Glock: Alonso could be Max’s main rival

Timo Glock, a former Formula 1 driver and now Sky Deutschland pundit, shared his main thoughts on the results of the Monaco Grand Prix in his column on the channel’s website.

Max Verstappen took his 39th victory with Red Bull Racing and it seems there is no upper limit for him. It outperforms anyone on every track and in all conditions. If the technique does not fail, it is very difficult to beat him.

Verstappen is only 25 years old and he can still achieve a lot, so the only question here is how long does he want to play? He has said repeatedly that he doesn’t know how many more years he can withstand the stress of Formula 1 as the championship calendar has grown to 23 races. But it is clear that Max will fulfill his contractual obligations to Red Bull and perform until 2028 – let’s see how many more victories he will get.

Perez can no longer afford to be wrong

But his partner, Sergio Perez, will soon try to forget the weekend in Monaco. If he is going to fight for the championship with Verstappen, he must not let something like this happen again. The experienced Fernando Alonso likes to drive a fast Aston Martin and has a very fighting spirit.

Perez is not allowed to make any gross mistakes, because Fernando immediately benefits from that, who always rises to the podium and even gradually starts to put Verstappen under pressure. I wonder what other surprises can be expected from Aston Martin? The team announced that they plan to upgrade the car during the season, and this also arouses curiosity.

Of course Verstappen is confidently leading the championship, but if at least one or two races don’t go too well, the points he loses will most likely go to Alonso and the Spaniard could become Max’s main rival. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that we will see another interesting fight for the title. Of course Alonso can also have bad weekends and then Perez has to take advantage of this to earn as many points as possible.

Alpine and Mercedes can improve in Barcelona

The team of Alpine and Esteban Ocon proved last weekend that they succeeded in taking a step forward. But the question is: can they perform just as well on other tracks? The stage in Barcelona will be indicative, as the effectiveness of aerodynamics will be tested on the Catalan ring. It is equally interesting to see how the upgraded Mercedes car will perform, how quickly they will be able to cope with its characteristics.

As in the case of Alpine, one should not jump to conclusions here, because the Monaco Grand Prix has its own laws. A lot depends on the driver, although a more efficient chassis may also have played a role. Let’s hope Mercedes can take a step forward too, so I’m looking forward to the weekend in Barcelona, ​​​​​​and I’m especially curious to see what speeds the refreshed W14 car can reach there.

Ferrari keeps making mistakes

Monaco remains an enchanted place for Ferrari, especially for Charles Leclerc. He had a great qualifying, but then his team made a clear mistake by not warning that Lando Norris was on track on a fast lap and was overtaking him. As a result, Leclerc was fined and lost three positions at the start.

If you start sixth in Monaco, it will be difficult to fight for a podium spot. And the Ferrari car did not differ in special speed during the Grand Prix, especially since the Scuderia racers constantly drove into traffic.

It was another bad weekend for the Italian team and in the next races it should take a big step forward, including work on getting rid of all kinds of small flaws. You can’t keep bothering yourself! We need to take advantage of the general dissatisfaction in the team due to the fact that it makes more mistakes than rivals, draw conclusions and keep trying to minimize miscalculations.

Much can be expected from Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri does his job well, does it calmly and nothing confuses him. On Friday he lost quite a lot to Lando Norris, but that didn’t bother him and he added gradually. In qualifying Piastri was already at partner level, then he drove a very good race and finished tenth.

This indicates the stable progress of the Australian. Since the races now take place on the circuits that Oscar knows from Formula 2, he is quite capable of complicating Lando’s life. Much can be expected from Piastri. His manager, Mark Webber, has a lot of F1 experience and is helping Oscar in the right direction. This deserves high marks, so it only remains to be happy for them.