Maria Sharapova has been an avid F1 fan, and she makes it a point to come down to the tracks whenever she can. Last year, she was spotted at the Mercedes Garage with her close friend, Lewis Hamilton. She attended the Miami Grand Prix weekend in 2023 and made it a point to catch even the qualifiers. This year, she is back to see an F1 race and the race she decided to attend is the iconic Monaco Grand Prix.

Her presence at the paddocks has changed the spirits of Mercedes, as she seems to be acting like a good luck charm for the team. Lewis Hamilton was the quickest driver around the circuit and George Russell came in 3rd during the FP1. This might just be because of having the tennis legend there to motivate them.

Maria Sharapova’s influence on Lewis Hamilton

While racing, it’s always nice to have someone rooting for you. When we talk about Lewis Hamilton, it’s clear that he has millions of fans that want to see him win, but when a personal friend is at the paddocks, the pressure is on. Maria Sharapova attended the first day of the Monaco Grand Prix weekend and to remember this day, she put up a story on Instagram.

In the Instagram story, there is a video of Lewis Hamilton’s car coming in for a pit stop and the Russian tennis player recorded a clip of it happening. The impressive speed of Mercedes Pit stops has been something that has baffled many fans, drivers, teams, and pundits over the years, and Maria Sharapova had the VIP seat of the experience.

She has always supported Hamilton and this year will be no different. However, her only interest in F1 does not stem from her friendship with Hamilton. Last year, in Miami, Sharapova spoke to F1 Academy women’s championship head Susie Wolff and Naomi Schiff along with others to talk about women in F1 and how it can be better facilitated.

Now that attended the Monaco Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton has maxed out his results during the FP1, so lets take a look at her influence on the Briton driver.

Lewis Hamilton the quickest driver at Monaco FP1

Lewis Hamilton proved that he is the quickest at Monaco as he clocked in a time of 1:12:169. This was extremely fast, but right behind was Oscar Piastri, who came in just 0.029 seconds slower than the 7-time world champion. George Russell came in third +0.126 seconds behind Hamilton.

The gap between the top two drivers is extremely small and McLaren has been quick after their recent upgrades. What is surprising is that Mercedes turned out to be quicker than Red Bull, Ferrari, and the GP-winning McLaren.

However, these were just the results from FP1 and many teams are known to sandbag their cars to hide the real output. We have 2 Mercedes cars in the top 3 but the FP2 will decide their true pace. That being said, do you think Mercedes has a chance of scoring a podium in Monaco? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.