Although Friday and Saturday were dry in Monte Carlo, there were a few drops ten minutes before the start of Sunday’s Grand Prix. After two late starts, the field was started under the guidance of the safety car and the gates of heaven decided to open fully. The race finally came to a standstill for half an hour. After that, the race organizers thought it was safe enough and a nice race was on the agenda.
Polesitter Charles Leclerc led the field in wet conditions but everything went wrong as the track became increasingly dry. A tactical error at Ferrari – which resulted in Carlos Sainz and Leclerc coming in at the same time – dropped the Monegasque into fourth behind Max Verstappen. Jeroen Bleekemolen can imagine such mistakes being made in Monaco. “These are really difficult moments for the team,” Bleekemolen told Motorsport.com. “In which heat of the moment if this can happen, it is important to talk about it. It doesn’t happen much under normal circumstances, but because of Monaco it was a strange and separate strategy. ” Asked if Leclerc should have taken more control, the Dutchman replies. “It’s difficult. You are in the lead and you have pressure on your shoulders. He didn’t do anything wrong. He ran perfectly. He did very well and because of his speed he really deserved the win.”
The eventual winner was Red Bull driver Sergio Perez. The Mexican stepped in at just the right time, although the Guadalajara man also had some luck, according to Bleekemolen. “Overtaking was very difficult, so we had to make the right decisions,” he continues. “The best strategy was to switch from rain tires to slicks, like Carlos Sainz did for example. He just had a lot of traffic in his outlap and that lasted four or five seconds. That’s the difficulty factor in Monaco. Perez was lucky to be behind. Norris came, who then also pitted so that he had a clear path.”
Perhaps the most important moment of the race was Perez’s comment during the interview just before the podium. In it, the Mexican explained that he had signed too early, insinuating that the contract for next F1 season had already been scribbled and that Verstappen knew who would be driving next year as well. Bleekemolen likes that. “He’s just sitting there comfortably. The bond with Max is good and he has been performing well lately. Basically, he knows his role as a second driver, but he’s starting to participate again. He comes. In terms of points, he’s in good shape.” . If Max gets out, he can just land in front of it. A new person is always a risk and it works. So that was a good choice.” Bleekemolen doesn’t expect Perez to be able to seriously fight for the title: “It’s very difficult.”
Bleekemolen, who is very active in American racing, saw Verstappen struggling this weekend and didn’t have it in terms of speed. “It wasn’t an easy weekend for him, but scoring points at Leclerc in this way is kind of a dream scenario. Leclerc was very fast and lost the race through bad luck. He must be disappointed that it didn’t go smoothly.”
Watch the full interview with Jeroen Bleekemolen in the video at the top of this page.
