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/
 
Aren't they bringing the softs and the super softs, makes it doubtful for a one stopper surely
 
I actually don't see McLaren being as close to Red-Bull in Monte-Carlo as they were in Spain.

Last year the McLaren was good in high speed high downforce corners like turkey as opposed to low speed high downforce corners like Monaco. And I see similar traits this year.

Red-Bull are more consistent in downforce generation and seem to be better than the rest in low speed corners like monaco.

Also the Renault engine has more low power torque than the Mercedes which is what is needed at Monaco as opposed to absolute power. Its also more fuel efficient which will be a major advantage in the 1st half for this track.

Another thing is McLaren still have a long wheelbase which hurt them last year.

McLaren's and Red Bull's relative performance in Spain suggests otherwise. Red Bull were dominant in the very high speed corners, whereas McLaren were actually better than them in the slow - mid speed corners. The sector most comparable to Monaco was sector 3, where Hamilton was obviously faster than Vettel (apart from the last high speed corner).

Martin Whitmarsh seems to agree and suggests the MP4-26 is good in the slow stuff:-

"Our Barcelona race pace, in particular our sector three times, looked very respectable indeed last weekend - and hopefully that will give us a good idea of what to expect at Monaco, because it’s a slow, stop-start section of the track. I think one of the strengths of the MP4-26 is its low-speed grip and traction, so I think we should be in good shape from the start of the weekend."
 
I doubt we'll see a lot of overtaking at Monaco because we never do but that doesn't me loving every min of it and we've had some fantastic races in the past.

The great thing about Monaco is that its one of the few tracks in F1 where the driver can make a notable difference to his lap time by his own performance hence why the races get exciting because the grid is never the standard grid - someone always puts in a blinder and gets mixed up in the front running.

My tips for this year? Firstly the old guard, Barrichello has always been good round here and think we could see him quali in the top 10(and then go backwards. I also think if Schumi has his 'I'm not finished' head on he'll be mixing it with the front runners. Bumei was good round here last year and could def get himself noticed and also Liuzzi had a blinder round here last year although surely getting the HRT up the grid is beyond him!

Will also say Vettel has never looked comfy round Monaco and would be interesting to see him quali lower down and see if he could get a grip and get back to the front. Both Petrov and Kobi struggled last year too so if they have a quiet weekend don't be shocked.

I'd love to see a shock result and someone like Schumi winning but I think the likelhood is that Lewis will go one better and win this weekend.
 
I'd love Lewis Hamilton to win McLarns 15th win there on sunday.

Vettel didn't do to bad last year considering his chassis was damaged although he did crash out in 2009. Atm I'm not looking past a Vettel pole and win.

The new rules will make it good though.

I'd also like to see an underdog finish high up. I remember Sutil was 4th in 2008 before Raikkonen crashed into him. I'd like to see him get up there again.
 
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Aren't they bringing the softs and the super softs, makes it doubtful for a one stopper surely

It's all relative though, isn't it? The reason they are able to use softer compounds at Monaco is because of the relatively low overall speeds, with consequently reduced tyre wear, no?
 
Didn't they bring the super softs in 2009? There we saw everybody struggling with the tyre due to excessive tyre wear...
 
A one stopper may not be necessary. With the reduced overtaking possibilities you could get the same effect with a 2 stop strategy. Track position is everything at Monaco.
 
A one stopper might be possible.Monaco is a relatively slow speed track and also the shortest race on the calender at 260km compared to the usual 300.
 
To be honest, I don't see how the tunnel is any different to the rest of the circuit as far as DRS is concerned :dunno:
 
They need full grip through the tunnel anyway. Any drivers going a bit off line end up in the barriers in there
 
Crashes in the tunnel have this awful tendancy to continue all the way to the chicane. Whether it's just the psychological effect or not I don't know, but they always look so much more horrible than whomps into the armco's. Having said that, at least we don't see the "car splitter" shunt since they moved the armco back in that area. I think somebody posted footage of Button's scary smeck . TBY will remind me, as usual.:)
 
Yeah, I posted it in the other thread, but worth repeating!


If anything, thats the most dangerous place in F1 for crashes; Karl Wendlinger's shunt in 1994 was down there.

To be honest, I don't see how the tunnel is any different to the rest of the circuit as far as DRS is concerned :dunno:

Think the difference is the speed, nowhere else do you go 180mph in the dark and come out with a wall in front of you!
 
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