Leclerc's home race hoodoo, rain, and more 5 storylines were excited about ahead of the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix

The second double-header of the season concludes this weekend with an iconic race at the Monaco Grand Prix. Ahead of one of the most glamorous events of the year, here are a few of the topics we think will be making headlines in the Principality.

1. Can Leclerc end his Monaco jinx?

Sometimes drivers just click at a unrepealable venue, and for others it just doesn’t work out. But when it’s your home race, it becomes that bit increasingly poignant one way or another.

Charles Leclerc is Monaco’s most successful Formula 1 driver, but despite spending his early years taking the bus to school withal the roads used for the track, he has yet to finish a race at home.

That\'s a run that started with his debut at Alfa Romeo in 2018, but his bad luck at the event goes when plane remoter than that as he was forced to retire without starting from pole position in Formula 2 the year before, leading to him starting the Sprint Race at the when and lightweight to make much progress.

2021 Monaco Grand Prix: Gearbox issue forces Leclerc to retire pre-race

With Ferrari, he dropped out in Q1 without a team error in 2019, then saw the race cancelled the pursuit year and last season infamously took pole position but crashed on his final Q3 run (above) and was unable to start the race without car forfeiture surfaced on his way to the grid.

As if that wasn’t enough, Leclerc suffered a restriction failure when demonstrating one of Niki Lauda’s archetype Ferrari’s older this month, causing him to crash at Rascasse.

Surely, surely, his luck will transpiration soon…

2. A three-team fight for pole position

Despite taking four pole positions once this season, it\'s certainly not going to be an easy task for Leclerc this weekend. Ferrari and Red Bull have traded having the fastest car at variegated venues, and now there is a new threat in the mix.

Mercedes have finally made the step forward that they had threatened for a long time, with George Russell qualifying fourth and finishing third in Spain, while Lewis Hamilton was the quickest suburbanite wideness the loftiness from the end of lap two until he hit reliability issues late on, having been demoted to the when by a first-lap puncture.

Not only was that pace impressive, Russell stated his weighing that Mercedes will be plane stronger in Monaco, where the lack of upper speeds should midpoint teams are struggling less with porpoising than at other venues. But that’s an zone Mercedes towards to have made well-spoken progress, unlocking a lot increasingly pace in the car.

It all points to three teams arriving in Monaco feeling like they have a endangerment of fighting for pole position.

3 An veritably spectacular qualifying session

Whether they are fighting for pole or trying to make it out of Q1, all of the drivers need supreme conviction in their cars virtually the tight and twisty circuit, where fine margins tend to make a difference.

There are few largest sights in Formula 1 than a car on the wool limit at its very fastest and lightest during a qualifying run virtually Monaco, flirting with the barriers in the search for an uneaten thousandth of a second.

And on a track where the cars are not getting to fully stretch their legs, the suburbanite can make that little bit increasingly of a difference. But that works both ways, considering the slightest error can prove disastrous. Not only does a mistake tend to end up in the wall, a lowly qualifying spot usually ways little endangerment to move forward in the race and can prove terminal for a driver’s hopes over the weekend.

No qualifying session matters increasingly than in Monaco, and it’s fantastic to watch.

4. Tough cars to tame on the streets

The 2022 regulations have delivered cars that indulge drivers to race increasingly closely together than in previous years, but there are unrepealable aspects that are a bit increasingly challenging than in the past.

One of those is the cars at low speed, as they are heavier than their predecessors and generate their downforce in variegated ways. That ways they are tougher to handle through lower speed sections, which is substantially all Monaco is comprised of.

After getting used to the driving styles required for the new cars on numerous variegated circuits up to now, Monaco will require a remoter adaption from the drivers to get the most lap time out of the new cars.

Add in the fact that wheel covers introduced this year have led to slightly reduced visibility of the front tyres and the drivers will have an plane increasingly difficult rencontre in terms of seeing the noon – usually specified by a windbreak – throughout the lap.

If Monaco wasn’t tough unbearable in the past, it’s going to be that bit increasingly testing this yea

5. The risk of rain

All races tend to be spiced up by wet weather, but in Monaco rain can transform an often processional race into a much increasingly unshut topic than would otherwise be possible. And guess what the weather forecast is saying for this weekend…

The last wet race was in 2016 and saw Daniel Ricciardo miss out on victory without dominating the race due to a slow pit stop, but perhaps the most memorable races in Monaco moreover have rain to thank for playing a major role, with Olivier Panis winning from 14th on the grid as one of only three cars to see the finish in 1996, and McLaren’s Alain Prost holding off a charging Ayrton Senna – in a Toleman – in a shortened race when in 1984.

It’s still early days of course, but there is a threat of at least a shower on Sunday, as well as older in the weekend that could have an impact on track running. It has been waffly rapidly and the risk could well overwork between now and the race weekend, but then the uncertainty is part of the fun, right?