Grand Prix 2019 Monaco Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Ah the monaco gp the glitz the glamour, the yachts, the harbour, the jewel in the crown & according to reports the most viewed race globally at 110 million viewers. it is the only Grand Prix that does not have to adhere to the FIA's mandated 305 km minimum race distance for F1 races. so its 78laps instead of 91. sad story for the 1st ever winner of monaco gp in 1929 William Grover-Williams who was captured & killed by the nazis in final few months of the war remaining.

but on brighter news. when you think of the Monaco GP you cant help of think of

Sainte devote - the corner that is 100m from Sainte-Dévote Chapel that is named after & dedicated to Saint Devota, the patron saint of Monaco.

Casino square - which has been Featured in 3 bond films & also in weird quirk Charles Leclerc is forbidden by law to even set foot in the Casino. because its illegal for people born in monaco but legal for people of other nationality but live in monaco

Mirabeau - the ex mirabeau hotel, now luxury apartments on rumoured the most expensive street by square ft in the world. & if you have a spare 37.5m euros you can buy the 6 room apartment that's for sale

Fairmont (lowes) hotel - which if you fancy a night there at end of the june just set you back £508

Tabac - on the outside of the corner is the tobacconist

Swimming pool - or The Rainier III Nautical Stadium which has a heated saltwater Olympic-size swimming pool, with 1m 3m 5m & 10m diving platforms & apparently the pool is converted into a 1,000m ice rink from December to March

La Rascasse - where if you fancy a meal at the restaurant. mushroom risotto costs €12, cheeseburger & fries €11 or creme brulee for €7

Anthony Nouges - the founder of the Monaco GP, set up the Automobile Club de Monaco, helped create the Rallye Monte-Carlo in 1911 & He suggested the international adoption of the checkered flag to end races.

On the race its hard to get exited about the championship because we had so much hope preseason after the anti climaxs of 2017 & 2018 but wheels have come off Ferrari before weve only just begun. the constructors championship is all but over seems like 2014 & 2016 where the drivers title is also off to mercedes but which side of the garage is it going to. The circuit some love it some hate it. for me im a fan, its the biggest test of a driver to thread it through the barriers not just the race but Practise & Qualifying because as max verstappen proved in 2018 when he effectively handed the monaco gp to his teammate in FP3 when he slammed it into his wall in a qualy dress rehearsal. i think the race gets more stick than it deserves. because it has more memorable moments than most over the last decade just 2011 & 2013 where a bit boring & anonymous then in the past 1981 1982 1984 1992 1996. also if we are going to have a boring race then at give me monaco over catalunya any day.

Finally a big rarity for only the 3rd time after Louis Chiron who made podium in 1950 & Oliver Beretta 8th 2 laps down in 1994, we have a monasque in his home race on the grid in charles leclerc. although hopefully he will have better luck than when came in F2 which a chance to win got pole. but in feature & sprint if it could go wrong it did. so maybe could be the 1st ever monasque pole sitter or 1st driver to finish in the top 2​

 

[Johnny Carwash]

Charles Leclerc was the only non finisher of the Race.Not the home Grand Prix he was hoping for.

 

[Publius Cornelius Scipio]

What is wrong with Ferrari?!!! I saw the result and I was like, I can't even........

I know, it's farcical, and blinded by the conspiracy theories people here haven't noticed that Vettel had a very similar issue in Q2... they sent him out at the very last moment and when he was stopped for scrutineering he had no time left to do a lap... I've seen an interesting interview bith Binotto today, he says that they are using a software that calculates the cut off times for each session. Interestingly the article (on motorsport.it) pointed out how many times Ferrari made similar mistakes, going back to 2010 with Massa and all the way through to yesterday. The point is that on the one hand they didn't want to lose a set of soft tyres (because they know that they are not as competitive as the mercs and for Ferrari being 5th or 6th is a wasted race), on the other there is no proper "sporting director" who can take decisions on these matters, it is all left to that software and to the chief engineer for each car.

there's another interesting thing about Ferrari and it's the way they use their tyres: everyone had graning on the front left tyre from about mid race onwards, Ferrari had some graining on the right front tyre which is amazing given that it's a clockwise track, I seriously struggle to understand how that could happen. Luckily Vettel managed to clear the right front tyre but it's avery odd, IMHO that means that that car has some reactions that haven't been understood by the team.

 

[Publius Cornelius Scipio]

In regards to LeClerc.. two things can happen with him

so what you are saying is that Ferrari paid lods of money to fund Lelerc's career from junior formulae to F1 in order to deliberately sabotage him if they don't like him why hire him? And it would also be interesting to understand on what basis you think that Vettel has the power to force Ferrari to shoot themselves in their foot.

Oh and that doesn't explain why Ferrari made a very similar mistake with Vettel in Q2, unless you claim that they wanted to cover their tracks

Wouldn't it be much simpler to say that a feud within Ferrari would be in the interests of other parties and so from certain media (and from certain media only) there is this relentless stream of accusations that Ferrari is deliberately ruining the chances of the guy that they have funded and supported throughout his career?

I guess that if Leclerc doesn't like how things are going at Ferrari he should look around, I'm sure that they would release him, what options are there for Leclerc? and is Leclerc really willing to go away? Are you sure that Leclerc agrees with your very illogical conspiracy theory?

 

[FB]

I actually enjoyed that race, nothing much happened but it was quite tense toward the end.

 

[Johnny Carwash]

Sergio Perez had a lucky escape with these Marshalls during the safety car period when he came out the pits.

 

[Publius Cornelius Scipio]

IMHO

Hamilton - he was truly impressive, his car could barely keep on track and he didn't make any single mistake. He was in total control of what was happening behind him. when Verstappen tried his move he saw that one coming and very cheekily put Verstappen in the position of touching him (Hamilton was never going to take the chicane), overall a great victory by him

Verstappen - I don't agree with his 5 seconds penalty, he was ahead and Bottas should have lifted. I personally think that he should have treid to make his move earlier on in the race but maybe his car wasn't good enough for trying. I also think that putting him under investigation for nudging Hamilton's rear left was insulting, Verstappen did nothing wrong in that move, Hamilton was very cheeky (and Hamilton showed a level of control and awareness of what his happening around him that IMHO was amazing)

Vettel - from the outside in the last 20 laps it looked as if he could have won the race, once he managed to scrub his front right tyre his car looked quite ok, not very quick in changing direction but ok. since finishing 2nd IMHO it is a bit pointless for him I thnk that he should have tried to pass Verbstaeen (as well as Hamilton), and the same goes for Bottas, I can't quite understand why they didn't even try. Maybe they were both thinking that Verstappen would ram into Hamilton and both would be out of the race but that didn't happen so IMHO Vettel (as well as Bottas) missed a chance

Bottas - I think that he was silly in keeping abreast of Verstappen after his tyre change, there wasn't enough room, he should have acknowledged that he had lost a position and try to make up the lost position on track, instead he damaged a rim and that cost him 3rd. Also I find his behaviour on his in lap before the pit stop quite simply unsporty, he backed off and took away the chance to Verstappen and Vettel of getting close to Hamilton during the pit stop, I understand that it would have cost Bottas some time getting in the pits a few moments behind his team mate but what he did was unposrty (I'm sure that the pit wall instrcucted him to do so, pity we didn't get that radio message)

Sainz - I think that he did great

Leclerc - I'm glad that he gave it all, he was dicing with far inferior cars but he did a great job with Grosjean

The Stewards - not so great, they punished Verstappen for being out of a pit stop ahead of another car, they put him under investigation for trying a very clean and fair move, Magnussen missed the chicane twice while definind from Perez and he got away with it

 

[Izumi]

so what you are saying is that Ferrari paid lods of money to fund Lelerc's career from junior formulae to F1 in order to deliberately sabotage him if they don't like him why hire him? And it would also be interesting to understand on what basis you think that Vettel has the power to force Ferrari to shoot themselves in their foot.

Oh and that doesn't explain why Ferrari made a very similar mistake with Vettel in Q2, unless you claim that they wanted to cover their tracks

Wouldn't it be much simpler to say that a feud within Ferrari would be in the interests of other parties and so from certain media (and from certain media only) there is this relentless stream of accusations that Ferrari is deliberately ruining the chances of the guy that they have funded and supported throughout his career?

I guess that if Leclerc doesn't like how things are going at Ferrari he should look around, I'm sure that they would release him, what options are there for Leclerc? and is Leclerc really willing to go away? Are you sure that Leclerc agrees with your very illogical conspiracy theory?

I am not sure if headlines were slightly excessive, but if accurate, then Leclerc was very outspoken in his critique of the team. He has to be very careful. Lesson in team's history would be helpful to clarify a thing or two for him. Is it just my imagination, or there is honeymoon between Leclerc and media? Like some other drivers he has a layer of teflon on him.

 

[Izumi]

IMHO

Hamilton - he was truly impressive, his car could barely keep on track and he didn't make any single mistake. He was in total control of what was happening behind him. when Verstappen tried his move he saw that one coming and very cheekily put Verstappen in the position of touching him (Hamilton was never going to take the chicane), overall a great victory by him

Verstappen - I don't agree with his 5 seconds penalty, he was ahead and Bottas should have lifted. I personally think that he should have treid to make his move earlier on in the race but maybe his car wasn't good enough for trying. I also think that putting him under investigation for nudging Hamilton's rear left was insulting, Verstappen did nothing wrong in that move, Hamilton was very cheeky (and Hamilton showed a level of control and awareness of what his happening around him that IMHO was amazing)

Vettel - from the outside in the last 20 laps it looked as if he could have won the race, once he managed to scrub his front right tyre his car looked quite ok, not very quick in changing direction but ok. since finishing 2nd IMHO it is a bit pointless for him I thnk that he should have tried to pass Verbstaeen (as well as Hamilton), and the same goes for Bottas, I can't quite understand why they didn't even try. Maybe they were both thinking that Verstappen would ram into Hamilton and both would be out of the race but that didn't happen so IMHO Vettel (as well as Bottas) missed a chance

Bottas - I think that he was silly in keeping abreast of Verstappen after his tyre change, there wasn't enough room, he should have acknowledged that he had lost a position and try to make up the lost position on track, instead he damaged a rim and that cost him 3rd. Also I find his behaviour on his in lap before the pit stop quite simply unsporty, he backed off and took away the chance to Verstappen and Vettel of getting close to Hamilton during the pit stop, I understand that it would have cost Bottas some time getting in the pits a few moments behind his team mate but what he did was unposrty (I'm sure that the pit wall instrcucted him to do so, pity we didn't get that radio message)

Sainz - I think that he did great

Leclerc - I'm glad that he gave it all, he was dicing with far inferior cars but he did a great job with Grosjean

The Stewards - not so great, they punished Verstappen for being out of a pit stop ahead of another car, they put him under investigation for trying a very clear and fair move, Magnussen missed the chicane twice while definind from Perez and he got away with it

Hamilton was volnurable, but Seb had problem with his rear tires, if I recall correctly, so he wasn't much in a position to have a decent go on the front car.

 

[Ruslan]

...I've seen an interesting interview bith Binotto today, he says that they are using a software that calculates the cut off times for each session.

You know....my first instinct was to think it was an "engineering error" caused by engineers being too much like engineers. Appear to be the case, although I suspect I have a little bit of a negative bias on the subject (having spent the first seven years of my career working at engineering companies). They have a tendency to be so precise, that sometimes they are precisely wrong.

It is clear they need a team manager that lets the engineers focus on engineering, and they can take care of the rest. Moving your top engineer to a engineer/manager role means you now have a part-time chief engineer and a part-time team manager. They probably both need to be full time jobs and require a different set of skills.

Anyhow, Ferrari remains close but clearly not quite in reach. I think that will be the season.

 

[Ruslan]

IMHO

Hamilton - he was truly impressive, his car could barely keep on track and he didn't make any single mistake. He was in total control of what was happening behind him. when Verstappen tried his move he saw that one coming and very cheekily put Verstappen in the position of touching him (Hamilton was never going to take the chicane), overall a great victory by him

Well, Mercedes did screw up and put him on medium tires. This was a case where if Mercedes had a different driver there, they may well have lost that race.

 

[Speshal]

It wasn't entirely terrible.

 

[FB]

Hamilton's drive was immense given how long he had to make the tyres last, but then it's Monaco and you can't overtake.

 

[RasputinLives]

I'm pretty sure if Petrov hadn't bought out the red flag that Button would have got Vettel. I think Alonso's tyres were shot so he didn't stand a chance............hang on......that was a different Monaco race. Kind of the same though.

Hamilton was not happy but I never doubted he would take that. Drives like a superstar but moans like a teenager. Having said that the superstars of yesteryear might have moaned just as much we just never got to hear them.

 

[Izumi]

Hamilton was volnurable, but Crap German who screws his team mates had problem with his rear tires, if I recall correctly, so he wasn't much in a position to have a decent go on the front car.

This is first forum where moderators posting under my name. I didn't know that was possible, but anything goes, as it appears. Hijacking someone's account seems little bit low in my book.

 

[Angel]

I only saw highlights and from what I saw it wasn't a bad race, the rain didn't amount to enough to make a difference but there were some good fights on track. Leclerc was always going to do what he did and Giovinazzi was never going to make that move.

 

[Publius Cornelius Scipio]

This is first forum where moderators posting under my name. I didn't know that was possible, but anything goes, as it appears. Hijacking someone's account seems little bit low in my book.

same here, it's about time that some problems are fixed (my post submitted yesterday at 21:18 was tampered... )

 

[Publius Cornelius Scipio]

Oh and that doesn't explain why Ferrari made a very similar mistake with Wet towel in Q2, unless you claim that they wanted to cover their tracks

when someone sinks so low as to change other people's posts IMHO that just shows that their views aren't very good and that they fully know it. Basically we have a sad loser in this forum who is happy to mess this up like this.

It's sad that the moderators don't understand that by allowing some member to hijack other's people accounts they are slowly but steadily destroying the reputation of the forum (who wants his data to be stolen?)

 

[Izumi]

same here, it's about time that some problems are fixed (my post submitted yesterday at 21:18 was tampered... )

It seems not very ethical. I understand that hate for the German driver exist, but what happened here is new low.

 

[Publius Cornelius Scipio]

It seems not very ethical. I understand that hate for the German driver exist, but what happened here is new low.

yes and not only that but if the powers that be at the forum allow such intrusions to happen what next? are we in danger of having our data stolen?

regarding the smart cookie who did that he just proves that he hasn't got any real value to add to his bizarre statements

 

[RasputinLives]

A word for Romain Grosjean who had a really excellent race making those tyres last better than anyone. Of you look where others such as Norris and Kimi ended up doing the same strategy you have to give him credit.