F1 Paddock Notebook - Monaco GP Thursday
With a round-up of all the additional news and notes from the paddock♏ in Monaco on Thursday, mahbx.com F1 Editor Luke Smith br𓄧ings you his notebook.
- Daniel Ricciardo’s fastest tim𝐆e of the day during FP2 marks a new track record at Monaco. His lap of 1m11.841s is three-tenths of a second below the previous record☂ held by Kimi Raikkonen (1m12.178s) that was set during the final stage of qualifying for last year’s race.

With a rouꩲnd-up of all the additio💃nal news and notes from the paddock in Monaco on Thursday, mahbx.com F1 Editor Luke Smith brings you his notebook.
- Daniel Ricciardo’s fastest time of the day during FP2 marks a new track record at Monaco. His lap of 1m11.841s is three-tenths of a second below the previous🥀 record held by Kimi Raikkonen (1m12.178s) that was set during the final stage of qualifying for last year’s race.
- As revea⛎led on Wednesday, Pierre Gasly ran with an updated floor and rear brake drums on his Toro Rosso car in FP1 and FP2, but trailed teammate Brendon Hartley - running without the updates - in both sessions. Gasly said a more representative picture of their benefit would come in Canada. Hartley will get the new parts on Saturday.
- FP1 saw drivers hit the track w♛ith much more grip afforded to them from the start than in the past, benefitting from the Formula 2 practice running that took place fir🐲st thing in the day. In previous years, F1 was first out on the green Monaco circuit.
- Valtteri Bottas debu💫ted his special Mika Hakkinen tribute helmet in FP1 on Thursday. Hakkinen was B𓄧ottas’ hero when growing up and aspiring to reach F1. Brendon Hartley and Charles Leclerc were among the other drivers to showcase their new one-off helmets for the race weekend.
- Mercedes debuted a subtly tweaked livery in FP1, changing the colour 🦩of its Petronas w✨ording on the side of the car from white to black.
- Running was interrupted by just one red flag on Thursday, called midway through FP2 when p🀅art of the track came up between Casino Square and Mirabeau, resulting in a 15-minute repair.
- The only major stewards’ investigatio𝓡n of the day came as a result of Max Verstappen’s potentially unsafe reverse manoeuvre to the track after running straight on at Sainte Devote in FP1. The stewards did not award a penalty, though, deeming him not to have caused any danger after reviewing the footage and talking with Verstappen.
- Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Ga🍨sly, Romain Grosjean, Stoffel Vandoorne and Brendon Hartley will race with new gearboxes this weekend. As all are within the regulations, no penalties will be applied to the drivers.
- Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen, Marcus Ericsson, Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez will all be racing with some new engine elements in Monaco this weekend. None will trigger a penalty though, all keepiಌng within their allowan✤ce for the season.
- Pierre Gasly, Charles Leclerc, Lance Stroll, Carlos 🦂Sainz Jr. and Sebastian Vettel were all hit with fines for speeding in the pi൲t lane through practice.
- Despite seeing high levels of degradation on the Hypersoft tyre, Pirelli is widely expecting it to still be a one-stop🌳 race in Monaco on Sunday. The Hypersoft is estimated to offer a one second per lap gain over the Ultrasoft.
- Pirelli F1 chief Mario Isola also confirmed that we are likely to see more ste🎉ps between tyre choices later in the season, skippin a compound as in Germany. This was seen in the selections for Hungary that came out on Thursday, which a𓃲re Medium, Soft and Ultrasoft (skipping Supersofts).