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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That is monaco should always stay. As that qualifying that i just caught up on because of work, Was spectacular to watch the cars on edge. Riccardio to go under 1:11 was brilliant to watch

Interesting that the "greatest pole lap" at 1988 monaco gp from Senna was technically the only mclaren with a GP2 engine;). As that lap was 1:23.998 & this weekend f2 pole lap was 1:21.727. The rate of progress in motorsport
 
They would be insane to ditch him, completely insane.

Every year we get this speculation about driver changes and hardly anyone moves anywhere. Even the logical moves don't happen (hi Kimi)!
 
I don't think they'll ditch him but he's really helping Danny Ric's contract negotiations right now.
 
David Coulthard really hasn't got over being held up by that Arrows all those years ago has he?

All race long he praised the so called slower cars for letting the so called faster cars through because they were not in the same race.

May I just say "bullshit" David.

Also, Ocon, I'm very, very disappointed. Did they tell you Bottas may not be in a Merc next year? For one thing, it won't be you if he isn't mate. Hamilton is grateful though.
 
I stayed up far too late last night and I literally fell asleep during the GP. The good news is that nothing happened in the 30 minutes I napped... :(
 
I didnt mind it Austraila & Spain were far worse . Sometimes in sport. Its not what is happening but what could happen & to appriache the skill from Riccardio. To race without mgu-k & 7th/8th gear. Still keep the contrention to keep it out of the barriers & fend of vettel challenge despite being 45 kmh down on the straight was impressive

Although i will say 78 laps is too long. Maybe it could be shorten or as a 1 off maybe 2 shorten races
 
If Hamilton was 'literally' cruising then how come later on he said he didn't have the pace to keep up with Ricciardo and Vettel?
 
I’m glad I missed it then I see nothing positive above. Except of course my man (Dan) won.

LOL
 
I' probably being harsh, but experience has taught me that you can drop your pace at Monaco massively without being at risk of being overtaken. So with Danny R have g a power issue which cost him 2 seconds a lap I don' see how this can be eulogised in the same way as schumi in Spain or some others. It was Monaco. Let me see him cope as well in Canada. If he did the race on 3 wheels, with no front wing or such then well done otherwise stop trying to tell me this was a miraculous drive.
 
Watched the whole race and thought it was quite good, despite some of the obvious negatives that could be said on paper.

I enjoyed it all the way through. There was always the suspense of Ricciardo not being able to hold onto the lead; there was Verstappen carving through from the back - would he crash? There was the Leclerc brake failure; the in-car footage was great, and I thought the commentary was very good.

The Ocon wave-through of Hamilton was disgusting, though. The low point of the race.
 
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