Conclusions after Monaco | Ferrari throws in own glasses, Perez excels

The Monaco Grand Prix was won by Sergio Perez, in a weekend that seemed to fall entirely Ferrari's way. However, that picture changed when rain showers descended on the Monte Carlo street circuit just before the start. What conclusions can be drawn after the race?

Ferrari had an extremely strong start to the season in which little seemed to go wrong for the Italian racing team. Red Bull Racing, on the other hand, struggled with reliability issues, putting Max Verstappen at a disadvantage. Recently, however, there seem to be some hairline cracks in Ferrari's ironclad form.

It started at the team's home race in Imola, where neither Ferrari driver managed to reach the podium. In Miami, Charles Leclerc started from pole position - as he so often does - but ran into tyre degradation. This made him a prey for Verstappen, who immediately took advantage of the situation and took the win.

In Barcelona, there seemed no problem for Leclerc, who again started from pole and managed to keep Verstappen behind him at the start. Verstappen was soon no longer a threat due to a DRS problem, but what seemed to be an easy win ended in drama when Leclerc's F1-75 suddenly broke down.

Then there was Monaco. Already from Friday it was clear that Ferrari had the best cards, which was confirmed when Leclerc and Carlos Sainz occupied the entire front row of the grid. During the race, however, thins went wrong. Leclerc was called in and had to stay out at the same time, Sainz was not taken into account when he was out-lapped. Because of these strategic mistakes, the Scuderia threw away a good chance for a double victory in a weekend that seemed to fall completely in its direction.

In 2021, Perez already showed on several occasions that he could be there when needed, culminating in his outstanding defense against Lewis Hamilton in the thrilling final race in Abu Dhabi. Since this year's major rule changes, he's fared even better and the Mexican sometimes seems to have even less trouble finding the right setup than his teammate.

His strong performance in the RB18 now seems to have been sealed with a contract extension, agreed unusually early with Red Bull Racing. The team also has no reason to wait or opt for another driver, as it is exactly like the well-known saying, 'Never change a winning team'.