Monaco awaits Antonelli, Verstappen hunts a return to the fight
The most prestigious race of the season is held this year from June 4 to 7; the 19-year-old Mercedes driver is defending three consecutive wins.
Old-school Formula 1 does not love it when things move. The Monaco race, run almost without interruption since 1929, after two years of a May date this season shifts to the first weekend of June. The reason: an organisers’ calculation with the Indianapolis 500 calendar, which for generations had been on the same breathing pattern, has now been postponed. The driver who has followed F1 for years, like the cocktail crowd at the Hotel de Paris, remembers the old picture, but the new season does not allow nostalgia.
The Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Grand Prix of Monaco 2026 runs from Thursday June 4 to Sunday June 7, according to the official announcement on the F1 website. The main race is on Sunday at 3 p.m. Central European Time, while qualifying is scheduled for Saturday June 6 at 4 p.m. All on the same charge of the famous street corners, Sainte Devote, Mirabeau, the tunnel, Rascasse.
Who is in position to win?
Kimi Antonelli, the 19-year-old Italian Mercedes driver, leads the championship with three consecutive wins, which by May 2026 has launched him into the main favourite for the title. Antonelli last season was the junior reserve driver for Mercedes, and after Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari took a seat in the senior team. That no expert in May 2025 was predicting this says enough about the speed with which the 2026 car technology has changed and how young drivers with roots in Formula 2 and Formula 3 are now progressing faster.
On the other side, Max Verstappen, with a new chassis at Red Bull for 2026, has so far had a difficult season, with just one win and four podium finishes. Red Bull boss Christian Horner said in March for GPFans that “the technical simulation shows that Monaco suits Verstappen’s driving style”, which in the news market was read as an admission that the team is on the back foot and is looking at every potential win. The Dutchman, who was world champion four times in a row, here defends the title he took in 2025 from Lando Norris.
The local hero, Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, is defending his second home-soil win since his historic 2024. Leclerc in 2026 has had a mixed season, with a new chief engineer Frederic Vasseur at Ferrari, who in March introduced a new approach to tyre setup that delivered its first results on the clay of Madrid.
What is new on the circuit and in the rules?
The 2026 season introduces, for the first time in F1 history, power units made up of 50 per cent electric energy and 50 per cent synthetic fuel, the new green energy-transition standard. The racing types before the opening lap have been saying that this change on the tight streets of Monaco can give an advantage to drivers who are aggressive on corner exits, but that the risk of engine penalties is higher than before.
From the Croatian side, driver Klaudio Sneszitic, who in Formula 2 raced for Italian team ART, had his first test with Williams in Bahrain two weeks ago, as Motorsport reported. Sneszitic could be the first driver from the region in Formula 1 since Marko Bosnjak in 2010, but for now the realistic option is the 2027 season, not mid-2026.
For the Monaco public, tickets for all days have been sold out since February, according to the organisers. The first free practice on Thursday will be broadcast live on F1 TV at 13:30, qualifying on Saturday at 16:00, the race on Sunday at 15:00.
On the personal side, looking at historical context, a 19-year-old driver who has won three races in a row before his first Monaco race, as a rule falls in qualifying. The reason is simple: nobody in F2 or F3 learns how to exit Mirabeau with one hand while the other is on a water bottle. Monaco is a circuit that punishes everything a driver learns in a simulator and rewards only what is built up through experience. Antonelli on the Tuesday after Monaco will have his first true picture of whether his streak on classic circuits is transferable.
On the Verstappen side, this race is almost existential. A 47-point gap behind Antonelli in the middle of the season is large, but it is only unbridgeable if the Red Bull car cannot find form in the high-downforce / low-balance combination, which has traditionally been the team’s weakness on the streets of Monaco. Technical director Pierre Wache said in March they learned what to do over the winter; now we see how much was actually learned operationally.
