Grand Prix 2016 Monaco Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

After the excitement of Spain, with a new Grand Prix winner added to the list, we now move to the French Riviera for the jewel in F1's crown. It would appear that Ferrari's place as the next best team after Mercedes has been taken by Red Bull. I suspect we will see a reaction from the red team but do they have the capacity move back ahead?

Monaco hasn't been a happy hunting ground for Lewis Hamilton with only a single win back in his McLaren days. Nico Rosberg has won the last three races at what is, in truth, his home race. Sebastian Vettel has only won here once as well which shows what a lottery this race can sometimes be. Kimi Raikkonen hasn't won since 2005, also in a McLaren.

Mercedes will continue to be the class of the field but Monaco can be a great leveler where fractions of an inch can be the difference between winning and sitting in a pile of carbon fibre wondering what happened.

Max Verstappen must be on cloud nine, can he take this confidence in to the race around the principality? Daniel Ricciardo will have something to prove after his teenage teammate's achievement in Spain. The Toro Rosso boys will also have something to prove; Carlos Sainz that he deserves a drive in the senior team and Daniil Kvyat to show he should have kept in place at Red Bull.

I'm sure Force India will be hoping for some serious points, Williams will continue to be poor and will probably be even worse round the twists on Monaco. Haas will have their first experience of French sunshine, Renault will have something to prove at the closest thing to a home race for the French team. They could well be battling it out for the minor points places.

At the back Manor and Sauber will battle for the wooden spoon. Sauber look to be working hard to ensure they get this as they continue struggle financially. Manor, at least in Wehrlein's hands, hasn't look too bad given their budget. I wonder if Haryanto will have to ask for a special dispensation as he hasn't got within the 107% time.

Fun in the sun? Monaco is always more exciting in the wet, I wonder if we will see a sprinkling of rain just to spice things up?

 

[FB]

Well done to Hamilton, opened up the title race but Red Bull threw that away.

 

[Kewee]

snowy ..... I've always thought Whiting does a fine job, we shouldn't forget he's responsible for peoples lives, spectators, marshals and drivers. The buck stops with the race director and I doubt he'll ever forget Japan and the tragedy that unfolded when they probably should have been more cautious and put the field behind the safety car.

Besides that, a great race, just what the championship needed.

 

[cousinDave]

So Red Bull gives you Wings, but not Tyres

 

[snowy]

snowy ..... I've always thought Whiting does a fine job, we shouldn't forget he's responsible for peoples lives, spectators, marshals and drivers. The buck stops with the race director and I doubt he'll ever forget Japan and the tragedy that unfolded when they probably should have been more cautious and put the field behind the safety car.

Besides that, a great race, just what the championship needed.

The safety car was deployed and had been on track for a while before Jules had his accident. In 1994 the safety car was used for the first time in F1, it was deployed in Imola that year after a big shunt at the race start. It pitted releasing the field led by Ayrton Senna and the rest is history. Safety cars are habitually unsafe, the fact that no one is prepared to admit it is beyond my comprehension.

F1 cars are far safer when their tyres are at the correct temperature, pressure, are appropriate for the conditions and - if wet - displacing water at a rate of knots.

 

[Speshal]

What we need is rain and a Hamilton win and Red Bull 2 and 3 with a Rosberg having an engine problem.....nice and spicy for the rest of the year. If it's the other way around Rosberg will just pick up wins and seconds and there will be no fight for the season. As Ferrari seem to have failed us as a realistic challenger we need Red Bull to step up and at least Nico and Lewis to be fighting it out for the main prize at seasons end to keep the interest up.

Have you got next week's lotto numbers?

 

[teabagyokel]

The safety car was deployed and had been on track for a while before Jules had his accident.

No, it hadn't. The Sutil incident was being cleared with double-waved yellows when the incident occured. The SC was deployed immediately after Bianchi's crash, shortly followed by a red.

 

[Lewywo4]

Well done to Hamilton, opened up the title race but Red Bull threw that away.

That's for sure regarding the race, and the title chase.

 

[Galahad]

Nice drive by Hamilton. 43 points was never likely to be enough in my view. Terrible for Ricciardo, he'll be back in the frame in Hungary, Singapore but those will seem a long way off now. Another poor race for Ferrari, I think it's time to stick a fork in Kimi.

My personal highlight was the comedy provided by Sauber. Affecting on many levels.

Thumbs up to the much maligned stewards for showing some consistency. Now they know where they stand, I suppose.

 

[teabagyokel]

Galahad - Feel Baku will be too high-speed for RBR then?

 

[cider_and_toast]

Just finished watching the race. Great drive from Hamilton to keep those tyres working for as long as he did. By crikey I hate Red Bull now though. That's two race wins they've cost Danny. With the growing pace of their car those two wins could have seen the team challenge for a title this year.

Also, well done Sergio for a great drive.

 

[Kewee]

Sorry snowy we'll have to agree to disagree regarding safety cars. teabagyokel has already corrected you regarding Bianchi's accident but in both tragedies there were other contributing factors. In both cases the safety car was essential, in Bianchi's case it should have been used until the entire field had been slowed behind it, and only then should the stewards have allowed the enormous recovery vehicle out from behind the armco. If both factors had been brought into play the outcome would have been different. In the Senna tragedy different factors contributed. The safety car was essential considering the accident in front of the stands and not knowing whether any spectators had suffered serious injuries. Yes, there was an issue with Senna's car bottoming out after the restart which may have been made worse by tyres loosing temperature, but Williams had been struggling with their car in the seasons first races and to try and extract more performance they were very extreme with their set-up.
Back to my original point, other than a red flag, the safety car is the best tool available to Charlie Whiting, he's responsible for protecting the lives of drivers, marshals and spectators and he deserves credit for doing the best he can.

 

[Dartman]

Irrespective of safety cars the real question the race asked was, is Rosberg a dry weather driver only, from what I remember he has always lost to Hamilton in the wet and on a circuit like Monaco where driver skill is the criteria he does seem sadly lacking despite his wins there in the dry. He really must hope that the rest of the season is dry for any chance of the WDC

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

An interesting snippet of info was just tweeted by an F1 journo - around laps 30-31 all five tyre types were being used on track, wet, inter, ultra, super and soft!

 

[Il_leone]

Winners at Monaco

Hamilton - after Saturday's dramas what a comeback

Perez - Another podium for Force India

Alonso - took advantage of the conditions and Monaco to score a top result for Mclaren Honda..the improvements are coming


Losers

Ricciardo - " Screwed two races in a row" ouch and what does this guy have to do to win a race..better pit crew and team manager might be a good start

Vettel - Did not do enough to get the podium and was awful Thursday and still fighting the car on Saturday with another radio outburst

Verstappen - after the highs of Barcelona he has been brought back down quick spectacularly with 3 crashes in this weekend trying to keep pace with Ricciardo

Williams - they are going nowhere with a car not suited for Monaco whilst Canada should be better it they've got a real battle to keep Force India, Mclaren and Toro Rosso behind

Sauber - Team orders not obeyed and driver's crashing into each other . Absolutely comical for a team with money problems and possibly Maldonado might drive for them now

Kyvat - Was on the pace until qualifying and then had a gearbox problem followed by a crash in the race. Just going from bad to worse for him

Hulkenberg - reminded everyone he's fast driver and lined up 5th on the grid as silly season approached. Got held up on the first round of pit stops which meant Perez got out in front of him to secure the podium. After 102 races and still no podium seems unbelievable for a driver of his ability

Raikkonen - he started 2nd in the championship but was nowhere near Vettel's pace this weekend with the gap being nearly a second and then in the race crashed embarrassingly

Finally

Rosberg - he knew Hamilton had the speed but was not expecting to be blown away by such a margin. He was always chasing the set up and could not deal with the oversteer set up in his car and the rain meant he could not get heat into his tyres and suffering brake problems. Lost crucial points on the line due to the rain at the end. Momentum has swung in one race to his teammate

 

[Galahad]

Galahad - Feel Baku will be too high-speed for RBR then?

I forgot about that one. Could be a chance, certainly.

 

[Il_leone]

Dartman

I am trying to remember a good weather race Rosberg had throughout his career. He did lose out to Hamilton in races like Japan 2014 when it was wet but he was on in it at Silverstone 2015 and Austin 2015

I think what messed him up was the safety car because the brakes and tyres were not up to temperature he was never able to have the car dialled in for the race

 

[cider_and_toast]

Ricciardo may have ended up 2nd due to a massive screw up from his team but there's no way I would describe him as one of the losers this weekend. He put in one of the finest qualifying laps seen at Monaco in a long time and drove brilliantly all weekend.

 

[Il_leone]

cider_and_toast To the fans no he was not a loser if you want to compare to Rosberg or Verstappen but deep down when he's done everything right to win the race he had it taken away from him due to pitstop incompetence from his team it feels like poor reward

 

[vintly]

Still haven't seen the damn race - holidaying on the Greek isle of Kefalonia. It's a hard life.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Il_leone I would suggest then that Red Bull Racing are the losers and that Ricciardo has come out of this weekend at least with his reputation intact if not enhanced a little.