After his embarrassing shunt, Max did go on to have a clean Monaco race. He was about the only mover and shaker in the field, muscling his way from last to 9th. A good show for sure, but very disappointing in the grand scheme of things.
Meanwhile, back at the front of the field, Danny Ric put in another impressive performance, leading from flag to flag. His performance was made even more impressive by a failure in his ERS system, robbing him of 160 horsepower. Fortunately for Red Bull and Ricciardo, Monaco isn’t a power track. It has the shortest straights, the slowest corners, and the least amount of space for passing of any F1 track today. Losing some horsepower, or a sizeable chunk as the case was for Ricciardo, is not a total deal breaker. However the fact that Ricciardo was able to bring home the win shows just how good of a driver he is. Better than Schumacher in 1994? I was 5 at the time, I’m not even going to wade into that debate. What makes Ricciardo’s drive special in its own right was how much he had to balance in such a short amount of time. Today’s F1 cars are super finely honed, designed to last exactly as long as they need to before needing a rebuild from stem to stern. They’re not designed to handle outside possibilities. Losing the ERS is very much an outside possibility.
What this means is, Ricciardo was managing the brakes, tires, transmission, engine, and hybrid systems, all between the tight confines of Monaco’s unforgiving Armco walls, all with a Ferrari breathing down his neck. That would be bad enough if some of those systems weren’t malfunctioning, but they were. Along with the ERS failure, Ricciardo’s gearbox lost its top two gears. How he managed to get a breaking car across the finish line on its own is a worthy of applause. The fact he did that and won the race is worth a standing ovation. Yes, the chances of Vettel going for a pass were low, but the chance of a mistake from Ricciardo were very high. He was able to sort out most of the issues within a few laps, but managing the car throughout the final half of the race without upsetting the balance he had found would be very mentally taxing. Just look at the fate of Charles Leclrec to see what happens when you push too hard at Monaco.
Hand any F1 driver, past or present, the keys to a car and they can wring out 95% of its performance without breaking a sweat. But ask an F1 driver to go that fast without breaking the car? Few drivers, past or present, can pull that off.
It’s for this reason that I personally rate Daniel Ricciardo much higher than Max Verstappen. Max can find that extra 5% out of the car that some drivers struggle for. When Verstappen puts it all together he is lightning fast and it is stunning to watch him string together a lap. That speed comes at the cost of increased chance for mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes are minor. Sometimes they take both team cars out of high points scoring positions. Ricciardo may not have the raw pace of Verstappen, but he will always get the car home. In order to finish first, first you have to finish. Would Max Verstappen have won in the same circumstances? We haven’t seen him in any type of parallel situation yet, so it’s difficult to say, but it doesn’t seem likely. Verstappen should definitely study Ricciardo’s race. Aside from learning from his own mistakes, there is a lot to learn from how Ricciardo took his win. It was far from straightforward and learning how to nurse a car home is something Max will need if he wants to win championships.
We already know Canada is the next race and that it in fact has already come and gone. You’ll be seeing our analysis on that race shortly so we can catch up in time for France! Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me as I’ve juggled Indy and my day job and trying to get these columns put together. It’s obviously not easy and I appreciate all the support our faithful readers provide. We’ll be back with more Curly’s Corner soon!
