Monaco GP 2009 - Monte Carlo

[Richard]

One of the other best things about Monaco is practice thursday, F1 comes a day earlier

Sorry to ask a silly question, but why is that?

[PNSD]

Its not silly lol. I dont think i know fully why, but I think its because Monaco is such a hi-profile race it attracts alot of sponsor attention, and is often the place where driver deals/new sponsors are signed for the rest of the year or upcoming season.

I think Friday is used as a business day. And to let the drivers enjoy Thursday night in the casinos and party :p

[gridwalker]

The BBC have released all F1 session times in iCalendar format (which is very useful when applied with Google Calendar's text messaging reminder service) but the calendar on my desktop is making no mention of any thursday practice sessions ...

Seeing as the BBC are webcasting all practice sessions, I'd hope that their calendar is accurate.

The BBC calendar (with links to download the iCalendar file) can be found here : http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... efault.stm

Do we have any official confirmation of Monaco's thursday practice session?

[Richard]

Seeing as the BBC are webcasting all practice sessions, I'd hope that their calendar is accurate.

Do we have any official confirmation of Monaco's thursday practice session?

The BBC F1 page shows Thurs practice.

I think Friday is used as a business day. And to let the drivers enjoy Thursday night in the casinos and party :p

I was wondering if it simply to allow people to get access to their houses!

edit to add ... I've just downloaded the iCalendar and inmported to Outlook, it shows Thurs practice for Monaco. By the way, clicking on the file only adds the first Adeleide session. you need to go to File>Import and select "icalendar(vcs)", then it works correctly.

[gridwalker]

I imported the calendar for all sessions to my Google Calendar before the Malasian Grand Prix & have been receiving text messages from Google that give me a 10 minute warning before the start of any session. I also have this linked to a calendar application that is embedded on my desktop, so I can easily check session times for each weekend ...

My guess is that the BBC have updated the calendar file, but haven't bothered to mention the revision.

I just hope Google allows me to completely clear the calendar and reload : I don't want my session times being all messed up.

***EDIT***
Google calendar cleared & new iCal file has been uploaded. Monaco session times are now displaying correctly on my desktop. Nice of the BBC to admit that their old calendar file had been inaccurate!

[paused]

I was wondering if it simply to allow people to get access to their houses!

edit to add ... I've just downloaded the iCalendar and inmported to Outlook, it shows Thurs practice for Monaco. By the way, clicking on the file only adds the first Adeleide session. you need to go to File>Import and select "icalendar(vcs)", then it works correctly.

Yes it just one of those quirky traditions that make Monaco special. Quote from Wikipedia

Organisation

The Monaco Grand Prix is organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco which also runs the Monte Carlo Rally and the Junior Monaco Kart Cup.[28]

It differs in several ways from other Grands Prix. The practice session for the race is held on the Thursday preceding the race instead of Friday.[29] This allows the streets to be opened to the public again on the Friday.Until the late 1990s the race started at 3:30 p.m. local time - an hour and a half later than other European Formula One races. In recent years the race has fallen in line with the other Formula One races for the convenience of television viewers.

I once heard someone mentioned that this was because Prince Rainier refused to let the race start until he finished his lunch but I don't know how accurate this claim is.

[jon-mullen]

I believe they also have a ton of support and historic races to run as well.

[Richard]

I once heard someone mentioned that this was because Prince Rainier refused to let the race start until he finished his lunch but I don't know how accurate this claim is.

Yikes, that sounds almost civilised and sensible.

Bernie's version would be "I'm having lunch at 8pm and breakfast at 10pm because I can earn money from it. Oh and I'll go to the loo at 6:37am every day because it suits the viewing desire of a toilet fetishist in Brazil".

BE thinks he can even move the seasons, remember the year he decreed that Britain would be in the middle of barmy dry summer weather for a race in April?

So shifting lunch time in Monaco was child's play!

[xpensive]

Never mind, most people in the Principality have helicopter-landings on the roof. Or so I hear anyway.

[ben_watkins]

I believe they also have a ton of support and historic races to run as well.

When I was there last year, there was a Porsche Super Cup race and a GP2 race before the F1. I think there was also a Renault World Series race too.. So not too different to any other race weekends at another track.

The historic races take place at another time of year.

http://www.acm.mc/gpm/gpm_main.php?lng=en gives you all the info

[DaveKillens]

Brawn is the car to beat. But at Monaco, any shortcomings will be revealed. I know the car is an excellent design, but I really want to see how it fares on a track where just mechanical grip is very important.
So far, each event has provided a smattering of surprises. I wonder what will have people buzzing after Monaco.

[PNSD]

I think Brawns mechanical grip has been proved tbh.

Looking at the times of any slow sector they seem to be the top.

Shanghais final sector, Barcelonas final sector. During the middle sector at Bahrain, in and out of corners the car looked quick.

Monaco will be an interesting one because of all tracks, this is one where the not the quickest cars can win. Complete opposite to Barcelona I guess!

[axle]

I'm expecting some banzai low fuel attempts on pole...half the field will be scampering on low fuel and the others will be heavy 1 stoppers.

[ISLAMATRON]

cant wait till this asinine race fuel qual is gone.

[tadzio89]

Hello,

Could you explain me what 'DDD' is?