5- Well done... Monaco?

After two years of racing madness in the Azerbaijan Gran Prix, all the Formula 1 fans were massively excited when the Circus finally stopped in the streets of Baku. But the race has just been boring. No action, no thrill, no drama... it seemed that every driver was backing off waiting for the mayhem to happen. But that moment never came and when the checkered flag has been waved everyone but Mercedes was disappointed.
On the other hand we witnessed a great Montecarlo GP, something that rarely happens due to the tight layout of the track. Nevertheless the Mercedes wrong tyre choice forced Lewis Hamilton to slow the pace down to handle degradation. That let Verstappen, Vettel and Bottas be in contention for a win that wasn't obvious until the very last lap. In the middle of the field there were battles going on as well and Leclerc's attempt of a comeback added even more spice to the race.

4- McLaren's (partial) resurrection

With the departure of Fernando Alonso and a four years long losing streak behind McLaren's back not many people would have bet even a penny on a great season for the british team. Eventually tho, it seems that the engeneers in Woking may have finally found a good path to follow. The young but still experienced Carlos Sainz and the massively talended rookie Lando Norris managed to both qualify and cross the finish line constantly in the top 10. McLaren therefore has great chances of being the fourth power on the grid at the end of the championship. Should we expect more to come from now on?

3- Another tough season for Renault

I think I can speak for many of us when I say that during the winter break I already pictured in my mind Renault being in a solid fourth position in the team standings for this year, even with some podium finishes possibly. But so far things have not tured out well for the french team. Daniel Ricciardo signing last summer to join them suggested that he knew big upgrades were expected for the yellow painted car. Considering also the experience and the speed of Nico Hulkenberg and the amount of money invested in the project it was difficult to foresee such an up-and-down season for Renault. The speed hasn't always been there and both reliability issues and a tight midfield pack took away from them many championship points.

2- Where's Gasly?

While Max Verstappen is pushing his Red Bull car up to a brillant third position in the championship and even managed to secure the first win in 13 years for Honda, his team-mate Pierre Gasly is having a terrible time in his debut season with the austrian team. Moreover the Frenchman has even been lapped by Verstappen in the Red Bull home race, which is frankly unacceptable. But what happened to the talented driver we used to know? Gasly secured the GP2 title in 2016 and the following year would have won the Japanese Super Formula in his rookie season if he wouldn't have deserted the last event to race in Formula 1 with Toro Rosso. Thoughout the 2018 season Pierre has shown great speed and a winning mentality, with a fourth place finish in Bahrain as jewel on the crown. But from one year to another he seems a different driver, often slow and never aggressive enough in the battles. It came out that in the first three races of the season he was racing with an undetected issue on his car, but still his performances haven't improved since then.

https://www.motorlat.com/notas/f1/11954/why-did-the-second-honda-team-not-succeed-in-austria

1- Winless Ferrari

Anything to add? Yes, for sure the Scuderia would have deserved at least two wins (Bahrain and Canada) and also in Austria only a superhuman Max Verstappen denied Ferrari's first triumph of the year. But in particular after the preseason testing it was hard to imagine the Scuderia still winless nine races into the championship. The best chance of victory that the red cars have now is in Monza, but who knows if luck is going to smile to Maranello even before Ferrari's home race.