The benevolent shadow of Niki Lauda was hovering over Monaco this year. His indomitable spirit no doubt accompanied Lewis Hamilton as he resisted, lap after lap, the tremendous pressure exerted by the fiery Max Verstappen, who tried all he could to pass the Mercedes which had been fitted with the wrong choice of tires. There was definitely an air of Monaco 1992, when Nigel Mansell desperately tried to take the lead from Ayrton Senna, but had to surrender in the end. Like Senna, Hamilton didn't crack under pressure.

A fifth Mercedes 1-2 in five races, on the back of their five consecutive World Championship titles… I guess that sort of sums up the situation in Formula 1. It’s a High Technology Constructor’s Championship, and the best team with the best financial resources keeps on winning, and winning… Looking down the history lane, nobody has ever been so consistently dominant, so if we want the situation to change, major changes must be implemented. As Martin Brundle wrote: “F1 must be a drivers' championship, not an engineers' tech fest. The cars must be the angriest, flightiest most challenging machines on the planet. I don't want to see teenagers jumping in them and having it all mastered by lunchtime, and fully on the pace”. Words of widom. Will the powers that be listen?
I doubt it.

The French Grand Prix was all about the anticipated return to the country that invented the name Grand Prix back in 1906. The traffic jams were much the talk of the town (Paul Ricard circuit access was already a problem back in 1971, and nothing has changed), and the racing in the end was all about Lewis Hamilton, who led from Pole position never to be seen again by the opposition till he took the checkered flag. Rather boring. The Greatest Racing Spectacle on the Planet? Mmmhhhh...