 between the Bruins and the Panthers, Florida scored first to take a 1-0 lead in the first period.
In Monday night’s Game 7 between the Celtics and Heat, Boston star Jayson Tatum rolled his left ankle on the first shot of the game and was grimacing the rest of the way.
Tatum finished with 14 points on 5-for-13 shooting in Boston’s 103-84 loss to the Heat Monday night.
“It was just frustrating that I was … a shell of myself,” Tatum said after the loss. “It was tough to move. Just frustrating, it happening on the first play.”
Miami weathered the crowd and an early Boston scoring spurt at the start, as the Celtics built the quick five-point lead midway through the first quarter. But then Boston’s shots stopped falling, and the Heat kept converting their chances, and by the time the first quarter ended, the visitors had a seven-point lead.
That lead was 11 by halftime, and throughout the third quarter Boston kept chipping away, coming as close as seven after Game 6 hero Derrick White converted one of two free throws with just over three minutes left in the third. Boston won the quarter 25-24 and trailed by ten heading into the fourth.
But in the final frame, Miami pulled away. As ominous as the start of the game was for Boston, with Tatum’s injury, the start of the fourth was perhaps the sequence that spelled doom. Tatum missed a layup on the first possession of the fourth, and Miami answered with a three from Caleb Martin, who was masterful the entire series. A pair of Jaylen Brown turnovers turned into four more points for the Heat, and within minutes thoughts of a historic Boston comeback were relegated to the trash bin of history.
“We got punked,” Celtics forward Grant Williams told ESPN after the loss. “We didn’t play our game from start to finish. Defensively, we just lost it all, and then offensively we were scrambled and trying to do everything ourselves and just didn’t go our way.
“You hate to have that be the end of your season, especially with the fight that we’ve shown. But shots didn’t fall either, so that didn’t help … it’s just tough.”
It has been a tough spring for Boston sports fans, with the Celtics now joining the Bruins as the vanquished foes of South Beach teams. A winter that ended with such promise, as both the Bruins and the Celtics seemed primed for deep playoff runs, ended at the hands of teams from Florida.
Similar to the Bruins, who face questions about whether the championship window has closed and whether players like Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci are headed into retirement, the Celtics face some questions of their own. Brown has just one year left on his contract and is now eligible for a supermax deal after being named second-team All-NBA this season. How do the Celtics handle his contract moving forward? And what of coach Joe Mazzulla, who was thrust into his role just as training camp opened when former coach Ime Udoka was dismissed for having an affair with a team staff member? Mazzulla stepped into a difficult situation and guided Boston to the two seed in the Eastern Conference, but has faced criticism dating back to the regular season for his strategic decisions, and when Boston lost the first three games of the Eastern Conference Finals, many wondered if he would be long for the job.
Now, both the Bruins and the Celtics are left to pick up the pieces, and try to write new chapters this offseason.
Boston fans are hoping that those in South Beach do not get to wield the pen anymore. […]

Formula 1 turns the page quickly this week, as all ten teams shift their focus from the twisty Monte Carlo streets to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix.
Here are the major storylines that will unfold this week.
Forget “33 soon?” How about “33 this week?”

Photo by Michael Potts/BSR Agency/Getty Images

Fernando Alonso’s quest for a 33rd F1 victory has become something of a rallying cry.
Can the veteran driver break through in his home race?
Aston Martin themselves have been building towards this race, with the team calling on their supporters to “turning Spain green” in support of Alonso. “Bring your energy. Fly your flags, wave your banners, wear your green caps with pride. Barcelona is calling…We want you to bring your thing to the Spanish Grand Prix and help us turn Spain green for Fernando’s first home race with the team” reads the call to supporters on Aston Martin’s website.
As for the driver himself, Alonso has been pointing to Barcelona as the spot where he can finally break through. Following his finish in Miami, the veteran driver listed Barcelona as a spot where he could finally challenge the Red Bulls at the front of the field. However, following his second-place finish in Monaco, Alonso seemed to tamp down expectations somewhat when asked about Barcelona.
“Yeah, it will be but I don’t think that I will not put any pressure on my team or myself into next week. We saw today on race pace… yesterday was very close in qualifying but today in the race, we saw Red Bull again, very dominant. So we have to accept that things into next weekend will be maybe as we saw in any other race this year, where Red Bull is untouchable,” said Alonso.
“And we have to see in a normal circuit, what is the package of Mercedes and the upgrades that Ferrari will bring apparently to Barcelona as well. So we have to have the feet on the ground and as I said in Miami, it’s going to be a few weekends in the year that we will just be seventh and eighth and we have to accept that and some others that we will fight for podiums. So I will not get into Barcelona, thinking that I will win, and disappoint anyone. We have to have the feet on the ground,” added the veteran driver.
Still, his last win? It came just over ten years ago.
In the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.
Alonso’s quest for that elusive 33rd win is perhaps the storyline this week.
Can Carlos Sainz Jr. bounceback in his home race?
Alonso, however, is not the only driver racing at home this upcoming weekend.
Carlos Sainz Jr. is coming home as well, to a race where he has experienced a great deal of success over his F1 career. His first Spanish Grand Prix came back in 2015, when he was with Toro Rosso, and he finished in P9, and Sainz has finished in the points every single time he has raced in the Spanish Grand Prix.
He is also coming off his best finish in Barcelona, having placed fourth a season ago.
In contrast to Alonso, who is coming off his best finish of the season last week in Monaco, Sainz is coming off a disappointing eighth-place result on the Monte Carlo streets, a result that left both him, and the team, frustrated in its wake. “I leave Monaco with a bitter taste, but next up is my home race and we need to keep focused,” said the driver in the team’s post-race media report.
Ferrari will be bringing some upgrades to the SF-23 to the track in Barcelona, and that has Team Principal Frederic Vasseur eying a more positive week in the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix. “Looking at the weekend as a whole, our qualifying pace was good and we have to aim to repeat that next week in Barcelona,” said Vasseur after Monaco. “The field is so tight you have to put everything together and the slightest mistake is costly. We will have some updates on the car which should be a step forward in terms of performance, so let’s wait and see what we can do in Spain.”
Can Sergio Pérez make up for a lost week in Monaco?

Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images

While Monaco saw a tremendous performance from Max Verstappen, as he increased his lead in the Drivers’ Standings with an impressive win on Sunday, the performance from his Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez was the polar opposite.
The “King of the Streets” saw his crown diminished starting on Saturday, when a crash into the barrier early in Q1 knocked him out of qualifying, and saw him start at the back of the field. Given the difficulties in overtaking in the Grand Prix itself, Pérez could only pick up a few spots of position on the track, ending his day in P16.
“It was the worst weekend I can remember in a while; everything went wrong and today we paid the price for a poor mistake from myself in qualifying,” said Pérez after the Grand Prix. “I am really sad about the performance, not just today but the whole weekend. I knew yesterday would be extremely costly and ultimately it was 25 points.”
Both Pérez and Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner are ready to turn the page to Barcelona.
“Unfortunately, it was a difficult weekend for Checo,” said Horner on Sunday after Monaco. “Despite his best efforts, there was very little he could do after yesterday’s qualifying. Knowing Checo though, he will learn from his mistakes and respond quickly in Spain.”
Pérez has enjoyed success in the Spanish Grand Prix, and is coming off his best-ever result in Barcelona, placing second in the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix, where he also secured an extra point for the fastest lap of the day. Since joining Red Bull Pérez has a P5, and last year’s P2, in Spain.
Still, Pérez knows that if he wants to keep his dreams of a Drivers’ Championship alive, perfection might be the requirement. “I only want to move on from this race because it was a terrible weekend,” said Pérez after Monaco. “I still have hope in the Championship but I know I cannot afford another zero in a race, so I really hope I can be back to my normal level in Barcelona. I need to be perfect in the next few races, I need to get victories and get them soon. I am happy we are racing in a few days.”
Has Mercedes really turned things around?
After weeks of breathless speculation, Mercedes finally unveiled the long-awaited upgrades to the W14. Gone was the zero-pod design that shocked the F1 world when the Silver Arrows broke cover on that look a season ago. Instead the world saw a sidepod design similar to that of what Alpine or Williams are doing this season.
However, the sidepods were not the only changes the team brought to Monaco, as Mercedes unveiled a new front suspension system as well.
While Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff warned that there are no “silver bullets” in F1, and that dramatic improvement would not be coming overnight, it was a much more positive weekend for the team. Mercedes came away with both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in the top five, and while Russell was frustrated Sunday night at perhaps costing his team a shot at a podium, it was a stronger weekend on the whole for Mercedes.
Hamilton, in particular, sounded upbeat as he looked back at Sunday, and ahead to Barcelona.
“I’m really happy with today’s result. We moved forwards in the race and that’s not an easy task here in Monaco. Coming into the weekend, I didn’t know where we would stand. To come out with fourth and fifth is great points for the Team,” said Hamilton in the team’s post-race media report.
“Barcelona, though, is probably the best test circuit we could ask for in order to learn more about our package,” added Hamilton. “I’m looking forward to seeing how the car reacts.”
Andrew Shovlin, the Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director, seemed equally positive about what might lie ahead for the Silver Arrows.
“We now shift our focus to Barcelona immediately. We’re looking forward to seeing how the car works around a more normal track; we’re expecting to have more work to do but it’s going to be useful to understand where we must focus our efforts,” said Shovlin.
“We’re in a good fight for second in the Constructors’ Championship and while that’s not our goal, it looks like we’re going to be able to have some fun racing with Ferrari and Aston Martin as we work on closing that gap to Red Bull,” added Shovlin.
The new-look W14 was solid in Monaco, which is a one-of-a-kind circuit in F1. But if the games are even more prominent in Barcelona, that could be a sign that Mercedes truly has turned the corner.
The Battle for the Midfield

Photo by Michael Potts/BSR Agency/Getty Images

Moving our attention away from the top of the table, let’s look at the current cluster of teams in the midfield.
Fifth: Alpine (35 points)Sixth: McLaren (17 points)Seventh: Haas (8 points)Eighth: Alfa Romeo (6 points)
Sunday was a massive result for Alpine, as Esteban Ocon’s P3, combined with Pierre Gasly’s P8, gave the team a haul of 21 points, boosting their lead over McLaren. While Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both came away with double points, Ocon’s tremendous driver was a big boost to Alpine.
Behind them, both Haas and Alfa Romeo are coming off difficult weeks, and will hope for much different results in Barcelona.
Alpine is obviously eying a move further up the table, as CEO Laurent Rossi has declared in recent weeks that fourth place is not good enough. “I don’t enter a competition and reset my objective because it’s easier. The team managed to get fourth,” said Rossi the week of the Miami Grand Prix. “They have the means to get fourth, more so than others. I want them to be fourth. If they don’t, it’s going to be a failure.”
But can McLaren turn up the heat and pressure Alpine from below? […]

It was a longshot that Sunday’s 2023 Monaco Grand Prix would live up to the thrilling qualifying session that came down to the wire. However, thanks to a brief flash of rain late in the Grand Prix itself, a few thrilling moments were in the offing.
The end result, however, what in line with everything else we have seen this F1 season: Max Verstappen at the front, and everyone trying — and failing — to catch up.
Still, Verstappen is not the only winner from the Grand Prix weekend, so let’s dive in.
Winner: Estie Bestie on the Podium

Photo by Arnold Jerocki/FilmMagic

What a weekend it was for Esteban Ocon.
For a brief moment on Saturday, it was the Alpine driver on provisional pole, thanks to a stunning lap that put him at the top of the timing sheets late in Q3. While he would eventually be nipped at the top of the table, and qualify in P4, a grid penalty handed down to Charles Leclerc saw Ocon start Saturday in third.
While it looked for a moment that someone would catch him from behind, Ocon managed to stay there, recording just the third podium of his F1 career.
The celebration began as soon as Ocon crossed the finish line:

And then continued trackside:

Ocon’s podium, combined with a seventh-place finish from Pierre Gasly, added up to 21 points for Alpine on Sunday, perhaps the “big haul” of points when both drivers qualified in the top ten for the Grand Prix. That result sees Alpine clear into fifth place in the Constructors’ Standings, sitting on 35 points and fairly well ahead of McLaren, who sit in sixth with 17.
The results likely ease the simmering tension that had been building at the team, at least for one week.
Losers: An underwhelming weekend for Ferrari
One of the things I absolutely love about covering F1 — and there are many — is the brutal honesty you often see from teams. It is rare that they hold back in their assessments.
Ferrari is no different. Their post-race report after Monaco was titled “[a] watered down result.”
With good reason, as this was probably not the weekend Ferrari was hoping for.
First there was the grid penalty handed down to Charles Leclerc, that saw him start P6 despite qualifying third. That penalty was due to the failure of the team to warn Leclerc at the end of qualifying that Lando Norris was barreling his way on a push lap. Instead of giving Leclerc the heads-up, the team was working through qualifying permutations.
That resulted in Leclerc not giving way to Norris, Norris abandoning his qualifying lap, and Leclerc being stuck with the three-place penalty.
Then there was the Grand Prix on Sunday, and the frustrated party was Carlos Sainz Jr. Sainz was running in P4 and eying a spot on the podium, but was then instructed to pit. When he returned to the track farther behind Ocon than he was, he aired out his frustration over the radio: “This is exactly what I talked about,” exclaimed the Ferrari driver. When informed of the plan to keep Lewis behind, he replied: “I don’t care about Hamilton, I was quick!”
Then the rain came, and Sainz endured a spin that saw him ultimately place eighth.
He summed up the race this way: “It was an eventful race in Monaco today. The final result is not what I was aiming for because I had good pace with every compound and P8 is frustrating. Pit stops were key today but they were all difficult calls, especially the change to Inter tyres, as the rain picked up very quickly and the spin with the slicks obviously made me lose some positions.
“I leave Monaco with a bitter taste, but next up is my home race and we need to keep focused.”
While Sainz’s finish meant double points for Ferrari, thanks to Leclerc finishing in P6, it was clearly not the kind of weekend the Scuderia were hoping for.
Winners: Light at the end of the tunnel for Mercedes?
Sidepods are back at Mercedes, and that could mean a light at the end of the tunnel for hte Silver Arrows.
The highly-anticipated upgrades for the W14 came to Monaco this week, and with them brought the end of the zero-pod days at Mercedes. Instead the team unveiled a sidepod design reminiscent of both Red Bull and Aston Martin.
That was not the only adjustment to the W14, as Mercedes unveiled a new front suspension, but those were the most discussed changes.
The result? Double points for the team as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finished in P4 and P5 respectively. That result pushed Mercedes closer to Aston Martin in the Constructors’ Standings, as the Silver Arrows are now just a single point behind Fernando Alonso and company.
Bigger than the result, however, might be what we heard from Hamilton throughout the week. Hamilton seemed much more comfortable in the W14 while in Monaco, and had this to say after the Grand Prix. “I‘m really happy with today’s result. We moved forwards in the race and that’s not an easy task here in Monaco. Coming into the weekend, I didn’t know where we would stand,” said Hamilton in the team’s post-race media report. “To come out with fourth and fifth is great points for the Team. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone back at the factories for pushing and bringing these upgrades. It’s been so much work to bring those here. We managed to keep it in one piece today and brought it home.”
In fact, Hamilton is already looking ahead to next week.
“Barcelona, though, is probably the best test circuit we could ask for in order to learn more about our package. I’m looking forward to seeing how the car reacts,” added the seven-time champion.
Could the Mercedes bounceback be on?
Losers: Haas has a 150th Grand Prix they would like to forget

Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images

Haas came to the streets of Monte Carlo looking to celebrate their 150th Grand Prix in fashion.
They probably cannot get their 151st Grand Prix started fast enough.
Both Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg were eliminated in Q1, failing to advance to the second qualifying session. Team Principal Guenther Steiner tried to find the positives after a disappointing Saturday in the team’s post-qualifying media recap. “It’s not where you want to start in Monaco, but in the end, we need to look into why we ended up where we ended up. Now we have to deal with the situation and that’s trying to find the best place for tomorrow to be in, should something happen,” said Steiner. “We need to keep our heads up as there are still some chances that somewhere, some mayhem happens.”
Mayhem did happen on Sunday, however, the Haas duo seemed to get swept up in it.
Hülkenberg was able to improve one spot, finishing in P17 after starting 18th. Magnussen retired late in the race, finishing in P19.
Steiner summed up their race this way.
“We tried everything possible today to get into the points. There’s no point in finishing twelfth, thirteenth or fourteenth so we decided to take a gamble at the end staying out and then pitting for full wets as you never know what can happen, but it didn’t work out,” said the Haas team boss. “The race was lost yesterday in qualifying, and we knew that if something special doesn’t happen, we cannot get into the points. We tried, everybody was working hard to get it done. We got a penalty – we don’t know what for on lap 1 – again, inconsistency from the FIA there, but it seems to be what now is normal.”
Here’s hoping for brighter days for Haas in Spain.
Winners: Breathing room for Nyck de Vries?
Ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, AlphaTauri rookie Nyck de Vries was given the “yellow card” by Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko: Improve your performance or else.
The cancellation of Emilia Romagna gave the rookie one extra week to think about things, and it may have paid off. De Vries advanced to Q2 and started the Grand Prix in P12.
While that is where he ended up, just outside of the points in P12. Still, it was his best finish this season.
“It was an extremely difficult race with very challenging circumstances. We could have managed the first stint better because I had a huge drop-off in pace and suddenly recovered a lot of speed in the last seven laps on the Mediums, before it started raining. Perhaps we could have pushed less on Oscar (Piastri) at the beginning, nevertheless, it was a solid race,” said De Vries after the race in the team’s media report. “The Intermediates initially didn’t have any temperature or grip, but we kept our nose clean. Overall, I am satisfied with my weekend, no major mistakes in tricky conditions. It was encouraging to see that we were so close to the top 10, and we worked well as a team throughout the weekend to put the cars where they were on the grid, so we’ll take those positives to Barcelona.”
Those positives might be enough to cool the temperature of his seat at AlphaTauri. At least for one week.
Loser: A day to forget for Lance Stroll
With Fernando Alonso finishing in P2 — his best finish of the 2023 season — that gave Aston Martin 18 more points on the year.
Those would be their only 18 points of the weekend, as Lance Stroll and his AMR23 were battered, bruised, and ultimately unable to finish. Stroll retired, and finished dead last.
“In all honesty, this wasn’t a race to remember,” said Stroll in the team’s post-race debrief.
“But I was struggling a little to get the car slowed down even before the rain; then when it started raining the brake issues meant I just couldn’t stop the car,” added Stroll. “I think I hit the wall about five times out there, but it just wasn’t my day.”
“Lance struggled with damage after a couple of hits on lap one, but he drove with a good amount of verve, overtook a couple of cars and was battling hard. That was great to see. He correctly judged the switch to Inters but was managing the brakes in the wet and lost his front wing after a tangle with the barriers,” added Team Principal Mike Krack. “Starting 14th, it was always going to be a tricky race for Lance – but he kept his head up throughout.”
Stroll’s season has taken on a bit of a “all or nothing” feel. He has three finishes in the points this year: A P6 in Bahrain, a P4 in Australia, and a P7 in Azerbaijan.
He also has a pair of retirements (Saudi Arabia and now Monaco) as well as a P12 in Miami.
Threatening Red Bull at the top of the table might be a bridge too far for Aston Martin this season, but if they are going to make a push, they’ll need more positive results from Stroll in the weeks to come.
Winner: Verstappen shows his brilliance in two critical moments

Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images

We conclude with the man who finished first.
We’ll have more on Verstappen later this week, but the defending Drivers’ Champion showed his brilliance on two different moments this week.
One came in the Grand Prix itself. Verstappen was leading the way late in the race when the long-anticipated rains finally came. The Red Bull driver was working around the streets of Monte Carlo on old medium tyres, on a day when many drivers found that tyres were wearing down faster than expected. The track was slick, he was struggling with grip at that point even when the surface was dry, and he was hoping to come in and make a change.
But, his team warned, if you come in now you would give up track position and be behind Alonso when you returned to the circuit.
So, somehow, Verstappen kept it together, managing to stay out on the track long enough to ensure that when he finally did pit, he would remain in front.
He described the race in the post-race press conferences as follows.
“I think the whole race was all about like management. Because, Fernando starting on the Hard made me do a very long stint, probably almost double to what we would have liked, but because of the rain in the area, we couldn’t really stop. I mean, if it would have been nice and sunny, I would have stopped, put the Hard tyre on, and you catch up and you wait until Fernando does his pitstop, but we couldn’t do that because the risk of rain was around so I had to stay out. The tyres were graining, I had to go through that graining phase, which wasn’t that easy. But then luckily it picked up a little bit but then of course, it started to rain. And with really worn tyres, to go through there was not really enjoyable. Clipped a few barriers, especially on my in-lap, I think. It was very, very difficult. But even on the Intermediates after that, it was still very slippery through the second sector. It was quite wet there. And yeah, the hard bit is that, you have a good lead, but of course, you don’t want to risk too much, but also you don’t want to drive too slow, because then you have no temperature in your tyres.”
But his true magic showed on Saturday.
At the very end of Q3, Alonso was sitting on provisional pole thanks to a fantastic qualifying lap. Verstappen was giving it his last chance, with time running out in the session. Through the first two sectors of the course, Verstappen was behind Alonso’s pace.
Yet in the third sector, Verstappen put it all on the line, and somehow it was just enough.
Following qualifying on Saturday, Verstappen talked about how he gave it everything in that final sector: “But I knew that the last lap I had to do it, because they improved. And I also knew going into the last sector I was down on them. So I had to push flat out in the last sector, risk everything to get back the lap time. And luckily, we did.”
Coming through in that kind of moment, with everything on the line, is the stuff of champions.
Which is exactly what Verstappen is. […]

Taylor Swift continues to work through the nation on her The Eras tour.
And more than one starting QB in the NFL has gone to see her live.
Earlier this month it was New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones, who made his way to Gillette Stadium to see Swift when she was in Foxborough for three nights. The next QB to see her live in concert? None other than Jones’s new competition in the AFC East, Aaron Rodgers.
The former Packers QB was one of many celebrities spotted at MetLife Stadium, along with Ben Stiller and Miles Teller, but we also have video of Rodgers shaking it off, thanks to @ezbaxz2 on Twitter:

In case you are wondering, upcoming stops for Swift’s The Eras tour include Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, and Kansas City.
So, Justin Fields, Jared Goff, Kenny Pickett, Kirk Cousins, Joe Burrow, and Patrick Mahomes could be next in line. […]

If Sunday’s 2023 Monaco Grand Prix is half as thrilling as Saturday’s qualifying session, then F1 fans will be in for a treat.
While that may not exactly come to fruition, giving the layout of the circuit and the lack of overtaking in the Grand Prix each year, Monaco is known for uncertainty. Weather, red flags, and more can all play a role, and there have been some races where the uncertainty created opportunities for drivers at the back of hte field.
Those instances may be rare, but that is just one of the many reasons we watch.
Thanks to a magical third sector on the final qualifying run of the day Saturday, Max Verstappen starts on pole for the third time this season, followed by Fernando Alonso. Esteban Ocon, and not Charles Leclerc, will start in P3 alongside Carlos Sainz Jr. Leclerc, who qualified third, was dropped to sixth following an investigation conducted by race officials regarding an incident in Q3 involving the Ferrari driver and Lando Norris.
Race officials determined that Leclerc was at fault for impeding Norris’ lap attempt, and issued a three-place grid penalty.
Here is the updated starting order for the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix:

2023 Monaco Grand Prix Starting Grid

Place

Driver

Team

Place

Driver

Team

Place

Driver

Team

Place

Driver

Team

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull

2

Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin

3

Esteban Ocon

Alpine

4

Carlos Sainz Jr.

Ferrari

5

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

6

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

7

Pierre Gasly

Alpine

8

George Russell

Mercedes

9

Yuki Tsunoda

AlphaTauri

10

Lando Norris

McLaren

11

Oscar Piastri

McLaren

12

Nyck de Vries

AlphaTauri

13

Alex Albon

Williams

14

Lance Stroll

Aston Martin

15

Valtteri Bottas

Alfa Romeo

16

Logan Sargeant

Williams

17

Kevin Magnussen

Haas

18

Nico Hülkenberg

Haas

19

Zhou Guanyu

Alfa Romeo

20

Sergio Pérez

Red Bull

We’ll keep you updated all throughout the day with everything you need to know for the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix. For example, trying to find how to watch? We’ve got you covered here. Looking for storylines? Here you go. Trying to make sense of Valtteri Bottas’ lid for the week? Again, we’ve got you covered.
Live updates for the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix (All times Eastern)
Update 8:04: Could weather shake things up today? Sam Collins, who covers the sport for FTV1, shared this radar image moments ago:

ooks sporty.
Update 8:02: Thoughts upon waking up this morning — other than how much I would love to be covering this in person, which I will immediately add to the bucket list upon finishing this thought — is this: Could this be a big day for Alpine?
After all, with Esteban Ocon starting in P3, and teammate Pierre Gasly just a few spots behind him in P7, Alpine is one of just three teams with both drivers starting in the top ten. The other two? Ferrari and Mercedes.
If you had that on your list of predictions before qualifying, pat yourself on the back.
Update 8:01: Good morning! We kick off this lovely Sunday with this note from Saturday:

Does this bode well for Fernando Alonso? We will find out in a few short hours. […]

The story before, and after, the Miami Grand Prix regarding Alpine was one of mounting pressure on Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer.
What a difference a qualifying session can make.
Esteban Ocon came tantalizingly close to his maiden pole position in F1, posting a lap that put him on provisional pole for a few moments late in the third qualifying session. Ocon finished in P4, but a three-place penalty handed down to Charles Leclerc will see Ocon start the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix in third position.
For his part, teammate Pierre Gasly will start seventh.
Following his qualifying run that saw him place fourth, Ocon expressed his joy at the result. “[I]t’s a hell of a moment for everyone. Pleased already that we are fourth, let’s see what we can do tomorrow. A good start and hopefully some fighting in front.”
Ocon elaborated in the team’s post-qualifying media report.
“What a day! First of all, a big well done to the entire team, both at the track and at the factories in Enstone and Viry. Our result really shows that hard work pays off,” said Ocon following qualifying.
“I felt comfortable right from the beginning in qualifying and I gave it my all on that last lap,” he added. “Starting in fourth place on the grid in Monaco is great spot to be in and while I’m very happy now, we know we cannot settle for that as there’s a long way to go this weekend.”
Ocon blasted to the top of the timing sheets late in Q3, before seeing Fernando Alonso, Leclerc, and ultimately Max Verstappen inch past him atop the table. But it was the massive run from the Alpine driver that touched off a frenetic finish, one that F1 fans and analysts alike are hailing as one of the more exciting days in recent qualifying memory:

For Gasly, who starts seventh tomorrow, the team is in a tremendous position to pick up a big haul of points.
“That was a very intense Qualifying and it’s good that we’ve come away with a great outcome for the team. I’m relatively satisfied with seventh but there was definitely more on my side so I do have bittersweet feelings in that regard,” said Gasly following qualifying.
“The car felt strong and we were obviously up there and competitive, with Esteban doing a really good job to be in fourth place,” Gasly added. “I just didn’t quite get it together in Q3 with some rear sliding on my push lap. Even so, to start seventh in Monaco puts us in a very good place for tomorrow’s race where we must aim for a big haul of points from both cars.”
Saturday’s successful qualifying session must feel like a welcome relief around the team.
Leading up to the 2023 Miami Grand Prix, Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi blasted the “amateurishness” around the F1 squad. “It’s disappointing, it’s actually bad,” he said speaking with French outlet Canal+. “This year ended up starting with a flawed performance and flawed delivery. It’s obvious our position in the standings is not worthy of the resources we spend, and we are quite far – in fact very far – from this year’s end goal.”
Rossi was getting warmed up.
“I did not like the first grand prix, because there was a lot of – I’m sorry for saying this – amateurishness, which led to a result that wasn’t right. It was mediocre, bad,” said Rossi. “And the last race in Baku was tremendously similar to the one in Bahrain. That is not acceptable.”
Then in an interview for F1 Unlocked that published following the Miami Grand Prix — where both drivers finished in the points — Rossi seemed to turn up the heat. Speaking with Lawrence Barretto, Rossi made it clear that there could be consequences.
“I don’t enter a competition and reset my objective because it’s easier. The team managed to get fourth,” added Rossi. “They have the means to get fourth, more so than others. I want them to be fourth. If they don’t, it’s going to be a failure.”
Given Saturday’s “hell of a moment,” perhaps Alpine are on track to avoid that failure. […]

Charles Leclerc qualified third for the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix, as the Ferrari driver hopes to break through in his home race and finally taste victory after so many bitter defeats.
But he will not stay there.
Despite qualifying third, Leclerc has been penalized by race officials and dropped three spots on the grid following an investigation by F1 officials. In their decision, officials note that after reviewing team radio Leclerc’s team “failed to give him any warning about Norris’ approach until Norris was already directly behind him.”
Further, race officials found that “there is much that Leclerc could have done prior to the tunnel to avoid the impeding had he received warning from the team at an appropriate time, especially considering that Norris’ approach was clear on the marshalling system. Thus, the Stewards consider that the impeding was unnecessary.”
This means that Esteban Ocon will now start in P3, and Leclerc will drop to P6.
In what broadcasters on F1TV called a “slam dunk and without mitigating evidence,” Leclerc was being investigated by F1 officials for an incident of impeding. It took place late in Q3, when Lando Norris was trying to make up for lost time after his MCL60 hit the wall at the end of Q2, and McLaren mechanics spent the better part of Q3 working in the garage to repair the damage.
As Norris entered the tunnel section of the Monaco circuit, he came upon Leclerc, right in the racing line and running at a slower pace.
You can watch the full incident here:

Norris was forced off the throttle, and needed to give up his attempt at a qualifying lap.
Speaking with SkySportsF1 following Q3, where Norris placed in P9, the McLaren driver was clear that he expected a penalty to be handed down for Leclerc.
“He just blocked me. Simple as that,” he told SkySportsF1.
Asked what he wanted to see from race officials, Norris was clear: “A penalty for him [Leclerc]. There’s one rule, which is don’t slow down in the middle of the tunnel, and that’s what he did.”
In the team’s post-qualifying media report, Team Principal Andrea Stella addressed the incident briefly. “Lando’s session was disrupted by a contact with the barriers in Q2, after which his mechanics did a fantastic job to repair the car in time for a run at the end of Q3,” said Stella. “Unfortunately, he hit traffic during his fastest lap and couldn’t improve his time. That’s a little disappointing but regardless, we’re in a decent position to score points and will be working hard this evening to ensure we can maximise our chances.”
If Leclerc indeed is penalized for the incident, that could drop him down the starting grid, and make it much, much tougher to finally break through with a victory in his home Grand Prix.
Adding yet another item to the long list of heartbreaking incidents for the Ferrari driver in the Monaco Grand Prix.
Note: This piece was updated with the decision from race officials. […]