Grand Prix 2018 Monaco Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Monaco. The principality of Monaco to be completely correct. Its name comes from a 6th century BC Greek colony in the area who believe they descended from Hercules himself. Despite their laws trying to suggest otherwise they have a monarch who holds ultimate autonomy over the region. It's all very Game of Thrones. All this for an area that is just over 2km squared. The region has a population of 19,000 people with around 10,000 of these being motor racing drivers avoiding paying tax in their own country. Monaco is famous for 3 things - the rich and crooked, casinos and motor racing. Yes it's F1's 'jewel in the crown's where the colours are brighter and the crowd are all beuatiful people.

Ok let's have a look at some of our readers letters. Here's one:


Dear Raspy,

All street circuits in F1 are pointless with Monaco being doubly so. It's not fit for modern race cars and should be disposed off immediately. I resent paying for a Now TV subscription to watch it.

Yours faithfully

Angry of Scotland.


Well Angry of Scotland does have a point and his view is shared by many. It is pretty silly having race cars on a track like Monaco where overtaking has been virtually impossible for the last 30 years. To be honest though overtaking is virtually impossible at every track now so maybe it was a trend setter. Personally I like Monaco for the look and the fact it's a challenge for the drivers to even make it round. There will be no 'rejoin the track by going to the left of the bollard' here. If you leave the black stuff you're in the wall.

One of the things levelled at Monaco is that it's an exceptionally boring race. This is not always true but let's be fair how can it possibly be more boring than the steaming terd that was the Spanish Grand Prix? Yes we come here off the back of a 1-2 from Merc, a supreme drive from Lewis, a lackluster performance from Vettel and Verstappen actually finishing a race. Unfortunately it was all so boring that nobody really cares. Hamilton is very much in control of the championship now and is in good spirits so I fully expect him to be as unbeatable here as he was in Spain. Vettel has never been awesome here and I expect him to get some trouble from the Red Bulls.

Speaking of which Max Verstappen has to be one of the favourites to be first in the wall. Probably joint along with Grosjean and the two Williams drivers. My little boys pushchair takes corners better than that Williams so I fully expect them to both crash out. This race has always bought about a lot of retirements and we've often seen a cautious approach lead to big points. The track is also seen as a leveller for the cars and we are told this means driver skill is far more important than the car. What this means is we'll get a lot of articles in the build up about how this is Fernando Alonso's chance to take an amazing and shocking win. I guess we'll see when we get there.

Last and not least let's talk about Charles LeClerc. The home town boy. Not only a home town boy but one who choses.to race under a Monegasque licence as well. LeClerc comes here off the back of two really results in a Sauber which looks a lot better than people expected. Could he pull off some sort of miricale podium here? I wouldn't put it past him.

So who is going to bother to watch?
 
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I remember the 1990 race restarted on lap 1 because Senna disappeared as usual, Alesi caught Prost napping and overtook him at Mirabeau and then Berger decided he was going to do the same but there was no room for him to squeeze inside

So basically everyone queued up behind the blockage except Modena who had to park his car because he could not go anywhere

I thought if Alonso;s 2004 crash at the tunnel was bad because he tried an ambitious move to lap R Schumacher around the outside in the tunnel and got on the dust.
What followed afterwards with M Schumacher was comical if you think he was trying to warm his brakes coming out of the tunnel and got on the dirty line and then nearly collected Montoya with him who has to be said was minding his own business

Other incidents I remember the rain throws even more surprises

1996 - Schumacher made a poor getaway as Hill took the lead and subsequently went straight into the barrier coming down the hairpin to the tunnel

1997 - The Mclarens took each other out at the chicane on damp track which Damon Hill was a poor victim after they all tried to navigate Alesi spinning in front of them
 
Let's keep Monaco on the calendar but put all the drivers, including test, backup or spare drivers in identical shifter karts and have them race those on the GP circuit-it would be far more intersting
 
I thought if Alonso;s 2004 crash at the tunnel was bad because he tried an ambitious move to lap R Schumacher around the outside in the tunnel and got on the dust.
What followed afterwards with M Schumacher was comical if you think he was trying to warm his brakes coming out of the tunnel and got on the dirty line and then nearly collected Montoya with him who has to be said was minding his own business

There was a huge speed difference between Ralf and Alonso at the time. Ralf going slow on the racing line. Coming into tunnel Alonso was a way over car length behind, at the time of him hitting the wall he was a car length ahead. Ralf had some gearbox problem which eventually caused his retirement from the race, likely missing gear or two which affected him acceleration.

Ralf was similarly involved in Jacques Villeneuve's crash in Montreal two years later.
 
Have the cars gotten that much bigger? There looks like bags of room on that video where the track is the same as now. When did the layout change?
 
Bleu Alonso was rather impatient and over ambitious in pulling a move like that. Ralf Schumacher it has to be said maybe could have reacted sooner or at least got radio warning to move out of the way
 
cousinDave If you look at Monaco now its more built up with flats, restuarants etc. The tunnel was not there before and the barriers seem to make the track smaller

It has to be said though some areas of the track like the swimming section has actually got reclaimed land but instead of making the track wider , they decided it was better off making it an escape road which I find pointless because it defeats the object of Monaco - one mistake and you're likely end up in the wall
 
just seen something through F1 on twitter & don't what this says about how bad sauber have been last 2 years. that Leclerc scored more points in the azerbajian gp, than sauber managed to scored in 41 gps in 2016 & 2017

also I'm quite tempted to put proper money on Alonso at 250/1 ew this weekend. as hes known for outperforming his car last few years
 
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It's Monaco.
Who ever is on the front row in qually will win dependant on who gets to the first corner first.

It won't be Alonso.
 
Greenlantern101 Panis 16th to 1st I think it was if I remember

Hamilton won from 3rd on the grid I think

DC won it from 3rd on the grid as well
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F1Brits_90 If you are talking about Sauber , it helps when you have people in charge who knows what they are doing instead of signing 4 drivers on contracts and somehow bringing the team to almost folding
 
I hope Pirelli bring the softest tyre possible because what is terrible about Monaco and Hungary is you can act like a mobile chicane and the faster car behind cannot do a thing

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Other than Mark Webber who won it two times since 2004 the Monaco GP has been won by a world champion. Strangely,Hamilton and Vettel have only won this race twice each considering the years they have had racing in top cars


Last year it was said that the shorter wheelbase Ferrari was much more suited to the circuit but the Red Bulls were not as close as they ought to have been
 
Between 1984 and 1993 (10 GPs) Monaco was only won by 2 drivers. In contrast we've had 3 winners in the last 3 years.
 
I would be interested in knowing the percentage of winners that started on the front row and the percentage that didn't and how that compares to a regular track like Silverstone for example.
 
I reckon it would work out even purely because of the fact that the retirement rate at Monaco would be far higher than average.
 
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So, Monaco is in fourth in terms of percentage of races won by pole from those circuits at which there have been races at a significant majority of the years back to 1998. It is behind the Circuit de Catalunya, Monza and Suzuka. Each of those circuits have only two wins from off the front row in those twenty years!
Catalunya: Alonso's Pirelli-crisis era win in 2013 from fifth and Verstappen capitalising on the Mercedes nerfing each other off on lap one in 2016.
Monza: Rubens Barrichello beating a couple of non-finishing Williams in 2002, and Barrichello as the leader of the one-stoppers in 2009 when the front three (Hamilton, Raikkonen and Sutil [!]) were on two-stoppers back in the day when Q3 fuel was carried to the race.
Suzuka: Kimi Raikkonen qualifying 17th in the single-lap rain-affected lottery of a grid, then being the best of the favourites to come through the field to win, and 2006 when winner Alonso qualified behind suspiciously light Toyotas, Ferrari-second-driver-strategy limited Massa and Michael Schumacher, the last of which retired.
Nonetheless, most wins in Monaco are from the front row (all but 4 in that time) and no-one has won the race in that time from a worse position than third - the highest lowest position (if that makes sense) of the lot.
Of those circuits, the least likely place to find a winner from pole in those decades was Silverstone with only 30% (even though Hamilton has won the last three from pole.) Aside from Monza, Catalunya and Silverstone, all circuits are between 40-56%. Interlagos is the place to qualify second!
Interestingly, the last three years have seen some of the circuits previously comparatively unlikely to see a pole-win produce a string of them (Silverstone, Spa, Montreal).
I think these statistics show that watching the Spanish Grand Prix is a fool's errand, though...
 
RasputinLives Only the greats tend to win at Monaco when it was a real test of driver skill and concentration. I wonder how many drivers could hack Monaco doing to nearly 3000 gear changes over the entire race rather than the finger flicking semi automatic gearboxes we get now
 
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