A unique grand prix on the Formula 1 calendar throws up some unique driving challenges, and brand new rules for Monaco in 2026 means we're even seeing some unique car design tweaks too!
From throwback rear wing 'winglets' to unusual energy management challenges, via bad gearbox downshifts that leave one driver fearing his team might not be able to race at all this weekend (can you guess who?), here's everything we learned on day one of the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix.
Aston Martin's 'random' downshift crash risk
Fernando Alonso warns that Aston Martin may not even be able to race given the crash risk if there is a repeat of what he calls the "random downshift" issue it has experienced recently.
"If you have the downshift problem like we had in Miami, probably we cannot even race, because we will crash in one of the braking points due to a very different downshift type," said Alonso.
He described the drivers as "passengers" if there's a downshift that creates a push effect from the engine "like going on full throttle".
"Monaco is not the place to have a random downshift," he said. "Then you will crash into the wall, and the driver will look stupid."
There is also a second Monaco-specific problem. Lance Stroll revealed Aston Martin loses gear sync every time the car drops below around 40km/h, not good news given the Loews (Fairmont) Hairpin is the slowest corner on the calendar.
"Every time we go through Loews Hairpin, we’re going to lose sync completely of the gears," said Stroll.
And losing gear synch costs laptime, something struggling Aston Martin-Honda does not have to spare. - Edd Straw
Leclerc had two reasons for Ferrari deal
Charles Leclerc revealed his two reasons for signing the new Ferrari deal that was announced on Wednesday were "because I love this team and because I believe in the project".
Confidence in team principal Fred Vasseur is the reason for his certainty that Ferrari's seemingly never-ending mission to re-emerge as a title winner will pay off.
"With Fred, we have a very good relationship and I strongly believe that he's the person that will be able to bring Ferrari back to the top," said Leclerc.
Leclerc also indicated loyalty was part of his decision, referring to Ferrari as "one of the first to believe in me and to help me get to where I am today". But there is a caveat that suggests the 28-year-old has not been so foolish as to commit what could be the peak of his career to Ferrari without some kind of get out.
"I cannot go too much into the detail of the contract, so I cannot comment," he said when asked about conditions in the contract related to his timeline for success. "But surely, it's part of those discussions."
He also confirmed there were other, unspecified options, which is exactly what you would expect for a driver of his calibre whose management will always be in contact with potential suitors.
"I'm not going to say who, they can say if they want," Leclerc said of these other teams. "But for me, Ferrari was always the choice." - ES
Bottas addresses 'bulls**t' rumours he's at risk
Alpine's been investigating Pierre Gasly's sudden balance issues in the last two F1 races and has something different to try this weekend - although there is a difference in characterisation from driver and team.
While Gasly claims "we can see clearly stuff on my side of the garage which is not really working the way they should", and there are "a lot of things to test this weekend", what Alpine has uncovered is described as quite minor.
It has left no stone unturned looking into Gasly's issues, and reverted some small items to how they were before the April break. The hope is this will have a bigger impact on car balance than Alpine expects but it may be that Gasly has simply been thrown disproportionately by a small change in feeling.
If it is more driver mentality, it could be the inverse of what has happened on the other side of the garage. Franco Colapinto has been aided by a fractionally lighter chassis and some part changes in the last couple of races but not enough to explain his sudden leap in form - so what he calls feeling "much more connected to the car" could be more down to him figuring a few things out than the car being significantly better. - Scott Mitchell-Malm
Sainz started to doubt Williams could do the job
"Tested my faith? For sure."
Carlos Sainz hasn't hidden his frustration with Williams's start to 2026 at any point so far this season. But his media session on Thursday in Monaco did provide one big revelation.
The four-time grand prix winner has regularly referred to Williams's competitive reality this year being a "bump" in the road in its plan to return to the sharp end, but it was in response to that reference that he was asked whether his faith in the Williams project had been tested.
"When you go from scoring podiums at the end of last year to suddenly being where we were two seconds and a half of the pace at the beginning of the year, two seconds is a big test of faith or a big shock to the system," he said.
"And I was the first one to say to James [Vowles] and to the management that it was not expected."
Whether that was the extent of what Sainz wanted to say we can't be sure; his pivot to a more positive tone, about how the bump shocked Williams into action it otherwise might not have known needed taking, coincided with Williams's press officer jokingly bringing it to his attention that team principal James Vowles was nearby.
But it definitely shed a bit more light on how frustrating this has been for Sainz - a driver who's trying desperately hard to remain patient but who ultimately wants to see a return on the investment he's made as soon as possible. - JC
Drivers might have too much energy
For once, all the engine and battery-related talk ahead of a 2026 F1 race has been about having lots of energy and maximum power usage.
That's because the Monaco layout makes it easy to charge the battery and a new power cap to keep speeds from getting dangerously high means spending energy on MGU-K power deployment will be lower than normal.
However, there can be such a thing as too much energy! These regulations really do get you coming and going...
The slow-speed layout will be tough for the engine's turbos to maintain the required boost pressure for optimal torque delivery on corner exit - except for those with Ferrari engines thanks to their smaller turbos, which spin to the required speed easier.
When this turbo lag occurs, though, it can be 'filled in' with power derived from the MGU-K when it is harvesting energy. And around Monaco this should be quite easy because there's such an abundance of energy that using the battery for this purpose doesn't come at the normal cost.
Except you can't charge the battery if it's at 100%. And the first half of the Monaco lap is such that there's a real chance the cars get to Portier, the corner before the longest straight through the tunnel, with the battery at maximum capacity.
The Mercedes-engined teams seem particularly wary of this challenge, and are talking about finding ways to mitigate this - maybe by spending as much energy as possible on some very short bursts of straight.
Otherwise they could find themselves hemorrhaging laptime down one of the few straights Monaco has thanks to a slow exit with a struggling turbo. And that comes just a couple of corners after the ultra low-speed hairpin, which will present a similar problem... - SMM
Haas is optimistic it will give a better account of its upgraded F1 car this weekend after the debut of its package in Canada was undermined by an early, unrelated issue.
Ollie Bearman revealed that Haas was briefly scared the upgrade was slower than the old specification in Canada FP1, before the team discovered a different part was not performing as it should.
Unfortunately this meant Haas had already gone down a compromised path. It was not until main qualifying that Bearman unlocked the set-up that brought more out of the car but struggled with the handling characteristics that came with this, as Haas was effectively three sessions behind where it should have been.
Haas believes a tricky Miami weekend before Canada had already been a warning of some limitations that existed in the car and while these may have been further exposed by the upgrade, it was more the demands of the Montreal circuit that brought out corner-entry nervousness and mid-corner understeer.
So while it believes the car will be in a better window this weekend it is also starting a medium-to-long-term development plan to address the weaknesses it now better understands. - SMM