Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox twice a week during the season and weekly in the offseason.Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today I’m looking forward to the annual unique challenge of the Monaco Grand Prix. Except, thanks to those pesky, complex engines, that challenge is rather different in 2026.I’m Alex, and Madeline Coleman will be along later.Terrible Turbo Lag: The engine factors complicating Monaco, tooF1 is just one day away from one of its best on-track sessions of each season: The Monaco GP qualifying.The challenge of driving cars that can hit 220 mph with the walls so close all the way around this near 100-year-old track is just thrilling. I’ve been lucky enough to go in person and watch trackside — it’s exhilarating being just centimeters from these racing beasts.Now, the cars don’t reach 220 mph in Monaco, precisely because of those close walls and very short straights. Yet this actually adds to the driving challenge.
If a driver cannot unleash 100 percent of a car’s capable speed because they’re constrained by the circuit, then the goal in Monaco qualifying is getting as close to that 100 percent without crashing.
