Soumil Arora and Kunal Shah discuss the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix where Andrea Kimi Antonelli won for the first time, while also scoring his 5th consecutive race win. Lewis Hamilton, in company of his love interest Kim Kardashian, conquered hearts and Charles Leclerc, as he finished 2nd in Monaco. Isack Hadjar claimed his first podium for Red Bull Racing, while Pierre Gasly, who crossed the line in 3rd place, lost the podium due to a series of time penalties. Most of us watch F1 for firecrackers, not just tire management. But the Monaco GP? It’s a slow burn that somehow managed to deliver chaos, penalties, and surprises—without much overtaking. If you think Monaco is just a pretty track and a fancy casino, think again. Kimi Antonelli's jaw-dropping mastery and the puzzling penalties for guys like Gasly and Russell are rewriting the rules of racing drama. This episode is your ticket inside the legendary Monaco madness. You’ll discover how Antonelli’s relentless streak puts Lewis Hamilton in the rearview mirror, and why Monaco’s impossible-to-pass layout makes leading all laps a Herculean feat—a feat Antonelli just pulled off in style. We break down the wild penalty saga that turned Piastri into an accidental hero, the mysterious 0.1 km/h over rule that robbed Gasly of a potential podium, and the ongoing duel between Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari that’s shaping up for the long haul. Why does all of this matter? Because if you thought F1 was predictable, Monaco just wiped the smug grin off your face. This episode is perfect for die-hard fans craving behind-the-scenes chaos, or anyone who loves a good underdog story—like Antonelli, the teenage phenom with a future so bright, it’s blinding. Get ready for race stories that sound like script drafts—except they’re real, and they’re spectacular. And stay tuned: with Red Bull’s upcoming upgrades, fierce title fights, and the legends of the sport giving us more than just horsepower—this season isn’t over yet. Spoiler: it’s about to get even more exhilarating. Ready for a wild ride through scandal, strategy, and speed? Hit play now—because Monaco’s madness is only just beginning. Chapter markers: 00:00 Introduction to Monaco Madness 05:12 Kimi Antonelli's Mastery 12:45 Penalty Drama Unfolds 20:30 Piastri's Accidental Heroics 28:15 The 0.1 km/h Controversy 35:40 Red Bull vs. Mercedes vs. Ferrari 42:55 Future of F1: Upgrades and Battles 50:10 Conclusion: The Unpredictable Season #F1 #F1Podcast #MonacoGP
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[00:00:29] This is going to be a bit of an interesting episode on the Inside Line F1 Podcast, because this weekend I was not watching the Monaco Grand Prix, but Kunal was commentating on the Monaco Grand Prix. So here's a case of one person who knows nothing apart from Leclerc being in the wall and Antoinette winning. And here's one person who can potentially explain why George Russell and Pierre Gasly got so many penalties. What was the Monaco Grand Prix like, Kunal Shah?
[00:00:57] Well, firstly, I really missed you not watching the race, because I know how you and I jam before the episodes on what to speak. But what was the Monaco Grand Prix like? The Monaco Grand Prix on track was as expected. Formula 1 Grand Prix, which did not have overtaking, as we call it. In qualifying, it was fantastic. I know you saw qualifying. Drivers finally said, we don't have to focus on battery. We had to focus on the racing.
[00:01:21] And they focused so much on the racing, Samuel, that they went haywire when it came to the pit entry and the pit exit. And as a result of that, Pierre Gasly was robbed of a podium. As a result of that, George Russell dropped out of the points after Mercedes had an operational error. And as a result of that, now, I don't even know what Kimi Antonelli's lead on George Russell is. It's reached a number where I'm like, it doesn't matter. I'll see it after two, three races if Antonelli has a DNA.
[00:01:52] 68. Antonelli is 68 points ahead of George Russell. But there is also Lewis Hamilton between that. Who would have imagined? George Russell, potential world champion, everybody's pre-season favorite. Boom! Six races a season, he's not even second. And somehow, it's Lewis Hamilton in second. It's not even Ferrari's golden boy. It's not even the one who signed the longest contract with him.
[00:02:18] It's somehow George Russell is being beaten by the man who he was supposed to completely rewrite or completely eliminate from Mercedes' history. Or like, just, I mean, the scenario I'm talking about is Mercedes basically put that Lewis role onto George and now George is trailing Lewis in the championship. It doesn't make any sense. And how did we get here? How did we get here? How did we also get here?
[00:02:42] The Tifosi 05 is here. Just to let you know, you guys have accidentally put five, six shows on Premiere just to make sure you remove them. Which is true. Which is actually the challenge of this software, which creates a lot of duplicates. Maybe it's the FIA sensors that are just not going. But I'll request the producer to delete them if that happens or since that has happened. But thanks for bringing it to our notice. Now I've gone completely off track on what you asked me, Somali.
[00:03:08] No, the thing is, watching qualifying was amazed by how close Kimi Antonelli was to the walls and just to the edge of everything. And then the fact that he was able to beat Max Verstappen. And Verstappen came so close. And then I also heard that Verstappen didn't even get off the grid properly. That is correct. I think Kimi versus Max, I've been wanting that for several races. We've sort of had a dummy Kimi versus Max for several races.
[00:03:35] And I thought Monaco, opening lap, turn one, it's going to happen. Max himself said, I wanted to make the race more entertaining. I would have definitely given it a go and the likes. But Max Verstappen just had an engine explosion on the formation lap. He did not get through. He had no ICE power. He used the battery to steer himself to the left.
[00:03:56] And when I saw the onboard, I was actually scared because, you know, when the cars are just going past you at over 150, 200 kilometers per hour, especially in a circuit like Monaco, where you don't have runoff areas, etc. It was one of those moments. Yeah, Max Verstappen just unfortunate. Although that engine, which did not fire up at the start, Samuel, has been adjudged as the best engine in Formula One.
[00:04:20] The Aduo benchmark says that Ford engine, which is made by Red Bull Powertrains, which was established under Christian Horner's legacy, is the best engine in Formula One. It is not the Mercedes engine, which has clearly won everything in 2026. It is that Ford engine. It's mind-blowing what Red Bull Powertrains have done. But it's also mind-blowing that Verstappen was just not able to compete at all. Now he's seventh in the driver standings.
[00:04:48] And Red Bull, well, they are far, far behind. I mean, they're closer to Alpine than they are to McLaren. And that does not make any sense. But tell me more about the Aduo result. Actually, no, wait. We should get to Aduo later because I'm still curious, right? Now, fill me in. Fill me in on what happened. Fill me in on everything. Like, how? Was there anything? Was there any entertainment? Was there any madness? And what have the teams said about the penalties? So, the penalties, Alpine has requested for a right overview.
[00:05:18] So, they've not protested it. But they've asked the FIA for more information. And what was happening is that the drivers were cutting the pit entry and the pit exit. Because as you enter, it's a right and then a left. And then as you exit, it's again a left and then a right as you come out of the pits. And the drivers, as always, were cutting corners. But at the same time, having one wheel where it should be, they were treating it like a corner. Okay, so what do I mean? When you treat it as a corner and you have a curb, you drive over it. So, you sort of shorten the distance.
[00:05:47] The drivers, like Lewis Hamilton. And, you know, you think of all the drivers who come into the air. Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Oscar Piastri, Pierre Grassley. If you add all of these, there's 500 Grands Prixs between them. Drivers with so much experience have suddenly gone astray with the whole pit lane speed limit calculation. There has to be some way of figuring this out and not making it look so silly as it did. Because Lewis said, I've been driving in and out of that pit lane forever since. And I still got a penalty.
[00:06:14] And, you know, the beautiful thing, Samuel, is the FIA calculations said that all these drivers who got pit lane penalties were 60.1 km per hour in the pit lane. That means they were 0.1 km per hour faster than they should be. And as to the regulations that give them a five-second time penalty. God, come on, Formula 1. Come on. Like, we could have seen Pierre Gasly on the podium. But 0.1, I watched the highlights and it said Gasly had two penalties.
[00:06:44] For the same reason. You know, at one point, Samuel, the race was running. Hamilton had a penalty. Hadjar had a penalty. Hadjar was under investigation. Russell had a penalty. Hasli had a penalty. And I'm like, who's going to take the podium? It was Oscar Piastri was one minute lower. Or was it even going to be Liam Lawson, who was nowhere? I mean, great result for racing bulls. But can you imagine the top four or the top seven were going to get penalties, were investigated and actually did end up getting penalties later.
[00:07:14] Sarika's here. She's saying, where was McLaren? We'll come to that. But that penalty actually cost George Russell heavily. Because what happened in George Russell's case, Samuel, is he had the penalty. He came in to serve the penalty. But Mercedes forgot that he had to serve the penalty. So they started servicing his car. And he had a five and a half second pit stop. And then George is puzzled asking, can you guys confirm that I served the penalty? And they were like, wait, we'll come back to you.
[00:07:41] But we knew from the replays that George Russell had not served the penalty. Then it so happened is that's where the sporting regulations come in that either you serve the penalty at your pit stop, as George should have and as Pierre Gasly did and the likes, or as Lewis Hamilton did, for example. Or you get a post-trace five second time penalty added to it. So, but if you make a pit stop and don't serve the penalty, that gives you a drive through.
[00:08:07] And George Russell from P3 or P4, wherever he could have finished, had a drive through and he was outside of the points. I mean, that just makes it worse. That just doubles down on George. Like, after all the bad luck and then the problems and then Kimi beating him on track. And hey, you can't argue with the Monaco pole. It's something a driver has to earn by himself. So it's clear that Anthony Lee's got more pace because you've got to have something special to do around here.
[00:08:34] And then this, it's, I don't recollect any driver wanting to blow their head off this badly because this is what the case must be with George now after this. You know, George was really despondent. He said, I've been driving exactly the same way. And when I did it in the first couple of races of the season, I was P1 or P2. Now suddenly it's not falling my way. This car is not suiting my driving style. I need to either change it or I need to get upgrades to suit the car.
[00:09:01] And then he said to have points taken away in such a manner was brutal. And, you know, he was willing to settle for P3, P4 because like we all said, Miami was a George Russell circuit. And then Monaco was, I don't even think Monaco was a Kimi circuit because remember what we said? Kimi Antonelli's biggest challenge is not going to be George Russell this weekend. It's going to be his first race in Europe. And guess what he did? He mastered Monaco summit.
[00:09:26] I think to me, Kimi's most impressive drive was this weekend because Monaco is where the driver makes a difference. We saw Lewis Hamilton was there up for a reason. Max Verstappen was up there for a reason. Without Antonelli, Mercedes would have not been winning in Monaco. They would have said our car doesn't suit Monaco, blah, blah, blah. And they would have been third or fourth quickest car if George Russell was the lead driver. And that would have been it. Can you imagine that being it for Mercedes?
[00:09:54] I cannot imagine that. It would have otherwise been a Ferrari clean sweep. I don't even know if it would have been a clean sweep, but it could have been Hamilton on the podium. With P4 and Lawson. Hamilton winning, no? Yeah, Hamilton winning. Yeah, that's correct. If you take, I mean, in our hypothetical world, if Kimi's not doing well and if Max does have that bad getaway, Lewis Hamilton, he's going to be there. And it's another case where Hamilton has gotten a better result than the clerk.
[00:10:22] Now, I don't know how that's happened, Kunal. Was Leclerc ahead of Hamilton when he crashed or what was the scenario like? Charles Leclerc was always chasing Lewis Hamilton in Monaco all the way from qualifying and then even in the race. So at all times, Lewis Hamilton had the measure of Charles Leclerc. He was not in the simulator. His mom was not there. But his new girlfriend, Kim Kardashian, was there in Monaco cheering him on. And we all saw that podium wink and he blew a kiss to her.
[00:10:52] I think it's great when people find their soulmates and the love of their life. And that sort of elevates them into a different performance cycle. That's what Lewis seems to have hit. That's what Franco Colapinto claims to have hit as well. Or claims to have hit. But Lewis Hamilton was so relaxed. He was so happy for where he was. He was so grateful as he always was. And that turn 19, which took Charles Leclerc out, also took out Landstroll.
[00:11:20] And I did not say this on the broadcast. But turn 19 took the worst and one of the best drivers of Formula One out. And I'm sure you remember this, Samuel. But the tarmac was breaking open. And we've had this in a few races in the 80s where the tarmac just did not hold. And lots of drivers would crash. That crashing out was not Leclerc's mistake. Like he was quick on the radio to point out as well.
[00:11:45] But Charles Leclerc, two races in a row, Canada and then Monaco, has been outqualified and outraced by Lewis Hamilton. And guess what he said after the race? He said, I have repeated brake issues. There are different configuration of brakes on both the cars. And now from next weekend, I will go in Lewis's direction. How many races has that taken? Two races. For Charles to say, I'm going to take Lewis's brake configuration. Well, interesting. What's next? Leclerc giving up on the simulator?
[00:12:13] Leclerc telling his mum to attend because his brother's there every race. And Sarika is here saying, Kim K caused Lewis P2 and cursed Charles into DNF. Well, you never know. You never know. I mean, I don't believe in curses. And I know this is in light, in a flavor. But yeah, so that's what happened with the Ferrari cars. And what else did we see? Lewis in general was just so happy in the podium and the press conference room. So he was blushing when he was asked about Kim Kardashian.
[00:12:41] And he, you know, sort of shrugged it off as, you know, I like to be surrounded by good people. And I'm glad she supports me every day sort of thing. He looked at Hachar and he said, how old are you? And he looked at Antonelli and said, how old are you? And he said, combined age is lesser than mine. And he was just like, I'm grateful that in my face, I'm able to compete with these youngsters. And have Kim Kardashian by his side. And have Kim Kardashian. Can you imagine? This is the same Lewis we saw back in 2007, 2008.
[00:13:10] They just, just the boy racing driver Lewis Hamilton. And look at what he's now. He's the icon. And then he's got one of the most famous names in all of entertainment. I don't know how talented or what sort of caliber she has. I don't know. I just know that she has a show with her family, but it's Kim Kardashian. It's like, it's like being a Ferrari driver. You don't know if the Ferrari is good or not, but it's a Ferrari. So it's high value, right? So it's a big name to be associated with that way. It's pretty cool.
[00:13:40] It's pretty cool. And I also liked that moment where Hachar was like, this could have been the youngest podium. But you, mister, have made it here. And then, then it suddenly struck me. There's almost a 22 year age gap between the race winner Antonelli and P2 Lewis Hamilton. Can you imagine? That's my age. Maybe I should have been on the podium with him. That's the age gap you win I have, Samuel. 22 years, don't tweet. Is it?
[00:14:10] Man. My goodness, you're the Kimmy. That's fantastic. Well, if only I could drive. But yeah, 22 years is ridiculous. Like, I, you know, it, it seems normal now because this is our reality. But when we go back in the history books and try to find out, we will find some absurd examples. And we were going to be like, oh, man, what we're seeing in the present is history being made. So it's a... No, literally, that is history being made. And history was also made in a way that this was a typical Monaco Grand Prix.
[00:14:39] And I'm pretty sure tomorrow morning we're going to get up. Social media is going to be filled with. Monaco had no overtakes. So I had very few overtakes. And bring back yo-yo racing. That's what people are going to say. The Tifosi's here saying, I was disappointed that we did not have overtakes, that the shorter cars would make for overtakes. Well, it's not just about the shorter cars. It's just also the braking distances they have, how much they've got to sort of lift and coast and the like. The cars were on the limit.
[00:15:08] And the minute they're on the limit, you don't get so much racing. But this is a great A and B test, right? That when you go to a circuit like Miami and you're lifting off, you're suddenly having cars overtake each other left and right and center. When you go to an energy-dense circuit where you're always on the limit, this is Formula One. Yeah, and when you see the kind of racing Formula E has and you call it fun, also remember that they're lifting and coasting a lot to meet their energy targets.
[00:15:35] And F1 tried that direction for all of three races and we clearly didn't like it. So this is the price we have to pay. Maybe if we were on the same energy management spectrums, this would have been different. But we just like Formula One better. We just like it the way it should be. So we have to pay the price with a slightly boring Monaco Grand Prix, I suppose. But it's fine because qualifying was super entertaining. But one more thing.
[00:16:00] I saw a clip of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad doing a race recap in the sea while swimming. And that clearly gave me a hint that Racing Bulls had a good race. How good was it? What happened? That's a great question because nine out of the 11 teams scored points in Monaco. I believe that's a new record of recent times. The two teams that did not score points were Cadillac and Audi.
[00:16:26] Even though Cadillac, Sergio Perez crossed in 10th place and got a post-race penalty and then Aston Martin scored the point. That is ridiculous. Okay. So it was bittersweet because, you know, Checo Perez scored points for Cadillac. This is, oh, this breaks my heart more than anything. Yes. This has to be the achievement of the season being robbed away. Like this is bigger than Antonelli winning how many ever races in a row he's won.
[00:16:53] Because these guys literally had nobody in the team three, four years ago. They're like, they're staffing up people with hundreds of people every quarter. They're just building their team up and they scored points in Monaco. They did. And there was just one team that scored double points. Racing Bulls. Liam Lawson equaled the best result for the Fianza-based team out there. And Lindblad, of course, in sixth place had the best result for a rookie. And they drove fantastically well, stayed out of the commotion.
[00:17:21] And in fact, Arvid Lindblad went long on the medium tire and he used the red flag to change his, you know, to change to the other tire that he needed to use. So he actually even got a free pit stop. Nice. Nine teams in the points and just one team that scored double points and that was Racing Bulls. Nice. Nice. So it's a proper red flag story there. It's a proper red flag story. Yes. Oh, man.
[00:17:44] And the fact that that red flag came out in lap 68 must have been so frustrating for all the others who must have just expected them to stop at some point. But yeah, it was a typical Monaco strategy. You know, when you're running outside of the points, you'd rather just run long and wait for a moment like that than make a pit stop just because somebody is battling you for like 15th or 16th place. Then what else have we got to talk? We should talk about, we should talk about, I don't know, who's it? We spoke about Gasly and the Alpine writer of Review as well.
[00:18:13] We've spoken about Russell, his late penalties. I think maybe just understanding what Kimi Antonelli has done and I've got a few stats that I'd love to read out. Samuel, I know you're going to love them because now he's won five races in a row. Okay. That is the longest streak Lewis Hamilton has had. So he's equaled Lewis Hamilton's race winning streak of five races. That also shows how competitive Lewis's rivals were, whether it was Nico Rosberg or Vettel or whoever else.
[00:18:43] That's that whenever Lewis was in his dominant streak, he still never had more than five consecutive race wins. So it's not so much about Lewis, but the very fact that points to the quality of his rivals, whether it was in-house or elsewhere. And every time a driver has won five races on the trot, that driver has gone on to win the driver's championship that year. Okay. So that's what Antonelli has done.
[00:19:07] Antonelli also scored his first career Grand Slam and the first Grand Slam in Monaco since I don't even know when. He's only the 28th driver to score a Grand Slam. And a Grand Slam, of course, is you take pole position, you win the race and you have the fastest lap of the race. But you also lead every single lap of the race. To do that in Monaco... To do it in Monaco. Yeah. You think so? Yeah, because you just have to nail qualifying.
[00:19:34] But the fact that you have to lead every lap of the race is more difficult in Monaco, right? Because you're always playing the train, you're always playing through the gaps and seeing where you'll pit into. So eventually you will surrender the lead at some point. But Antonelli managed. I mean, right now, is there anything that that Italian teenager is not able to do in Formula One? Well, no.
[00:19:57] Honestly, he's on a run of form that will be remembered for generations if he ends up winning the title. I would say even if he doesn't win the title, just his show in the first six races of the season. And I know we are celebrating his win. Before the safety car came out on lap 68, Samuel, Antonelli was 30 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton in second place. 30 seconds. That's crazy. When he came for his solo stop, he had one whole minute of a gap.
[00:20:27] And he had lapped everyone till fourth place. That's how devastatingly quick he was. That's like Senna or Prost level. That's literally Senna or Prost level by Antonelli. Absolutely. And, you know, he was seven, eight seconds ahead. And Mercedes said, now we can, you know, slow down to match the pace of the Ferrari cars. And guess what Antonelli did? Ignored all of them. He was just driving away into the distance.
[00:20:49] And this 68 point gap now creates that buffer that allows him to make amateur mistakes in his championship challenging season. Listen, it is going to happen at some point. It's natural. We saw that with PS3 before. We saw it even with the likes of Hamilton when they were chasing their first title. And even with Max Verstappen recently. And even more so with Lando Norris. And Sebastian Vettel. Exactly.
[00:21:12] So when you have such a gap to the rest of the field, 60, 60, whatever, six points to Lewis Hamilton, 68 points to George Russell, it creates that beautiful buffer that you can afford to make those mistakes when they happen, if they happen. Having said that, Lewis Hamilton is absolutely hell-bent on chasing Antonelli and that gap down. And I would love to see that happen now with this whole duo discussion. That's what we should move to next. Yeah, what's up with that? What's happening with the duo?
[00:21:41] Firstly, Lewis Hamilton gave it away because there was going to be an official press release and so on. But Hamilton just spoke to the press. Like we said, Ford and the Red Bull powertrains is most powerful. So they will be applauding that the first time we mailed a Formula One power unit, which hybrid, turbo, electric, etc. We've been the class of the field. Because if you remember last year when Verstappen to Mercedes rumors were being spoken of, the first question was, is he saying this because the Ford engine is not fast enough? That was one of those things.
[00:22:09] So I'm sure a part of Red Bull is definitely applauding that they are the class of the field. Having said that, that is who've been judged to be 2% off Red Bull will also be applauding that they are getting more tokens or at least one more token to bring more upgrades to already a dominating package. And having said that, Ferrari, who have now been a judge to be 4% off Red Bull,
[00:22:34] will also be applauding that they get 2 tokens for this year and 2 tokens for the following year. So can you imagine for once there's a ruling in Formula One where all top 3 teams will actually be applauding the outcome of that ruling? Yeah, and the moment Red Bull becomes better with their chassis, that's going to be a lot of fun too. I'm genuinely, genuinely curious to see what this next half of the season looks like and to what degree the duo has an impact on the title.
[00:23:04] It's going to be fascinating. Max actually said we have a bit of free lap time to unlock. And what he meant by that was Red Bull just bringing in weight-saving measures. In their upgrades, there are upgrades coming all the way. I think there's a brand new package expected, a big package in Austria. They will come to the fight. And I really want to wish it happened versus Antonelli, season-long battle. But there's also one more thing. Honda have been adjudged to be more than 10% off.
[00:23:32] And that gap is something the regulations did not cover, Samuel. So they had to make an inclusion in the regulation to say, okay, in case you're 10 seconds, 10% off, we will give you more tokens, more money, more, you know, dino time, etc. So can you imagine? 10% off is what Honda has managed. That's how badly Honda always starts. Just give them a chance to bring a whole new engine all together. And at some point, they will be world champions. It's a matter of time.
[00:24:01] Adrian Newey was there in Monaco. He's hinted that they're going to bring some upgrades before the summer break. And I think that's also a morale-boosting measure, that you bring some upgrades and see where you land up. Today, of course, Fernando Alonso scores that extra point. Aston Martin's first point, you know, in Monaco. And there's a question from the Tifosi. How big is an advantage of 2% any idea? And this is something very interesting, because I've been trying to dig into the Aduo. And the FIA has it in the regulations, obviously.
[00:24:29] But what they've done is they've not defined the parameters and the metrics by which they will measure the power units. And in this case, it's only the internal combustion engine. Because the FIA said, then the teams will try and game the system to just get more upgrades. So it is a secret. It is more tight locked. But I really hope and I trust that it is still a transparent process in case somebody wants to go and challenge it some point of time. But that's what a 2% advantage looks like,
[00:24:59] which nobody knows what it is. We'll figure. And we'll actually find out what that 2% advantage looks like. And the teams will try to downplay it as well. They will also try to be like, oh, no, this is the package. This is the arrow. And then later, through all of our correlations, through all of our digging work that we do at the Inside Line of One podcast, we will then find out what that advantage actually looks like. But before we go, championship standings, how about we run through them very quickly? Go for it. Okay.
[00:25:28] Antonelli leads. He has got a mighty advantage over George Russell. He is 66 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton. He is 68 ahead of George Russell in third. Leclerc is fourth. He's got a total of 75 points. Oscar Piastri is fifth. He's got 60. Norris is sixth. He's got 58. Verstappen is seventh. He's got 43. So Verstappen at this stage is closer to the bottom of the standings than he is with George Russell in third.
[00:25:58] It just keeps getting worse. 113 points is the gap between Antonelli and Max Verstappen. Should they ever go battling? Kimi has all the buffer he needs that he will not get from Max when it comes to corner entries and exits for sure. I swear. I swear.
[00:26:18] I swear. He's been on that side. Yes, I will do that.
[00:26:47] Before I do that, though, one last point on Pierre Gasly. He has scored in every single Grand Prix this season. Okay. So that is fantastic. And then hence he's, you know, seeing him in the top 10. Even seeing Liam Lawson there is giving so much joy. And with Leclerc's DNF today, by the way, Ferrari now joined the other 11 teams that have scored at least one DNF in the season. So up until Monaco.
[00:27:14] Monaco, Ferrari was the only team that had a zero DNF against their name. But now they finally have a DNF as well. And what else do we have? So I'm going to tell you the constructor standings. We, of course, have Mercedes leading out in the front with 244 points. That is insane in six rounds that we've had. Ferrari is 165 points. So that's already almost an 80 point gap right there.
[00:27:44] And McLaren is at 118 points. Red Bull Racing, 72. Alpine, 41. Racing Bulls, 39. Racing Bulls is just two points away from Alpine Mercedes. That's crazy. And then there's Haas at 21. Williams at 11. Audi at 2. And then, of course, now Aston Martin at 1. And Cadillac at 0. I can't believe Audi are just, just, they've scored only two points. The promise and the pace they had, I thought it should have been more.
[00:28:14] And there's more engine troubles because Bortoledo had issues in the race today and the likes. And I think definitely more concerning with Audi and their lack of show yet. But, and I'm wanting to see where they stand in the Aduo process because they are, they are holding up against the changes of 60-40 for next year as well. And on that note, do we have any closing points? Closing points are that I cannot afford to miss another Formula 1 race. You better not.
[00:28:44] I mean, I had good reason to this time because I was calling my first, first men's singles Grand Slam final where a Monagasc won. So it is a cool story that way. And it almost could have been an Italian winning. So it would have been a special day for Italians in both ways. But yeah, it's just, just sad to miss Monaco. But good that we were able to recap it. But before we go, Bhargav has a comment. Yes, is this the first non-max Red Bull podium since the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix?
[00:29:13] This is a pub quiz question because there's the sheer number of podiums max scores. You almost don't think of it as a Red Bull racing podium. But let me put it this way, Isaac Hadjar's second career podium. Clearly, I don't know the answer, which is why I'm like, yeah, maybe it is. But Isaac Hadjar's second podium because his last podium or his first podium was, of course, with the Racing Bulls team in Soundfoot last year. So, yeah. And then just one last comment.
[00:29:38] You know, we've always spoken of when the racing is chaotic on track, television direction and race control gets more stressed out. TV direction was okay in Monaco. But race direction was all over the place with the sheer number of penalties. After a point, they're like, you know what? We're just going to deal with this post-race. It doesn't matter. And I so did not want them to deal with Hadjar's penalty post-race because I knew that he would get onto the podium with Gasly's penalty.
[00:30:02] And then if Hadjar himself had a penalty, it would be wrong to not have PS3 or Lawson on the podium, you know, which would be well deserved, well earned, I would say. Yeah. Well, these cars are making it fun. These cars are making it tough for race direction. And I like that. But, well, that's all from us for this time out, folks. That's been us on the Inside Line F1 podcast. Kunal and I will be back soon. In the meantime, make sure you're following us.
[00:30:28] Make sure you subscribe to the Inside Line F1 podcast on YouTube and on Instagram and at Kunalisha on X and at IamSomal Arora on Instagram. More stuff will be coming your way. Thank you for joining us at this late hour as well, folks. We'll catch you in a bit.


