Grand Prix 2011 Monaco Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

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Well how about that then, in a similar case in 2010 the doom and gloom merchants have vanished with a cracking grand prix in Spain. With the champagne still flowing we move on to Monaco a week later.

Mclaren will be a lot happier after running Red Bull all the way to the finish at a circuit where Red Bull normally run out of sight and could be favourites going into the Monaco race. Red Bull, however, will be the team to beat after 4 wins out of 5 races with Vettel looking unbeatable at the front but Spain showed that he wouldn't have it all his own way with Hamilton chasing him all the way to the end, even if Vettel extended his ever growing lead at the top of the championship

Ferrari seemed to have dropped back again after a superb start in Spain and eventually Alonso wound up 5th. But no doubt the Scuderia will be challenging the Mclarens and Red Bulls come the Grand Prix on Sunday. Felipe Massa's early season promise has vanished and he's back to his 2010 level and his seat will be back under scrutiny if he continues this lack of speed

Michael Schumacher will have reason to be optimistic after a strong race, beating his team mate and finishing a strong 6th as he best of the rest behind the Ferraris,Mclarens and Red Bulls. Mercedes no doubt have become the 4th fastest team over Renault who are now fighting over the lower points with Sauber and Force India.

However the big question on everyones lips will be DRS which didnt help overtaking in Spain (which is better) but more importantly where it will be placed on a circuit where straight track is at a premium so safety is a concern.

HRT continue to improve and are taking the fight to Virgin which for them is a massive achievement and its not long before they overtake them while Team lotus's optimism on Saturday didn't replicate on Sunday with a DNF for Kovalainen. But on a track where they would be weak, to get into Q2 is a massive achievement.

Hope seems to have returned to F1 after a surprisingly exciting race in Spain and it seems as if the feared Red Bull domination has been alleviated by the charging Mclarens and while Monaco is never a classic due to the nature of the track, it's certainly a spectacle

For Galahad's superb write up see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/circuit-de-monaco/
 
I don't know if this has been posted already but Alan McNish is the Driver/Steward this weekend.
 
Yeah, the Sauber's are definitely the better ones for tyre wear, along with the backmarkers but only cos they are going so slow compared to the rest. It's hard to see who will be going 3 stops. I honestly believe it will prove to be the better strategy. A mistimed safety car when your in the middle of a stint on 2 stopper could force you to change to strategy anyway.
 
The tyre situation will be determined almost completely on the safety car situation, there were quite a few last year with faulty drain covers and whatnot.
 
Thanks to strange antics by the Beeb with the red button repeats I've Only now finished watching FP2. Watching FP1 again because I missed the first part of that. Going by Karun's remarks I gather the tyre wear is much less than I expected. Looks like 2 stops for the top runners and possibility of one stoppers for peep's further down the grid.
 
I think some teams might choose a 3 stopper simply to not have to run as long on the softs and have freshers tyres. It might make up the extra stop. The only problem is the overtaking needed to make up that stop. Regardless, as MCLS said, it should be dictated by safety cars.
 
I think qualifying will be interesting, the DRS wont have much an affect, there's only around three zones where you can deploy it, and apparently that's one of Red Bull's advantages in qualifying, deploying the DRS earlier than others. Another reason why it will be close, cars that are not particularly fast in other circuits do good here as the characteristics of the track is different (and the driver element).

Like we saw in 2009, BMW and Toyota where near the front the races before Monaco, then found themselves at the back of the field in that weekend, Ferrari and McLaren though were really competitive.

But let's hope I wont jinx it!
 
Neither of the McLaren's haven't shown much pace yet this weekend, they have been strangely anonymous.
 
I don't understand Hamilton these days, just before the Monaco weekened he says Red Bull 'are' beatable, in that article he says they are 'unbeatable'

Make up your mind!
 
Mercedes are going to struggle to get Rosberg's car ready for Q1.

I highly doubt HRT will even bother trying to get Liuzzi's car ready - he will be on or about the back row anyway.
 
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