Grand Prix 2015 Monaco Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

There is something - indeed, almost everything - different about the Monaco Grand Prix. Free practice will take place on Thursday, and F1 will take Friday off. The race will be 40km shorter despite having more laps than any other Grand Prix, and its winners will jump out of the car straight to the 'podium', which will be made up, simply, of a red carpet. Most strikingly, Bernie Ecclestone does not ask for a fee from the organisers in order to include the Grand Prix in his Championship.

The track is old: it has scarcely changed since 1929. The building of the Ranier III Swimming Stadium in 1972 still represents the biggest change that has ever been made to the course. It is very slow by Formula One standards - pole laps frequently average less than 100mph, and the shortening of the distance does not prevent the winning time pushing over one and three-quarter hours even when the red flag has not been thrown. Some of that is also because the Safety Car is so much more likely to appear.

The Safety Car doesn't prevent overtaking in Monaco too much more than the layout itself does - with the pole sitter having won every dry Grand Prix there since 2004, with 2008 standing as the only wet event in that period, won by Lewis Hamilton from third having planted the wall at exactly the right moment! Track position is vital; an undercut is difficult to pull off, and passing someone on dodgy tyres is staggeringly hard. Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso found in 2011 that the only overtaking that occurs in Monaco is when they were overtaken by events.

Winning at Monaco is an interesting achievement. It can certainly underline your reputation as a great (Senna's 6, Schumacher's 5 and Prost's 4), although there are some conspicuous absentees (Clark, Piquet, Mansell). Some find a groove there that they don't maintain elsewhere (Webber, Coulthard, Trintignant), and some have their solitary moment in the sun there (Trulli, Panis, Beltoise). Either way, those that win at Monaco will tell you it is the best circuit on the calendar to win on. Graham Hill's legend will always be founded upon his achievements here.

Who will be the 2015 winner? Following on from Catalan victory, Nico Rosberg will be heartened by his own form in the principality, having won dominantly in each of the last two years. He'll also enjoy that Monaco has never served as a favoured circuit to his team-mate Hamilton (whose only win came courtesy of said lucky walling, and has not finished ahead of a team-mate who actually completed the distance otherwise), and has certainly not favoured Ferrari (who have only won there 8 times from their 61 attempts, and have not taken a victory there since 2001). Although the differences at Monaco are often exaggerated, sometimes constructors do find the circuit to their liking if they focus more on aerodynamics than power, which suggests that this may be Red Bull's best chance to challenge Williams this season.

However, predicting what might happen on a Monaco race day is often a fools' game. It could well be a tedious procession, but it could well be full of drama - a good position can often be thrown into the ubiquitous Armco, the lack of new engines for this circuit could lead to one going pop or a frustrated move down at the Grand Hotel could lead to a front-wing buckling. Last year, lest we forget, Jules Bianchi achieved his one-and-only points finish in Formula One - the only points for the new-for-2010 teams in 5 years of trying. There have been many tedious processions here, but there has been 1970, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 1997, 2004, 2008 and 2011 too. Lets hope to add 2015 to that illustrious list.
 
Richie Stanaway's win in GP2 yesterday was the first time the New Zealand national anthem has been played at Monaco since Denny Hulme's win in the F1 GP back in 1967. Nice for Kiwi motorsport fans. :thumbsup:

ARGGGGHHHHHH This is the F1 thread! GP2 is on my catch up and I haven't seen it yet! :givemestrength:

Spoilers Kewee Spoilers! I'll put it down to national excitement and forgive you but ARGGGGH!

Oh and FB - you're lucky I'd seen the 3.5 race and I haven't bothered to set up a WSR 3.5 series thread this season otherwise it'd be waggy waggy finger time for you too.

Yes I'm back....and this time I'm stroppy!
 
*Deep inside a secret underground bunker Mr Ecclestone sits pretending to watch the Monaco Grand Prix whilst actually playing Candy Crush. He is interrupted by a minion*

Minion: Your Eccleship it appears that nearly everyone watching the Monaco Grand Prix has switched it off or fallen asleep. Also everyone on Clip the Apex appears to be in agreement on things. The one called Brogan is almost having a peaceful time

*Ecclestone sighs and pauses Candy Crush. He presses the number 2 button on his speed dial*

BE: Toto? Pit Hamilton....
 
ARGGGGHHHHHH This is the F1 thread! GP2 is on my catch up and I haven't seen it yet! :givemestrength:

Spoilers Kewee Spoilers! I'll put it down to national excitement and forgive you but ARGGGGH!

Oh and FB - you're lucky I'd seen the 3.5 race and I haven't bothered to set up a WSR 3.5 series thread this season otherwise it'd be waggy waggy finger time for you too.

Yes I'm back....and this time I'm stroppy!
Sorry Ras, I was so excited I couldn't keep my mouth shut. :facepalm:
 
Someone said it earlier but I'm too lazy to go find it: Verstappen given 5 place grid penalty for Grosjean incident.

Verstappen claims Grosjean brake checked him, and started breaking 10-15 meters before he did on the previous lap. Doubt that will change anything, it just might mean Verstappen will be more pissed off in Canada.
 
He's still ten points ahead and clearly faster than Rosberg. Definitely a blip (says he while crossing fingers, legs, toes, arms & touching wood).

Anyway, it seems now that Lewis was at least partly implicated in the team's decision to pit, so there's no reason for him to feel negatively towards them.
As in Q3, it's time to re-set and go again.
 
My understanding is he was only a part of the decision to pit because he thought Rosberg and Vettel had also pitted for tyres. With a 20 sec lead he had no way of knowing they hadn't and the team didn't tell him otherwise. I think he has every reason to feel absolutely gutted. It was completely the teams enormous cock-up. I've never been so disappointed in the result of a GP.
It's the second time in recent years an inexperienced "loose cannon" has caused a very negative impact on a result. I don't care how good Verstappen is or what promise he has, he bought out the safety car which cost Hamilton the race. The other time of course was when Grosjean damn near took Alonso's head off at Spa and Alonso went on to loose the title by four points. Although there were other reasons that contributed to his loss I've always believed Alonso's DNF at Spa cost him the title. I hope Hamilton doesn't loose the title by less than 10 points because that's what Verstappen cost him.
 
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I realise that. What I was meaning was had he won he would have got the 25 points instead of 15 for his third place so if he lost the title by less than 10 points the blame could go back to Monaco.
 
Not intending to de-value the WDC in any way at all, I just find it very unfortunate when a race result is turned inside out by a rookie drivers error and even more unfortunate if that same error impacts on the result of the World Championship.
 
What year was it the race was red flagged and Vettel changed his tyres on the grid when the guys behind were catching him hand over fist? Monaco throws up some strange results, somehow I suspect Lewis will take the chance to put Nico firmly back in his box in Canada. His mental strength, since leaving McLaren, has grown enormously.
 
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