Monaco Grand Prix Preview

Written by: on 13th May 2010
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Ah Monaco, the tax dodger’s GP, the blue riband event of the F1 calendar, the race that Bernie has tried to emulate in Beirut, Valencia and Abu Dhabi – with little if no success. Because there’s only one Monaco.

Though people say there’s no overtaking in Monaco, coming off the back of the Spanish GP it has no case to answer. It’s more a rich man’s version of banger racing, where accidents and shattered carbon fibre are guaranteed to happen it’s just a question of being patient.

Last summer I was in Monaco and they were undertaking extensive building work around the tunnel exit. Whether this means a slight change of layout for the road remains to be seen. Coming down to the chicane at the foot of the tunnel is the one pukka overtaking place – and it can be done. The road bends there, so if they’ve straightened it a touch, that can only be good.

What is exercising the teams at the moment, though, is the prospect of qualifying with the ‘dunces’ of Virgin, Lotus and HRT. Given that you only lose a tenth of a second for an extra lap of fuel it’s hard to see that the teams will do anything else except fill the cars right up for 10 or 12 laps and let them find a gap.

Q1 should be just like the ‘olde’ days of qualifying where you pounded round and round till you got a time.

If there are complaints to be made, then F1 should really investigate the practice of allowing the new teams to test more than the others in their first season. The drivers spend most weekends bitching about the slow cars (including Lewis Hamilton last race). Any team that has not raced in F1 before is not going to be a threat in its first year, that is quite obvious, so let them test.

Mark Webber gets his chance to be like a London bus. You wait ages for a win and then two come along together. Mark’s never been that lucky on the streets of Monaco yet he’s always been fast, so he could make it two wins on the trot. That would really set the Championship alive.

McLaren and their drivers are traditionally good on the streets of the principality and so it could well be a Red Bull versus McLaren fight for pole. That’s if they haven’t tripped up on a Virgin along the way.

Longer wheelbase cars don’t tend to suit Monaco so even though Michael Schumacher is a dab hand at leaving his car parked at the Rascasse and nipping across the street for a cheeky little espresso before the session has ended, it doesn’t mean to say he’ll be as good as he could be. After one good result he needs to hold the expectation down. And we need to keep the expectation down.

Nico Rosberg will be very keen to bounce back after a dismal Spanish GP and how he handles it (keeping the car out of the Armco by not trying too hard etc) is very important. Similarly Felipe Massa will want to stop the rumbles that he can’t compete against Fernando Alonso.

For a start, Fernando is rated the very best driver in F1, so why should he be as good? And secondly, we’ve had five very different races this year, the cars are changing rapidly with new mirrors, front tyres, F-Ducts etc, he’s hardly had a chance. Kimi Raikkonen was always faster than Felipe on the streets, so if he could get ahead of Felipe here, that will be a tremendous boost.

One of the most fraught calculations this weekend will be when to go for the first tyre stop and what to do if there’s a Safety Car. It may be that some teams choose an extraordinary strategy if they get into Q3. Because if you’re in the top 10 and the only car on harder tyres, you could inherit the lead or P2 when everyone dives in after 17 laps and gather your own special, frustrated train.

So I would expect to see a few oddball strategy calls to try and force a result. Even if there might not be that much overtaking, it’s going to make compelling viewing.

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