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Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has picked Charles Leclerc over Lando Norris as the key challenger for Max Verstappen at the F1 Monaco GP. The Ferrari driver's home race is in Monaco and will have plenty of support this weekend.
The 2024 F1 season was supposed to be a repeat of last season, where Red Bull dominated from start to finish. Last season, the team lost only one race in Singapore when the overall strategy and set-up did not come together. This year, however, has been a bit more of a struggle.
After dominating the first two races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the team lost the race in Melbourne, with Charles Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz picking up the win.
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After a commanding performance in the next couple of races in Japan and China, Max Verstappen faced a surprise challenge from Lando Norris in Miami. The race ended up being Red Bull's second loss of the season, but since then, Ferrari has also brought upgrades to the track and the race in Imola was a nail-biting affair.
While Max Verstappen won the race from Lando Norris, he just fended him off in the end, and it was in no way a dominant day for him. Looking ahead to the race in Monaco, however, Helmut Marko feels that the primary challenge would come from Charles Leclerc.
Talking about how the track's bumpy nature could play a role, Helmut Marko felt that Charles Leclerc could produce something special at Monaco and backed him over Lando Norris to be the primary challenger. He told the Telegraph,
"We're heading to Monaco, and it's pretty much all about qualifying there. It will be the most difficult race for us, due to the bumps and kerbs. I expect a lot from Ferrari, and especially from Charles Leclerc."
Charles Leclerc looking forward to the race despite his horror run at Monaco
Charles Leclerc was questioned if he was looking forward to the race in Monaco. The Ferrari driver has had horrible luck at the track throughout its history. He lost a race win there in 2021 when he couldn't start because of a gearbox issue.
He lost the race in 2022 due to Ferrari's strategic debacle. Last season, he lost a top 3 starting position due to a 3-place grid penalty for impeding another driver. The driver has not been too lucky here but was still looking forward to how the car performs. Talking about this in the post-race press conference, he said,
"Yeah, Monaco is going to be very special of course, as special as here in Imola. Obviously there is a lot of red, and it’s always amazing to see that.”
If Leclerc ends up beating Max Verstappen in Monaco and wins the race, we're looking at the driver closing the gap to P1 in the championship. At the moment, the driver finds himself in P2 in the standings and is closest to Max in terms of points.
