Fernando Alonso claims Monaco GP is the “best weekend of the year” except for the Sunday race

Fernando Alonso gave his opinion on the upcoming F1 Monaco Grand Prix, calling it the "best weekend," but adding that the feeling lasts only till Sunday (race day). The GP is known for its hard-to-overtake nature, resulting in a tough race for the drivers.

F1 heads to the Crown Jewel this week for the Monaco GP. The principality of the country has been used as a street circuit since 1929, with very minor changes in the overall layout. Since the cars back in the day were relatively very small, overtaking was possible.

But currently, the F1 cars are huge compared to how they were 20 years ago. This results in a race that lacks overtakes. It is famously also called that the results of the Grand Prix are decided on Saturday, as most of the grid remains the same at the end of the race as how it starts out.

Although Fernando Alonso did not directly say it, it is thought that his quotes were regarding the same. Autosport quoted the 42-year-old driver as saying:

"Monaco is the best weekend of the year... until Sunday."

Many doubts have been raised about the Grand Prix, but the competition might get better soon as the 2026 F1 cars are expected to be smaller when compared with the current generation.

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Fernando Alonso believes Monaco will be a "torture" if the car doesn't handle properly

The Aston Martin driver was competing at a good pace early in the 2023 season but by the end, the team could not cope with the developmental pace of the other teams. However, they still finished fifth in the championship.

Heading into this season, the team is still strongly competing in the midfield. In Monaco, Fernando Alonso believes that finding the right balance for the car would be essential because of the small area of the track and the very small margin of error. He stated that if the car does not handle well, the race would be a "torture."

"If the car doesn't handle well in Monaco, it's a torture, going fast in that track. So I think, first of all, we need to set up the car properly," GPBlog quoted him.

"We need to find the maximum performance and we need to concentrate on Saturday. I think on Sunday it's like here, no one will overtake. So all the efforts will be on Saturday like everyone else. And hopefully that perfect lap comes next weekend."

Alonso had a disappointing race at Imola last week. He crashed during the practice session which interrupted his qualifying. He started the race in the pitlane after Aston Martin made some changes in his car and finished P19.