Formula 1 has seen just two teams and three drivers win races in the 2025 season with McLaren and Red Bull dominating the podium places ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix.
Lando Norris started this year by securing what so far remains the McLaren driver’s sole win in Australia. The Briton has since had to see Oscar Piastri become the in-form ace in Woking with four wins in the six Grands Prix since, interrupted just by Red Bull rival Max Verstappen.
Verstappen overtook Piastri on Lap 1 to win at Imola last time out, with the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix proving to be a reversal of their fight at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Piastri won in Jeddah after Verstappen’s time penalty due to leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
The best that McLaren and Red Bull’s rivals have managed to date in the 2025 F1 season has been to join the podium party. George Russell has put a Mercedes on the podium four times so far and Charles Leclerc has put a Ferrari in the top-three places just once in seven rounds.
Jolyon Palmer is ‘excited’ for Ferrari after Charles Leclerc set the Monaco GP pace in FP1
Yet Jolyon Palmer is now ‘excited’ to see what Ferrari can achieve at the Monaco GP after he saw Leclerc show early signs of pace in the first practice session this Friday. The 27-year-old also improved after Palmer shared his praise to set the fastest time in FP1 with a 1:11.964 lap.
READ MORE: Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend
Leclerc took Palmer’s eye when the Monegasque lapped the roads he once walked to school on 0.193 seconds slower than Norris, despite not being happy with Ferrari’s car. He groaned over the Scuderia’s radio, ‘We are nowhere’, after Leclerc wrestled oversteer and understeer.
“I am getting a little bit excited for Ferrari at the moment,” Palmer told F1TV (23/05, 14:05).
Charles Leclerc can become the first back-to-back Monaco GP winner since 2015
Leclerc did not have much belief that Ferrari would be competitive at the Monaco GP before FP1 on Friday. Yet he went from being ‘nowhere’ to the top of the FP1 timesheet after just a matter of minutes. The Monegasque’s fastest lap was 0.163s quicker than Verstappen in P2.
Teammate Lewis Hamilton could only set the ninth-fastest lap time in FP1, with the 40-year-old lapping the narrow roads of Monte Carlo 0.726s slower than Leclerc. Even Williams pair Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz split the Scuderia stars for P4, 0.350s shy, and P7, 0.570s down.
Leclerc will hope his early pace lasts through to and into qualifying given the importance of track position even though the 2025 Monaco GP will have two mandatory pit stops. He can become the first back-to-back Monaco GP winner since Nico Rosberg in 2013, ‘14 and ‘15.
