I’ve been watching the Monaco Grand Prix for about 8 years now. I’ve also gone back and watched pretty much every Monaco GP for at least the last 25 years.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the Princess of Monaco, Charlene, often (but not always) places a kiss on the podium recipients’ cheek(s), but it is not always the winner and some years the kiss is skipped completely.

This year the race was held on 06/07/2026, and as always I paid attention to Charlene. She presented Lewis with his trophy and with it, a kiss on the cheek. Notably she did not kiss Kimi Antonelli who had just smashed Lewis Hamilton’s record as the youngest Monaco Grand Prix winner in history.

This was also Antonelli’s 5th win in a row and also the 5th race of the season, no other driver in F1 history has ever won the first 4 races in a row, nor the first 5.

This just goes to show it must take a lot to impress the Princess, and the honor of receiving a kiss from her is probably higher than the trophy of Monaco itself.