Grand Prix 2012 Monaco Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

For the first time in 3 decades there have been 5 different winners in 5 races and it's not exactly been the status quo winning races as not many people would have had Rosberg and Maldanado winning this early in the season and after Australia not many people would have bet on Alonso winning before the start of the European season. This is also when drivers like Hamilton, Webber, Raikkonnen and Schumacher havent won this season and the way things are going there could be 8 winners after 8 races which could almost be unprecedented.

Indeed, one thing that 2012 has shown is that no one team has been consistently fighting for the win at all five 5 races, while Lotus have possibly had the most consistent pace of the top teams, problems in the first two races meant they were unable to be competing for the win while Kimi might have been unlucky to not come away with at least one win in Bahrain and Barcelona where strategy troubles robbed him the top step but two podiums have shown that he still has the pace despite being away from the sport for 2 years.

The big surprise of the weekend was a first victory for Maldonado and a first victory for Williams since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix, a win which was merited with no outside help apart from the disqualification of Hamilton from qualifying and the effect of this is unknown as to how the race would have been different but in the race Pastor drove the wheels off the car and did extremely well to keep a rejuvenated Fernando Alonso behind in an updated Ferrari on home soil. Considering Ferrari's early season struggles, for Alonso to be joint leading the Championship with Vettel is no mean feat at all.

The field is very tightly packed as well with the top 7 drivers being separated by 20 points, this time last year it was nearly 100 with Vettel claiming 4 of the first 5 races. This year that is not the case and for once Barcelona served up a classic which in my opinion was the best race of the season, finally there was close racing from 1st down to last with the outcome not being decided until the last few laps.

Going into Monaco there is no point prediction what the running order will be as the likelihood is it'll change again, for all we know the Force India's could suddenly be at the front and Lotus might only be fighting for points, it certainly makes for extremely fascinating viewing as no-one is dominating the Championship, in the city of the high rollers and casinos, it remains who will strike lucky in Monte Carlo and claim the big win, it will certainly not be boring, after all, if even Barcelona can provide an entertaining race, surely most places can (with the exception of Valencia!)
 
The race was interesting to say the least. But everyone made a one stopper work very well with exception of a couple.

Mark Webber like Martin Brundle said led a very mature race and was never really in danger of losing his lead.

Nico Rosberg - was good to see him on form again today and was only a whisker away from another race win.

Fernando Alonso - the ever present Alonso claiming another podium to go into his trophy cabinent. Thought he played the game beautifully today.

Sebastian Vettel - made a different decision by going onto the harder tyres for almost 2/3's of the race and go softer at the end, thought that gamble worked out well and fourth place was a reward.

Lewis Hamilton - Well he did ok on the day, but i think that slower pit stop cost him a bit of time. Still decent points haul for him.

Felipe Massa - Well thought he was driver of the race, after where Massa has been this season to finish just a second or two behind his team-mate at Monaco think he deserved this result.

Paul Di Resta - his 21st consective finish in a row for Paul and think he's maturing into the teamleader at Force India this year. Also another points finish for the brilliant Scot :).

Nico Hulkenberg - Did awesome to fellow in his teammate to claim eighth place and really is starting to show us what he's all about.

Kimi Raikkonen - disappointed by him in this race. Having seen the Lotus show so much promise, I do think he probably isn't as comfortable with the car as Romain Grosjean is.

Bruno Senna - a points finish for the lad and managed to keep his car out of the barriers. Think this point could help his confidence.

On to the rest:
Button - WTF has happened to him? He's lost all that confidence he had at the start of the year and the car is rumoured to suit his style.

Perez - could so easily have scored points today, his car was probably much quicker than the Force India's.

Kovalainen - top performance man. To keep Jenson Button bottled up for so long took real guts and determination.

All in all - great to see the top 6 finish in such a close finish.
 
Had you been watching the BBC coverage right to the end you would have seen Coulthard demonstrating what Hamilton was complaining about.

The pit boards giving the drivers information are right next to the track, with the drivers more or less going under them. It seems that some of the plastic sliders that the info is on were being sucked out by the partial vacuum behind the cars. This did not, naturally, affect Webber because he was in the lead. Due to the leading cars being so close Hamilton and Massa would have been in the worst position for this effect.

Knew that not watching Sky was the best option. :whistle:
 
Interesting strategy employed by Toro Rosso with Daniel Ricciardo today.

As we know, Button was stuck behind Kovalainen after his difficult start, until Heikki pitted on lap 30. The pair had closed up to the back of the Kimi train by that stage, so Jenson had Ricciardo very close in front. No doubt McLaren expected the Aussie to pit very soon, as he'd started on the super-soft tyres, allowing Jenson to put in a few quick laps before his own stop.

Oddly, however, Toro Rosso opted to keep Daniel out, despite his lap times going off quite badly (he dropped about 0.7s/lap away from di Resta in front). McLaren eventually stopped Button on lap 38, and of course he hadn't made up any net time on Heikki in those eight laps and rejoined behind the Caterham. Ricciardo eventually stopped for the harder tyre on lap 40, the last man in the field to stop.
 
Hmmm, that is interesting.

In effect Toro Rosso aided Caterham but I can't think why they would do that intentionally.
 
Kewee I disagree with your statement that Grosjean turned into Alonso, thus causing the crash, which you state as if it is fact. It's true that Grosjean made an initial movement to the right, but then he seemed to me to hold station. If anything, the contact was then caused when Alonso moved left to try and pass Hamilton, perhaps not realising that Grosjean was right there. That contact then swung grosjean into Schumacher's path. I think that Grosjean was more the unfortunate victim of events, rather than the perpetrator.
As I said earlier, a racing incident, which the steward's decision would seem to confirm.
I still think the current profile of the circuit doesn't help.
 
Jos the Boss if it were not for the tyres we would not have 6 different winners from the first 6 races

Problem previously Bridgestone's philosophy was " The Science of Performance" and therefore made tyres last the whole race if it were not for the rules to use both sets during the race

Today we saw even with less grippier tyres you can hold a cue at Monaco.

I am sure at Canada there will be a much better race - it usually is
 
It was surprising that Coulthard did not comment on the year he was stuck behind one of the slower cars (2001?). Maybe he has erased it from his memory.

has anyone complimented Rosberg on his fine second place? Since his win his results had dropped off to nearly down where they were before. I was beginning to wonder if his season was going to be down to one winning race..
 
HammydiRestarules

Looking at it - it seems that since Mclaren have changed the nose of their car the set up has been a bit more sensitive to Button to whether he is on the pace or not


I've said previously 0.5 seconds per lap usually cost him at most about 3 places but he is usually in the top 6

But now with Mercedes, Lotus , Williams , Sauber all in the mix. 0.5 seconds down on your teammate could cost you about 10 places or so which is difficult to make up

since the first 3 fly away races he has scored 2 pts and retired from 2 .. He's already had too many bad races and he cant afford any more as its the guys that are consistent which are heading the championship

Its not impossible to make up the gap but he has to up his game and no more slip ups.... I don't Mclaren will play team orders yet
 
Bill Boddy

That was a great result for Rosberg and put more pressure on Schumacher who again suffers more problems in the Merc...maybe all the good luck is finally running out for him which he enjoyed a lot at Ferrari
 
Thanks #MCLS as soon as it was posted the name Bernoldi flashed up in my minds eye, shortly to be followed by Arrows. Nice to have it confirmed. Surprisingly Coulthard finished in the points, a lap down in 5th position of 10 finishers.
 
For the people who talking about the tyre situation...

The big problem Pirelli have got is that they supply F1 with tyres to showcase how good their product is but what comes across is that their product is crap.

That is why other tyre manufactures made their tyres durable and give loads of grip. the way I see it is I wouldn't go into a garage and ask for a set of Pirelli zero's whereas years ago I looked on in envy if I saw a car shod in a set of Goodyear Eagles...

Actually I still buy Goodyear Eagles to this day, and they are still advertised as the ultimate F1 tyre for high performance cars. I can't see pirelli being able to do that in 20 years time.
 
The big problem Pirelli have got is that they supply F1 with tyres to showcase how good their product is but what comes across is that their product is crap.

Sorry to go off topic but that's one thing that always confuses me, while I'm not a driver (not yet anyway), I would find it difficult to evaluate the pros and cons of which tyres to get for my car because of their durability on an F1 car because road car tyres and F1 tyres are completely different things
 
Yes they are very different but they are sold under the same name and series type, and so it becomes a matter of perception and what goes through a buyers mind at point of sale that makes the difference. Eagles are a known good tyre and has a good history, whereas Pirelli are digging themselves a hole which could turn out be a potential market place disaster.

The saying goes that all publicity is good publicity but you try telling that to Michael Barrymore or Richard Nixon or even Angus Deayton....

How the public perceives you or your product is everything in the financial world.

I don't know but maybe this subject deserves its own thread...
 
Probably is for another thread, but...

I imagine that maybe an F1 fan buying tyres for his road car might think along the lines of "oooo Pirellis, they'll make me go fast like Hamilton", whereas someone who isn't an F1 fan won't make the association with durability anyway, they might just think that Pirelli supply F1 so they must be good.

Anyway, advertising/publicity is a bit of a dark art as far as I'm concerned. Got no idea how the hell it works but companies spend big bucks on it and they seem to profit,
 
Yep it is certainly a fine line to tread some get it right and some get it wrong.

"Your never alone with a strand"

If you don't know what that quote is then google it and you will get my meaning
 
If I need tyres I want Pirelli, Continental or Michelin, in that order. Not because of F1 but because of my own preference. Pirelli give me grip, Conti give me longevity (and I mean 10% with my driving style) and the Michelin Man (Bibendum for you purists) looks like me.
I drive 35,000 miles a year and I don't select my tyres based on F1, regardless of what the manufacturers might think.
Strand? Some of us remember Craven A.
 
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