2026 Monaco Grand Prix Preview: 5 Big Talking Points Heading into the Weekend

Linus O'Howell
11 minutes ago
4 min read

The History of the Monaco Grand Prix

Whilst Silverstone, Spa, and Monza all have their own heritage, it’s fair to say that no Race in Formula 1 has as much history and prestige as the Monaco Grand Prix! There have been a total of 71 Monaco Grand Prix’s to have taken place in the Formula 1 World Championship, with Juan Manuel Fangio winning the original event back in 1950! No one has been more successful around the streets of Monte Carlo than McLaren, with the reigning World Champions 16-time winners here, whilst 6 of those winners have come with Ayrton Senna behind the wheel! Of course, Monaco is notoriously known for hosting the best Qualifying of the season, but that’s mostly because it also tends to have the worst Sunday of the year! However, with new rules, as well as smaller and lighter cars, maybe there is hope after all?!

A Historic Weekend for McLaren

McLaren, one of the most famous names in Formula 1 history, are set to celebrate their 1,000th Grand Prix this weekend! Rather fittingly, McLaren’s first every entry came at the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix, and since then, they’ve won everything! 10 Constructors’ World Championships, 13 Drivers’ World Championships, 203 Race Wins, 177 Pole Positions, and 561 Podiums! Of course, McLaren are the back-to-back Constructors’ Champions, whilst Lando Norris completed the double with his first World Championship in Abu Dhabi last December! Unfortunately for McLaren, they’re not exactly firing on all cylinders right now, with the team already 113 points off Mercedes’ in the standings following a dismal Canadian Grand Prix! Whatever happens, this is going to be a historic weekend for the Papaya outfit, with McLaren even running a special livery for the occasion (although we all knew that that was coming). But will they win; it’s a tough ask!

Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari Extension

In the week of Charles Leclerc’s homecoming, the Monegasque has officially confirmed that he will be sticking with Ferrari for the foreseeable future! Charles Leclerc moved to Ferrari in 2019 following a strong Rookie Season at Sauber, and since then, Charles has become an 8-time Grand Prix Winner in Red! It hasn’t been all that smooth sailing for Leclerc, however, with Ferrari never really providing a car capable of winning a World Championship, particularly in the years where Charles has been good enough to do so (so not 2022)! To be honest, I found this announcement to be a little bit of a surprise given that there has been plenty of noise linking Leclerc to other teams, but I guess Charles is destined to never leave this team! Oh, and we haven’t even talked about Charles Leclerc’s Home Race hopes, which lets be honest is a win!

Is Valtteri Bottas Under Pressure?

Cadillac began their Formula 1 journey by choosing experience over youth, with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez being hired as their drivers! Now, whilst Checo has impressed a lot of people across the Formula 1 world, the same cannot be said about Valtteri who’s been struggling quite a bit! The performance difference between Bottas and Perez has been large, with Valtteri even losing out to Checo in Qualifying, something that I’m not even sure the biggest Perez fans would’ve expected! Since the last Race Weekend in Canada, there has been some noise regarding the future of Valtteri Bottas, with rumours about Colton Herta potentially replacing him in the not-too-distant future! I might be wrong, but I’m not sure that Herta has enough super licence points to even compete in Formula 1 right now, but that doesn’t change the fact that Valtteri is under pressure! Given the fact that Monaco is basically all about Qualifying; Bottas has to be Cadillac’s lead driver this weekend!

Will Mercedes Get Pegged Back?

If we cast our minds all the way back to Pre-Season Testing, a big talking point was Mercedes finding a loophole in the regulations, with them being able to increase the compression ratio to 18:1, rather than the intended 16:1! Now, it’s worth noting that Mercedes aren’t cheating, in fact, their engineers and design team deserve an awful lot of praise for exploiting the wording when it comes to only being measured in “ambient temperatures”! However, following June 1st, the compression ratio now has to be measured when the ambient temperature for the engine is 130 degrees! Now, it’s unknown how much this is going to affect The Silver Arrows; it might make no difference whatsoever, but I doubt Mercedes are going to get even quicker as a result of this change! It’s also probably safe to say that we won’t see this change come into full effect until Barcelona, due to the characteristics of the Circuit de Monte Carlo, but it’s certainly going to be something to keep an eye on!