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/
 
Fun session to watch. We didn't really learn much. Perhaps Ferrari and Mercedes will have a better weekend. I think Lewis could've had the best time if he didn't get stuck behind Toro Rosso.
 
I didn't think Lewis was pushing that hard, especially compared to Alonso & Massa. Rosberg looks like the joker in the pack to me, like Kubica was last year....Having seen the harder tyres last the full session, my guess is that it will be two stops for most cars with maybe one or two having to stop 3 times if they chase the undercut too aggressively like Alonso and Webber did in Spain. DRS mights slow down the field spread, but you need someone to move aside for you to get by here, so if 3 stops relies on overtaking, I cant see it working. Remember Coulthard & Bernoldi? Even a couple of secs a lap faster and you can still be stuck.
 
I for one can't wait to see how this all pan's out around the principality. With the Soft & Super Soft compounds on offer this weekend, I can't imagine any of the main protagonists doing more than one lap in each qualifying session in order to preserve their life cycle.

I can see one of the main players either taking too much out of the tyres and compromising the race, or making a mistake and visiting the armco. Whatever happens I think we are in for a real treat.

:D
 
I think we could see a full on qualifying because I cant see the supersofts being much use in the race if they only go 10-15 laps, as people are suggesting. If so, you might just want one race stint on them (the ones you have to use because you qualified on them), so you would be using all three sets of supersoft in qualifying saving the softs for the race. Hopefully we will find out this afternoon just how quick and durable the supersoft is (or isnt...!)
 
I don't think anyone has mentioned the difference in times between the Red and Yellow tyres.

Any decision about what tyres to use will depend on how much time can be gained using the softer tyres. I don't think the gap will be as significant as the soft and super hard last week but I think we will have to wait until FP2 or even FP3 before we see what times can be done on the Reds.
 
So we've had the fire, water, and dry ice, maybe the apocalypse really is upon us. :unsure:

P.S. - Anybody know what they were tightening/turning in the middle of the road? Must have been some sort of drain.
 
So we've had the fire, water, and dry ice, maybe the apocalypse really is upon us. :unsure:

P.S. - Anybody know what they were tightening/turning in the middle of the road? Must have been some sort of drain.

Turning off a water main that was leaking.
 
Interesting discussion between Senna and Crofty during FP1 about the information that Mercedes put in their Monaco preview, found here: http://media.daimler.com/dcmedia/0-...01-614322-0-1-0-0-0-0-0.html?TS=1306406954925

How has the workload in the cockpit changed in 2011 compared to 2010?
On their Monaco qualifying laps in 2010, the drivers made approximately 50 control inputs on the steering wheel. The systems for 2011 have added around 20 inputs per lap, between DRS activation (with the foot) and precisely timed KERS boosts. That represents an increase of up to 40 per cent in the driver’s workload. Similarly, on in- and out-laps, the drivers also have up to ten additional operations to perform including setting engine torque and mixture modes, charging the KERS battery and talking to the engineers on the radio.
 
I don't think anyone has mentioned the difference in times between the Red and Yellow tyres.

I heard it was 1-1.5s in the Abu Dhabi test at least

Any decision about what tyres to use will depend on how much time can be gained using the softer tyres..

I dont think having a faster tyre if you are behind someone is going to help at Monaco, remember Senna and Mansell? This race will be much more about track position, than any other this season I think. If your tyres are 1.5s a lap faster but dead after 10 laps, you are going to come out behind the bloke on the harder tyre and be stuck there until he stops on lap 25 (by which time you might be stopping again too if you have gone for 3 stops starting option/option).

He will then be faster than you, so when you stop again, you will still be behind him. My point is that to make more stops work, you usually have to overtake on the road.

It is interesting to see that Ricciardo and Perez did 20 odd lap stints and both of them did their fastest times at the end of their stints. I know they are rookies, but their tyres seemed to be holding up well...
 
Has Galahad done his magic work, and put the statistics up here yet? I have missed a lot of the discussion here so might have missed it aswell.

Keep them coming Galahad! :thumbsup:
 
Watching it online is not an option for me, therefore my perfectly good TV would normally do the job, except tennis is deemed more important..... and as the number of options on the red button is limited because of HD (>:(), tennis has replaced FP2.
Grrrrr....
 
I feel your pain my friend, nothing worse than knowing it's happening but not being able to watch it. The red button usually repeats both sessions later today so hopefully Murray get's knocked out and you can catch up later.
 
Apparently concerns about tire degradation have been a little premature. The Crofty and Karun in the booth were calling for 2 stops and possibly one (?!?!), as there were several long stints on both the Prime and Option's. I'm still expecting 3 stops for the boys at the front as they jostle for position through the pits.

It looks like we're going to see a proper Qualifying session though.
 
They're not showing FP2 "live" on freeview, because there is some miserable Scottish tennis player playing a tennis match! >:( WTH!! I am not happy.... >:(

Am Scottish dude!

Although I agree with you...he is miserable, don't like him myself, lucky for me I have Sky :p
 
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