Ferrari GT driver deems Monaco GP “a snooze fest”

Ferrari GT driver David Perel recently labeled the Monaco GP a 'snooze fest'. He also talked about how the track itself had issues, rather than the cars being different.

The 2024 F1 Monaco GP took place on May 26 and was won by Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc. He became the first Monegasque to win the race after 93 years, and the first driver to win it after it was officially part of the F1 world championship in 1950.

The race at Monaco is considered one of the most prestigious racing events in the history of motorsport. Racing in the principality began back in 1929 when F1 was not even an official sport. Despite being a tight street circuit, it has a long and rich history in motorsports.

While the Monaco GP always had a special place on the F1 calendar, many in the motorsport community argue that it does not offer a decent racing spectacle, particularly because of how tight the track is.

Ferrari GT driver David Perel recently opined that the race at Monaco has always been boring. He added that there was no evidence to showcase that the increasing size of the cars was the reason why it became difficult to pass in the race. On his official X account, he wrote:

"Monaco has been a snooze fest for forever. Overtaking has always been close to impossible, no evidence to suggest that the size of the cars have made any difference to the race. Saturday has always been the most important day."

David Perel is a GT racing driver who competes in the Fanatec GT Endurance Cup with the Rinaldi Racing team. He has been racing ever since he was 13 years old. Though he wanted to progress into a single-seater series, he was unable to because of a lack of funds.

Later on, he returned to racing and started making his mark in the various GT series such as the Blancpain Endurance Series, Blancpain GT series and 24 Hours of Le Mans, among others.

---

Max Verstappen on how uneventful the Monaco GP was

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen also felt that the Monaco GP was quite dull in terms of racing. As quoted by Motorsport.com, the Red Bull driver explained how he had to race on the medium tire till the end of the race after the race was red-flagged on lap one.

“After the red flag our strategy was ruined as we had to put the medium on to the end as everyone had a free stop, and that meant that we had to save a lot,” Verstappen explained.

Since he had to nurse his tires, he stated that he and other drivers were driving several seconds off the pace, which resulted in almost no overtakes. The Dutchman opined that every driver was so slow that they were essentially 'not racing' at the Monaco GP.

“I just tried to follow George and we were so off the pace trying to manage the tyres. That is of course quite boring out there, driving literally half-throttle on the straights in some places, a gear higher than you would normally do and four seconds off the pace, so that is not really racing,” he added.