IMAGO / PanoramiC

The Monaco GP weekend is no stranger to red flags and this weekend was no different. The premier league got away scot-free initially with many big incidents in F2 and F3. Until of course, the first lap of the F1 race on Sunday. With three big incidents scattered across the grid in the opening minutes of the race, Lewis Hamilton wagged his finger at Mercedes.

During such a chaotic opening lap, even the commentators struggled to keep up with what was happening on the track. First, Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz briefly touched, but it was enough to puncture the Ferrari’s tire. As Sainz brought out the yellow flags after parking his car, the camera panned to debris scattered around the track.

Magnussen: “From my point of view, I had a good part of my front on Perez’s rear.”

WHEN WERE YOU AT THE FRONT YOU FUCKING MORON#MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/Y7MwjALl79

— MarieLET’S GO CHECO! (@ma_fe79) May 26, 2024

The horrific sight resulted from a three-car collision between Sergio Perez and the two Haases. A bold move from Magnussen saw him rear-end a sandwiched Perez, who rammed into Hulkenberg’s car ahead of him. While all drivers were safe, Perez bore the brunt of the impact with his Red Bull obliterated.

Ocon siendo Ocon pic.twitter.com/9kqv3991UV

— FTotal (@FTotal_) May 26, 2024

And finally, the Alpine of Esteban Ocon broke the golden rule of F1: Never crash into your teammate. Surely, while discussing race strategy and tires to start on, Lewis Hamilton might’ve had an intuition about these things.

Credit it to his many years in the sport, but Hamilton knew what he was doing. Looking on at the storm on track, a stoic Hamilton simply radioed in: “I told you.” 

Lewis Hamilton unhappy with Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton made a pretty calculated prediction with his team because it is not uncommon for red flags to spice things up in Monaco. If it wasn’t for the Perez-Magnussen-Hulkenberg incident, something would’ve surely happened and the three incidents witnessed today are proof of it.

In fact, Hamilton’s radio suggests that he was not on the same page with the strategy. He started on the hard tires and shifted to mediums after the red flag. Had it been flipped, Hamilton could’ve made the most of the hards after the restart.

Lewis Hamilton says he doesn’t anticipate being ahead of George in qualifying this year. Rachel asks “why all year?” and he just shrugs and says “we’ll see.” pic.twitter.com/4ArWQqIz1K

— deni (@fiagirly) May 25, 2024

This also comes at a time when Hamilton has openly suggested tensions between him and the team after qualifying on Saturday. After having been out-qualified by his teammate, Hamilton hinted at something fishy. “I don’t anticipate being ahead of George in qualifying this year.” When asked why Hamilton thought so, he added, “We’ll see.”

While one would assume experience and expertise as high value, Mercedes continues to fail in utilizing them. Maybe Ferrari will?