A gripping 3 way battle was keeping F1 fans hooked to their screens but some traffic chaos deprived us of an epic finish. It was still a weekend full of talking points though...
Vettel makes it 5 out of 6: A lot of people felt Sebastian Vettel was lucky to win this race, comments which i can understand after the race because there was such a tense finish in store, but these are unfair. He delivered a superb lap to take pole position, was making the 1 stop strategy work and withstanding the pressure from Alonso. Of course between the traffic and the tyre degradation it would have been a fascinating finish without the red flag. I reckon, barring any abnormal incidents between the front 3 or a backmarker in the way, Vettel would have either hung on or hit the 'cliff' and fallen to 3rd. Something to ponder is that in Melbourne Perez did 185km on the soft compound and when the safety car was deployed near the end Vettel had done 175km on his set of tyres (same compound) with 30km to go. Red Bull said afterwards that the wrong compound was put on the world champion's car and that what should have been a 2 stopper was adjusted, on the call of Vettel himself, to a 1 stop. However BBC reporter Ted Kravitz had doubts over whether this was actually true. Red Bull changed their pitstop procedures this weekend after concerns Ferrari were reading their strategy in Spain but maybe they should reconsider after some serious confusion at the stop!
This allowed Jenson Button into the lead and he was on the options and pushing very hard whilst Vettel took the conservative route and nursed his primes. However he kept within a pitstop so when Button pitted again he had P1 again. McLaren then opted for a 3 stopper at this point which was a strange move. They had the information that the primes would do over half a race distance and really that cost Button second place and would have meant he was the man troubling Vettel rather than Alonso. Another trick missed by McLaren, though ultimately not mattering, was not pitting Button when the safety car was deployed for a second time. He was 40 seconds ahead of Kobayashi when it was deployed so could have pitted for new primes (no options left), retained third place and caught up to Alonso again but now with fresher rubber to be able to attack better on the final laps. Of course the red flag meant everybody got a chance to change without loss. Many complained this spoilt the restart and it did but it's a very rare situation and really things should be open as conditions can be variable, it was just the circumstances of yesterday that made it a shame.
Hamilton suffers a weekend of mayhem: Lewis Hamilton loves Monaco. Just thinking about flinging a car around the tight streets of Monte Carlo leaves him with a feeling of excitement at a place where his hero Ayrton Senna was so brilliant. Things were going well on Saturday as he topped Q1 and Q2 and had 2 sets of options for the all important Q3. As his main rivals got a time in early on there was no sign of the #3 car. Eventually he appeared but had a terrible sector 1. He blamed Felipe Massa in front but the Ferrari had not blocked the McLaren. Then the big accident for Perez caused a 40 minute delay. 2:26 left on the clock meant 9 cars would get a lap in fine and McLaren had ample time to calculate that. Yet they sent him out over 2 minutes before the session restarted. Cold tyres = no grip and Hamilton soon found that out, ending up cutting a corner and having his time deleted.
So he was clearly fast but it was going to be hard work from 9th on the grid. After several laps on Michael Schumacher's gearbox he made a sweet move into Ste Devote. Then it went downhill. A bad pitstop left him in traffic. Then he made an unrealistic move on Felipe Massa. He accused the Brazilian of turning in on him. Well Lewis that might have been because he was taking a corner... Then the scrap continued into the tunnel. Hamilton got a good run on him (KERS assisted at a guess) and passed in the tunnel. Massa got on the marbles and hit the wall. Race over. Then after the red flag Hamilton was all over Maldonado and into turn 1 had a look, he got half alongside and perhaps he felt it was doable after the earlier Schumacher move but really it was just too ambitious for such a tight corner and he pitched the Williams out of the race which was such a shame. Then came the post race outburst which was all a bit silly and unneeded. Hamilton has had down beat moments in his career before but this really was the worst of the lot. However he has had a habit of bouncing back with some great results so lets see what he bounces back with in Montreal, a place where he is mighty.
Elsewhere it was delight for Kamui Kobayashi with a career best 5th, though he was lucky to escape a penalty for hitting Sutil. Stewards really got that one wrong though he would have stayed 5th anyway. Sutil was 4th having been under constant pressure from the Sauber. The pair made a 1 stop strategy work and were helped by cars in front struggling and then getting stuck in traffic. Sutil emotions are probably mixed because the incident cost him time and then he got a puncture yet he still salvaged 7th! Behind Nick Heidfeld also had a good drive through to 8th and moved up to 6th in the championship. Rubens Barrichello finally got on the score board in 2011 and Sebastien Buemi took the final point after Jaime Alguersuari crashed. In the midst of the chaos near the end, it was intriguing to hear David Coulthard, Red Bull employee, on the BBC say during the replays that "Alguersuari, the man under review" Of course it could just be a general remark about the pressure both Toro Rosso drivers are under with Daniel Ricciardo waiting in the wings but perhaps a hint that it is the Spaniard that could be in line to make way for the Australian as it stands. He does have good backing coming from Spain and his Father but at the minute Buemi is the man picking up the points.
Best wishes to Vitaly Petrov and Sergio Perez after their weekend accidents. Hopefully they'll both be racing in Montreal in 2 weeks.
Showing posts with label Monaco Grand Prix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monaco Grand Prix. Show all posts
Monday, 30 May 2011
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Schumacher's pass: Legal or not?
The major talking point to arise from Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix was an incident right at the final corner of the final lap when Michael Schumacher dived up the inisde of Fernando Alonso to take 6th position. This was after the safety car had been deployed but pulled in on the final lap. 3 hours after the race the stewards decided to penalise the German 20 seconds, dropping him out of the points.
The fact that the decision took that long is an indicator in itself of how difficult interpreting the regulations are and the case that both sides had. Lets look at the key regulations involved.
40) SAFETY CAR
40.4 When the order is given to deploy the safety car the message "SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED" will be displayed on the timing monitors and all marshal's posts will display waved yellow flags and "SC" boards for the duration of the intervention.
40.11 When the clerk of the course decides it is safe to call in the safety car the message "SAFETY CAR IN THIS LAP" will be displayed on the timing monitors and the car's orange lights will be extinguished This will be the signal to the teams and drivers that it will be entering the pit lane at the end of that lap.
As the safety car is approaching the pit entry the yellow flags and SC boards will be withdrawn and replaced by waved green flags with green lights at the Line. These will be displayed until the last car crosses the Line.
40.13 If the race ends whilst the safety car is deployed it will enter the pit lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking.
This season, racing can begin from the first safety car line which is usually around the pit entry area. Ferrari, as well as the other teams active in the race, did not think however that there would be overtaking on the last lap as they believed that 40.13 was in effect. There interpretation of the rules were that as the safety car had began the final lap on track, this meant that 40.13 was now in effect. Ross Brawn felt that because the safety car had been called in, that meant that the race was back on from the first safety car line to the finish.
The other issue in this is the green flags that were waving as well as the electronic boards flashing green after the first safety car line. These are usually used to indicate the track is clear and prohibitions under previous yellow flags are now gone. If 40.13 was in force, as the stewards decided it was, should we have had yellow flags and SC boards out until the end of the race. This was the case when the 2009 Australain Grand Prix finished under similiar conditions. However in the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, green flags are waving after the safety car pulls in but before the finish line which used to be the point where racing resumed so there is certainly an area of inconsistency. An important point however is that Schumacher did not suddenly start racing when he saw the green flags. He was already on the lookout for any opportunities before they came into play.
This is something i've found hard to call myself. At the time of watching the race I didn't even know about 40.13 and felt that Schumacher's overtake was legit. I can see how Ross Brawn is seing the situation in terms of the safety car being pulled in. I believe that this was just a procedural move by Race Control. The 40.13 article really can only apply if the safety car starts the final lap as it will never pull off the track at halfway, it will always pull off at the pit entry. It could have been a bit clearer and Schumacher was unfortunate to lose all his points. However i feel article 40.13 intercedes against the other key articles and therefore no overtaking should be allowed and the decision to penalise Schuamcher was correct. Hopefully there will now be at least more clarity to the issue surrounding safety car restarts.
There was inconsistency though. If safety car conditions applied then I feel we should have remained with yellow flags and safety car boards. We could have had a message from race control saying no overtaking to the line but they would argue its the responsibilty of the teams to know the regualtions. Mercedes are appealing the decision but can't appeal the actual penalty. Through all of this, Alonso and Schumacher had good drives. The German has improved at the European races. For Alonso, he is still firmly in the championship hunt
The fact that the decision took that long is an indicator in itself of how difficult interpreting the regulations are and the case that both sides had. Lets look at the key regulations involved.
40) SAFETY CAR
40.4 When the order is given to deploy the safety car the message "SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED" will be displayed on the timing monitors and all marshal's posts will display waved yellow flags and "SC" boards for the duration of the intervention.
40.11 When the clerk of the course decides it is safe to call in the safety car the message "SAFETY CAR IN THIS LAP" will be displayed on the timing monitors and the car's orange lights will be extinguished This will be the signal to the teams and drivers that it will be entering the pit lane at the end of that lap.
As the safety car is approaching the pit entry the yellow flags and SC boards will be withdrawn and replaced by waved green flags with green lights at the Line. These will be displayed until the last car crosses the Line.
40.13 If the race ends whilst the safety car is deployed it will enter the pit lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking.
This season, racing can begin from the first safety car line which is usually around the pit entry area. Ferrari, as well as the other teams active in the race, did not think however that there would be overtaking on the last lap as they believed that 40.13 was in effect. There interpretation of the rules were that as the safety car had began the final lap on track, this meant that 40.13 was now in effect. Ross Brawn felt that because the safety car had been called in, that meant that the race was back on from the first safety car line to the finish.
The other issue in this is the green flags that were waving as well as the electronic boards flashing green after the first safety car line. These are usually used to indicate the track is clear and prohibitions under previous yellow flags are now gone. If 40.13 was in force, as the stewards decided it was, should we have had yellow flags and SC boards out until the end of the race. This was the case when the 2009 Australain Grand Prix finished under similiar conditions. However in the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, green flags are waving after the safety car pulls in but before the finish line which used to be the point where racing resumed so there is certainly an area of inconsistency. An important point however is that Schumacher did not suddenly start racing when he saw the green flags. He was already on the lookout for any opportunities before they came into play.
This is something i've found hard to call myself. At the time of watching the race I didn't even know about 40.13 and felt that Schumacher's overtake was legit. I can see how Ross Brawn is seing the situation in terms of the safety car being pulled in. I believe that this was just a procedural move by Race Control. The 40.13 article really can only apply if the safety car starts the final lap as it will never pull off the track at halfway, it will always pull off at the pit entry. It could have been a bit clearer and Schumacher was unfortunate to lose all his points. However i feel article 40.13 intercedes against the other key articles and therefore no overtaking should be allowed and the decision to penalise Schuamcher was correct. Hopefully there will now be at least more clarity to the issue surrounding safety car restarts.
There was inconsistency though. If safety car conditions applied then I feel we should have remained with yellow flags and safety car boards. We could have had a message from race control saying no overtaking to the line but they would argue its the responsibilty of the teams to know the regualtions. Mercedes are appealing the decision but can't appeal the actual penalty. Through all of this, Alonso and Schumacher had good drives. The German has improved at the European races. For Alonso, he is still firmly in the championship hunt
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Webber wins amongst Monaco mess
Mark Webber continued his dominant streak in Formula 1, absolutely dominating the Monaco Grand Prix. He smashed the opposition, including team mate Sebastian Vettel, with searing pace and composure through the midst of 4 safety car periods. There was smashing of a different kind down the field with Williams pair Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barichello suffering heavy crashes while Jarno Trulli took a ride on Karun Chandok with less than 4 laps to go. The 3rd of 4 safety car periods was a brief affair after a drain cover was apparently loose at turn 3 but this appeared to be a false alarm. Drain covers had caused delays during practice last year. Robert Kubica took a second podium for Renault, recovering from a poor start where he was passed by Vettel to fend off Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton.
They both had quiet races but it was rather more eventful for Fernando Alonso. He started from the pitlane on soft tyres but pitted on lap 1 after the safety car was deployed for Hulkenbergs crash, the German crashing in the tunnel after a front wing mounting failure. Alonso, now on hard tyres, began his charge clearing Chandhok before overcoming a robust rearguard action from Lucas Di Grassi. Moves out of the tunnel on Trulli, Glock and Kovalainen followed. The pitstops were in full swing now, Schumacher jumping Barichello who had passed both Mercedes at turn 1. When it all shook out, Alonso was 6th, brilliantly making the strategy work to be only 2 places behind Massa. The top ten was settled but Webber's pace at the front was to be pegged by constant safety cars.
Barichello suffered a failure on his left rear tyre going up the hill to Casino Square. As the Brazilian came to a halt in the middle of the track, he proceeded to chuck his steering wheel out on the track. It bounced onto the racing line and Karun Chandhok swept it up in his HRT. He carried it through until the tunnel where it bounced out. Bruno Senna in the other HRT then ran it over! It was a very silly thing for Barichello to do. He defended himself on twitter, saying emotions were high after his crash but really it was unneccessary and potentially dangerous. Another safety car followed for the drain cover issue and things were set again.
Webber started to back off and Vettel was pushing to catch but with 4 laps to go, he still had 4 seconds in hand but was approaching the battle for 14th between Chandhok and Trulli. The Italian had been on the Indians tail for a long time and made a lunge into Rascasse which proved dramatically unsuccessful as he ended up on top of the HRT. Webber narrowly avoided this but the gap was down to 1.5 seconds. The incident was initially being dealt with under yellows but eventually Bernd Maylander was called upon.
So we entered the final lap still under safety car conditions. Race Control said that the safety car would pit at the end of the lap. At the time, i felt that you could still overtake after the safety car line, which is a new rule for this year. As Alonso exited Rascasse he got a slide on and Michael Schumacher got alongside and passed into the final corner. For Mercedes a fair move but Ferrari disagreed. The steward's sided with Ferrari and gave Schumacher a 20 second penalty, putting him out of the points and giving Sebastien Buemi a point. Conspiracy theorists will have a field day with the fact Damon Hill was involved in the decision and its something i will try and analyse tomorrow. It's an issue which has certainly divided opinion.
I said Webber needed consistency to have a championship chance and he has stepped uop his game. Sebastian Vettel hasn't been near him these past 2 weekends and the battle is now royally on. Another Alonso recovery drive keeps him in the hunt but things have turned against McLaren, if not at crisis point. Jenson Button had a poor start and then had an enine failure after a bung was left in a radiator. An unexpected mistake from a team like McLaren. Lewis Hamilton had brake issues and ran a conservative pace in the second half of the race. Onto Turkey in 2 weeks for round 7. A mix of slow and fast corners as well as the famed turn 8. Red Bull are the team on top of both championships and they have more upgrades for Istanbul. A frightening prospect.
They both had quiet races but it was rather more eventful for Fernando Alonso. He started from the pitlane on soft tyres but pitted on lap 1 after the safety car was deployed for Hulkenbergs crash, the German crashing in the tunnel after a front wing mounting failure. Alonso, now on hard tyres, began his charge clearing Chandhok before overcoming a robust rearguard action from Lucas Di Grassi. Moves out of the tunnel on Trulli, Glock and Kovalainen followed. The pitstops were in full swing now, Schumacher jumping Barichello who had passed both Mercedes at turn 1. When it all shook out, Alonso was 6th, brilliantly making the strategy work to be only 2 places behind Massa. The top ten was settled but Webber's pace at the front was to be pegged by constant safety cars.
Barichello suffered a failure on his left rear tyre going up the hill to Casino Square. As the Brazilian came to a halt in the middle of the track, he proceeded to chuck his steering wheel out on the track. It bounced onto the racing line and Karun Chandhok swept it up in his HRT. He carried it through until the tunnel where it bounced out. Bruno Senna in the other HRT then ran it over! It was a very silly thing for Barichello to do. He defended himself on twitter, saying emotions were high after his crash but really it was unneccessary and potentially dangerous. Another safety car followed for the drain cover issue and things were set again.
Webber started to back off and Vettel was pushing to catch but with 4 laps to go, he still had 4 seconds in hand but was approaching the battle for 14th between Chandhok and Trulli. The Italian had been on the Indians tail for a long time and made a lunge into Rascasse which proved dramatically unsuccessful as he ended up on top of the HRT. Webber narrowly avoided this but the gap was down to 1.5 seconds. The incident was initially being dealt with under yellows but eventually Bernd Maylander was called upon.
So we entered the final lap still under safety car conditions. Race Control said that the safety car would pit at the end of the lap. At the time, i felt that you could still overtake after the safety car line, which is a new rule for this year. As Alonso exited Rascasse he got a slide on and Michael Schumacher got alongside and passed into the final corner. For Mercedes a fair move but Ferrari disagreed. The steward's sided with Ferrari and gave Schumacher a 20 second penalty, putting him out of the points and giving Sebastien Buemi a point. Conspiracy theorists will have a field day with the fact Damon Hill was involved in the decision and its something i will try and analyse tomorrow. It's an issue which has certainly divided opinion.
I said Webber needed consistency to have a championship chance and he has stepped uop his game. Sebastian Vettel hasn't been near him these past 2 weekends and the battle is now royally on. Another Alonso recovery drive keeps him in the hunt but things have turned against McLaren, if not at crisis point. Jenson Button had a poor start and then had an enine failure after a bung was left in a radiator. An unexpected mistake from a team like McLaren. Lewis Hamilton had brake issues and ran a conservative pace in the second half of the race. Onto Turkey in 2 weeks for round 7. A mix of slow and fast corners as well as the famed turn 8. Red Bull are the team on top of both championships and they have more upgrades for Istanbul. A frightening prospect.
Friday, 14 May 2010
Monaco picture remains unclear
After 3 hours of running on Thursday to get to grips with the streets of Monte Carlo, it was a day of calm in Monaco. Drivers had little to do apart from interviews and PR whilst a couple of familiar faces made an appearance in Kimi Raikkonen and Flavio Briatore. Raikkonen has been competing in the World Rally Championship this year while Briatore left Renault after the crashgate scandal. Raikkonen drives for the Red Bull Citroen team and has been linked with Mark Webber's seat for 2011 though Webber could be hard to shift after his win in Spain. The challenge for the Australian is to be consistent and sustain a championship challenge. It was a sunny day and dry conditions are expected for the rest of the weekend with only a small threat of rain for qualifying and the race.
It's hard to call the pecking order after Thursday action due to a number of factors. Traffic meant only some drivers got to show their full potential. Light spots of rain and cloud cover during the running of the soft tyres also muddled the picture. Ferrari, like last year, went well with Fernando Alonso topping both sessions. Red Bull were not far off either. Don't expect them to blitz the opposition with the same devestating effect last week but they are still the team to beat. Mercedes were also in the mix. This is a track that Nico Rosberg has been quick at before and of course Michael Schumacher has won the race 5 times. Robert Kubica showed impressive speed on the harder tyre in the Renault. The car should suit the track with its good traction and short wheelbase. McLaren seemed to have some issues, particularly in getting the tyres switched on for a flying lap. Perhaps they didn't show their full hand but it seems that Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button could struggle to make the front rows tomorrow.
Sebastien Buemi and Adrian Sutil were 2 others who impressed while Lotus were comfortably leading the new team battle. Jarno Trulli has never been out-qualified by his team mate in 13 Monaco sessions but Heikki Kovalainen has pegged him so far this year so Trulli may need to pull out a special lap like he has done many times before. HRT were going slower than the leading GP2 cars and whether they go out at the end of Q1 could determine how much havoc and annoyance there will be when it comes to the crunch.
Perhaps on Sunday, the long runs will bring more for McLaren. Last year many drivers, most notably Sebastian Vettel, struggled on the super-soft tyres. So far this season we've seen most cars use the softer tyre in Q3. To compete at the front will require this tyre but could the harder compound offer an avenue of points on Sunday? The ability to run a long first stint, coupled with the possibilty of a Safety Car period could see some take this option. It'll be very interesting to see if anyone tries that and I will analyse the grid and potential race scanieros tomorrow. Before that though, the teams will want to navigate through the 24 car jam that will be Q1 safely. Free practice 3 is at 10am British Summer Time with qualifying beginning at 1pm. Analysis and Assessment on the blog over the weekend with the latest news and updates on Twitter
It's hard to call the pecking order after Thursday action due to a number of factors. Traffic meant only some drivers got to show their full potential. Light spots of rain and cloud cover during the running of the soft tyres also muddled the picture. Ferrari, like last year, went well with Fernando Alonso topping both sessions. Red Bull were not far off either. Don't expect them to blitz the opposition with the same devestating effect last week but they are still the team to beat. Mercedes were also in the mix. This is a track that Nico Rosberg has been quick at before and of course Michael Schumacher has won the race 5 times. Robert Kubica showed impressive speed on the harder tyre in the Renault. The car should suit the track with its good traction and short wheelbase. McLaren seemed to have some issues, particularly in getting the tyres switched on for a flying lap. Perhaps they didn't show their full hand but it seems that Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button could struggle to make the front rows tomorrow.
Sebastien Buemi and Adrian Sutil were 2 others who impressed while Lotus were comfortably leading the new team battle. Jarno Trulli has never been out-qualified by his team mate in 13 Monaco sessions but Heikki Kovalainen has pegged him so far this year so Trulli may need to pull out a special lap like he has done many times before. HRT were going slower than the leading GP2 cars and whether they go out at the end of Q1 could determine how much havoc and annoyance there will be when it comes to the crunch.
Perhaps on Sunday, the long runs will bring more for McLaren. Last year many drivers, most notably Sebastian Vettel, struggled on the super-soft tyres. So far this season we've seen most cars use the softer tyre in Q3. To compete at the front will require this tyre but could the harder compound offer an avenue of points on Sunday? The ability to run a long first stint, coupled with the possibilty of a Safety Car period could see some take this option. It'll be very interesting to see if anyone tries that and I will analyse the grid and potential race scanieros tomorrow. Before that though, the teams will want to navigate through the 24 car jam that will be Q1 safely. Free practice 3 is at 10am British Summer Time with qualifying beginning at 1pm. Analysis and Assessment on the blog over the weekend with the latest news and updates on Twitter
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
The Monaco traffic problem
As we start to build up to the annual blast around the streets of Monte Carlo, the issue of traffic in qualifying has come to the fore. It's always been an issue, even in recent years when the field was usually covered by 2 seconds. This season we have 24 cars and 6 of these, the Lotus, Virgin and HRT cars, have usually went out in Q1. We've already had drivers complaining about traffic in the past at Monaco with David Coulthard amongst those to be penalised as well as this season, notably Vitantonio Liuzzi, as well as Lewis Hamilton during the race in Barcelona. Bruno Senna supported the suggestion of spliting qualifying so that he wouldn't have to worry about blocking others, although Lotus were one team who rejected this proposal.
Monaco is the shortest track on the calendar with a lap covering 3.34km. Let's use the length of the Renault (5.05m) as a figure for determining the space the cars will take up. If there are 24 cars on track, that means that 121.2m of the track is being used, leaving 3,218.8m of track. This means that if the cars are evenly spread out, there will be about 134m between each. For evenly paced cars, this would be a marginal gap as the dirty air effect would likely kick in if you started to close on a car. If Fernando Alonso starts a lap 150m behind Lucas Di Grassi, he will probably be on his gearbox before the end of the lap. If both drivers are on flying laps, then no-one can be penalised, it's only if the blocker is on an out or in lap. Getting space is tricky as you could back off approaching the final turns only to block someone coming behind on a hot lap. The teams GPS systems will need to be utilised to the full and communication between engineer and driver will be critical.
In Q1, drivers have 20 minutes to do a lap so it can be argued that they should be able to get the job done. It would be expected that the 6 forementioned cars would be in the drop zone with one other car so for the likes of Red Bull and McLaren they should be able to get in without doing a perfect lap. One of the issues is that they the teams, especially those with ambitions of Q3, would prefer to go out on old tyres to get the job done rather than use a new set. Going out early might enable drivers to get a cleaner run but in Monaco a key feature is the big improvement in laptimes as more rubber is laid down so the track should be quicker at the end of the session. With rain expected through Thursday and Friday, the track could be quite green and slippery at the start of qualifying. There is still a chance of a wet qualifying which could be quite the spectacle. Ferrari and McLaren were stung badly by going out too late in Q1 in Malaysia. Drivers may need to be out for the whole 20 minutes to ensure they get a lap done in the best possible conditions whilst balancing tyre usage. Teams have 4 sets of intermediates and 3 sets of wet tyres for the weekend, though the forecast for Sunday currently suggests sunny and dry conditions. Of course, the lessened visability would make it even tougher for the drivers.
So Saturday should provide a fascinating session. Red flags have been common in past seasons and this can lead to even more disruption. Yellow flags are almost as bad as you cannot set a personal best sector time in a yellow flag zone. It will also be interesting to see if any of the new teams decide not to go out in the final moments to avoid controversy. The stewards may well be kept busy as the accusations start to fly and the pressure will be on as everyone knows their chances of points will be minimal starting in 18th place on Sunday.
Monaco is the shortest track on the calendar with a lap covering 3.34km. Let's use the length of the Renault (5.05m) as a figure for determining the space the cars will take up. If there are 24 cars on track, that means that 121.2m of the track is being used, leaving 3,218.8m of track. This means that if the cars are evenly spread out, there will be about 134m between each. For evenly paced cars, this would be a marginal gap as the dirty air effect would likely kick in if you started to close on a car. If Fernando Alonso starts a lap 150m behind Lucas Di Grassi, he will probably be on his gearbox before the end of the lap. If both drivers are on flying laps, then no-one can be penalised, it's only if the blocker is on an out or in lap. Getting space is tricky as you could back off approaching the final turns only to block someone coming behind on a hot lap. The teams GPS systems will need to be utilised to the full and communication between engineer and driver will be critical.
In Q1, drivers have 20 minutes to do a lap so it can be argued that they should be able to get the job done. It would be expected that the 6 forementioned cars would be in the drop zone with one other car so for the likes of Red Bull and McLaren they should be able to get in without doing a perfect lap. One of the issues is that they the teams, especially those with ambitions of Q3, would prefer to go out on old tyres to get the job done rather than use a new set. Going out early might enable drivers to get a cleaner run but in Monaco a key feature is the big improvement in laptimes as more rubber is laid down so the track should be quicker at the end of the session. With rain expected through Thursday and Friday, the track could be quite green and slippery at the start of qualifying. There is still a chance of a wet qualifying which could be quite the spectacle. Ferrari and McLaren were stung badly by going out too late in Q1 in Malaysia. Drivers may need to be out for the whole 20 minutes to ensure they get a lap done in the best possible conditions whilst balancing tyre usage. Teams have 4 sets of intermediates and 3 sets of wet tyres for the weekend, though the forecast for Sunday currently suggests sunny and dry conditions. Of course, the lessened visability would make it even tougher for the drivers.
So Saturday should provide a fascinating session. Red flags have been common in past seasons and this can lead to even more disruption. Yellow flags are almost as bad as you cannot set a personal best sector time in a yellow flag zone. It will also be interesting to see if any of the new teams decide not to go out in the final moments to avoid controversy. The stewards may well be kept busy as the accusations start to fly and the pressure will be on as everyone knows their chances of points will be minimal starting in 18th place on Sunday.
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