2014 Monaco Grand Prix

[MercedesAMGSpy]

Because we've seen especially the Renault teams complaining about breaking instability and locking wheels reasonably often, and the Ferrari teams less often but still so. The Merc teams seem to have this sorted in every single way.

Maybe the lower tier Renault Teams, and to some extent Vettel, but Dan seems to have no confidence issues under braking in his RBR.

Vettel seemed to be fine in spain, but he was struggling in previous races somewhat. On the contrary we've seen both ham and ros locking up quite a lot when they were pushing each other for the last 10 laps. We'll just have to wait and see.

The last 10 laps indeed, fighting for the win and a gap of one second between them, if you watch motorsport, you know drivers will lock up then.

[mikeerfol]

Does anyone know how long it takes to make Monaco ready for F1 racing each year?
Also, how do they do it? Surely they can't block those roads for several weeks? Do they only work at night for the most part so that the normal street traffic isn't touched too long?

months in advance. I know someone on facebook and they took photo's when they went there on business and all the stands etc. were going up. I can't remember exactly how long before but a few months. it was enough for me to think "what already!?"

Since we're talking about it

http://www.formula1.com/news/features/2 ... t+Features

Monte Carlo’s miracle - making Monaco race ready

[turbof1]

The article mentions 6-7 weeks to build up (depending if the historic grand prix has to be hosted too), but that's only for buildup. I guess it does take a few months to get contracts ready with private companies, having all of the materials ready etc.

[thomin]

Wasn't it the fast corners where RBR excelled?

Monaco are all slow corners, so advantage remains with the mercs?

I would think so. Certainly looking at last year when Red Bull was absolutely dominating the downforce game, the Mercedes were just as good if not better around Monaco. This year, Red Bull's advantage should be smaller without the blown diffusor while the new engine favors Mercedes.

Then again, I would think that Renault has come a long way regarding drivability which should be important in Monaco...still, when accelerating out of those slow corners, a strong engine and an efficient harvesting system should be beneficial. It won't make as much of a difference as on courses with long straights, but it seems plausible that it does make a difference.

However, Monaco traditionally has smaller gaps between the teams and should there really be rain, a power advantage won't do any good as you couldn't get the power down anyway. Should it be dry though, I'd actually suspect the Mercedes customers to do better than in Barcelona where they all suffered from their inferior aero.
Also, I could see Ferrari suffering here should they still have problems with getting their tires to work. That seems to be their biggest issue ATM and it could prove particularly problematic around a course like Monaco.

[turbof1]

Mercedes last year had excellent mechanical grip. Better mechanical grip is more of an advantage at Monaco then aerodynamic grip. The reason why teams slap on as much as downforce as they possible can is because due the low speeds drag isn't an issue, but the low speeds also mean all your downforce-production devices will create a lot less kg of downwards pressure, resulting in less aero grip, while mechanical grip isn't depending on air speed and works all the time.

So no, Red Bull doesn't automatically have an advantage just because they have more downforce.

harvesting is much less of an issue; you are only 30s on the throttle. Everybody will be running all the laps at full power, which in turn makes setting up your braking much easier, and much more consistent. The biggest challenge will be how good the car can handle the torque.

[MountainBiker]

I see many news sites still pushing the "this is RedBulls best chance" line, just like the did before the Spanish GP where it was the "RB better in high speed corner / better chassis" line, at least the Spainish GP line had some credibility, I just can't see why they all think the Merc can be beaten at a track they dominated on last season, and in a car that is so much improved in every aspect.

It must be hard for journalists with the season being such a walkover n all, they're just so lazy though, in two weeks time I fully expect to see the "Montreal to expose some until now unknown Merc weakness" line.

[f1316]

Alonson is saying the same thing:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114022

Of course the lap time gap will be lower anyway, because it's a shorter lap. But the relative distance between the cars may well be the same/bigger.

[iotar__]

Mercedes only won last season because of freakish qualifying performance related mostly to tyres and the fact that you can't overtake in Monaco. Difference in Q to RB was very small. They were quick in 2012 too so it wasn't one off but this was not the case IMO of some superior mechanical grip.

When many people are talking about RB challenging them, I'm going to make a bold, straightforward prediction: comfortable 1-2 for Merc and Barcelona-like surprise at the gap in the race. If it's the opposite, so what? Canada = guaranteed 1-2 for Merc.

BTW Red Bull already had magic fuel in Barcelona, unlike other Renault teams. If it's as difficult with new cars as Massa predicts, wheel-spin or whatever, it might be slightly interesting and maybe driver can make a difference in qualifying. I thought they were rather careful with walls in Australia, apart from Bottas .

[turbof1]

Mercedes only won last season because of freakish qualifying performance related mostly to tyres and the fact that you can't overtake in Monaco. Difference in Q to RB was very small. They were quick in 2012 too so it wasn't one off but this was not the case IMO of some superior mechanical grip.

When many people are talking about RB challenging them, I'm going to make a bold, straightforward prediction: comfortable 1-2 for Merc and Barcelona-like surprise at the gap in the race. If it's the opposite, so what? Canada = guaranteed 1-2 for Merc.

BTW Red Bull already had magic fuel in Barcelona, unlike other Renault teams. If it's as difficult with new cars as Massa predicts, wheel-spin or whatever, it might be slightly interesting and maybe driver can make a difference in qualifying. I thought they were rather careful with walls in Australia, apart from Bottas .

Mercedes had superior mechanical grip. This was obvious last year, when mercedes lost time in high speed corners, only for them to more then compensate in slow corners like chicanes, like the one in barcelona.

We are of course speaking of minor differences. It's not like they gained seconds out of it, perhaps at best half a second, and red bull had other trumph cards, like their coanda exhausts, which was actually the only aero feature not completely reliant on speed and thus also very handy at monaco.

[BanMeToo]

What sort of Monaco-specific packages do teams bring these days? Is it just big ol' barn door rear wings or something more than that?

I've heard it said that Monaco packages are not what they used to be... but there are still some interesting sights here and there. Crank up your front wing angle (I guess the top teams might make a semi-special front wing for this weekend), bring a bigger variation of your favorite rear wing (which the regs made smaller this year, if I may remind), most aggressive Y75 you can reasonably use, some bobs for your sidepods and.... Pirelli bring out the super soft tire.

To me the most interesting part is seeing high-drag bits that do not make sense on 90% of the other circuits.

[dren]

A few expectations:

Merc will cake walk another 1-2
Maldonado will crash (but the question is, will it be into a wall or into a train of cars in front?)
Alonso will qualify higher than the car should be expected to place

[johnsonwax]

I see many news sites still pushing the "this is RedBulls best chance" line, just like the did before the Spanish GP where it was the "RB better in high speed corner / better chassis" line, at least the Spainish GP line had some credibility, I just can't see why they all think the Merc can be beaten at a track they dominated on last season, and in a car that is so much improved in every aspect.

That doesn't necessarily suggest that Mercedes is weak here, rather that we can't predict how the teams will do. In Barcelona, everyone was expecting big upgrade packages that could bring big benefits for some teams, so that made it a bit less predictable. But in the end, Merc wound up possibly being even faster. Since Barcelona, I think it's pretty safe to say that Merc will own every race this season that looks like a previously run race. That is, everything except Monaco. Monaco is another difficult to predict race, simply because it's so different (not the least of which being that it's a high-attrition track due to crashes which are impossible to predict).

Think of it a different way. Nico hasn't always qualified on the front row, but he's always been able to get up to 1 or 2, and by a large margin. If Merc qualifies off the front row (rain, crash, whatever reason) and RB is on the front row, can the Mercedes get past? Lewis has a long history of trying to get past at Monaco, and a pretty long history of visiting the armco or the other guys sidepod in the effort. It wouldn't be a glorious win for RB, but 25 points is 25 points.

Short of mechanical failure or Lewis getting taken out trying to lap Maldonado, I don't see any likely scenario for RB at any other race, and likely neither does the media, but odds are best for a non-Merc win at Monaco. Hell, remember when Montoya and Michael crashed in the tunnel behind the safety car? Crap like that happens all the damn time in Monaco.

Unfortunately, rain is looking less likely now.

[George-Jung]

Last year the RB/Vettel was very strong at Singapore and in particular in the last sector.. which was with a lot of slow corners.. this suggest that the RB had good traction in slow corners as well..

Or was this pure due to the blown diffuser?

[MercedesAMGSpy]

Mercedes took pole in 2012 and won the Monaco GP in 2013. This year they have build a car that can match the Williams FW14B, I think they are in a good position.

[Just_a_fan]

If Merc qualifies off the front row (rain, crash, whatever reason) and RB is on the front row, can the Mercedes get past? Lewis has a long history of trying to get past at Monaco, and a pretty long history of visiting the armco or the other guys sidepod in the effort. It wouldn't be a glorious win for RB, but 25 points is 25 points.

So long as he was in front of Rosberg, I think Hamilton would settle for second or third behind one or two RedBulls. Rosberg is currently his biggest challenger for the title so he's the one he needs to worry about. He's not worried about winning every race, he's worried about the title. Only the title matters at this stage. He comes third behind two RBs in Monaco and then wins the next couple of races? Yeah, he'd settle for that at this stage of the season I'm sure.