Key occasions
Giles Richards
Aston Martin’s dressmaker Adrian Newey has entered what he says his spouse calls a “design trance” as he works flat out at the crew’s new automobile for 2026, pointedly noting that if the crew are to draw Max Verstappen to their strong the one method is to construct a championship-winning automobile.
The 66-year-old’s transfer to Aston Martin from Red Bull ultimate 12 months used to be one of the vital greatest coups in Formula One lately and Newey used to be talking whilst attending his first race with the crew on the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend, having begun running with them in March.
The presenter Natalie Pinkham is being taken for a spin through George Russell in a Mercedes F1 automobile, in a pre-recorded function. It appears to be like … rapid. That’s what you get for placing an F1 engine in a street automobile.
“I’ve been driving this car a little bit,” Russell says (he lives within the Principality at the present time, clearly). “In Monaco, you always find yourself on the track somewhere. Over there, that’s the pitlane.”
Oh sure, you’ll electronic mail me if you want.

Giles Richards
Lando Norris has lengthy been conscious that if he’s to revitalise his Formula One global championship problem he has to click on together with his McLaren automobile in qualifying. So his pole place for nowadays’s Monaco Grand Prix is a second to savour, a efficiency he has been making an attempt to nail since claiming the No 1 spot on the season-opener in Australia.
Martin Brundle says they haven’t been in a position to get a transparent resolution from the groups on technique, as a result of they don’t have a transparent thought of easy methods to maintain the mandated two stops.
“Under normal circumstances you’d say Lando Norris will win if he leads into the first corner, but not today,” Brundle says.
A talk at the small screen television about nowadays’s mandated two pit stops.
“The rules have thrown a grenade into things,” observes the Sky F1 pundit Naomi Schiff.
“People might be rolling the dice today, and gambling on what they are going to do.
“People further down may be able to put pressure on by taking a different strategy.”
Preamble
What does the Monaco grand prix symbolise to your thoughts? The magical old-school glamour of motor racing, or fashionable races so uninteresting they make you weep? Perhaps a little of each.
Regardless of Monaco’s suitability for modern Formula 1, we’ve were given a race on nowadays, with Lando Norris of McLaren on pole. His teammate Oscar Piastri leads the drivers’ standings through 13 issues (Piastri 146, Norris 133) with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen 3rd on 124: the identify race is heating up after 8 rounds.
The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc is 2d at the grid in the back of Norris, whilst his teammate Lewis Hamilton had an eventful time in qualifying: he crashed in FP3, recovered to position fourth, however used to be then penalised 3 positions for impeding.
A brand new rule for Monaco this season states that every one drivers must take no less than two pitstops, in order that indubitably has the prospective to make issues extra fascinating. Drivers’ championship chief Piastri begins 3rd and what can the reigning champion, Verstappen, reach from fourth position at the grid? Let’s to find out!
Lights out: 2pm UK time