2015 Monaco Grand Prix - 21-24 May

[Moose]

Wow, I didn't see the race live, but seeing the crash after the fact, Grosjean lifted really early. I think Verstappen was caught off guard by having to pull out so early.

[jknights]

Looked at the Grosjean/Verstappen incident many times now. Got to say that on review and I dont have the different angles that the stewards have that it almost looks like Verstappen overtook Grosjean rather than going round him. It implies that Verstappen thought he would make the pass or got totally overenthusiastic in his overtake (unlikely I would say).
If this is the case it is a simple mistake so 5 place penalty is correct.

What I dont understand is the difference between the Alonso incident and the Ricciardo incident. The Ricciardo one is a distinct mistake and barging of an opponent!

[Edax]

Hamilton must take some blame as well for he worked with the team to go for that strategy. I guess the VSC/SC tricked Mercedes into pitting Hamilton and that he had to wait till the Manor passed him to get going from his box. Rosberg gets a lucky break; will be interesting to see how he works with it.

Perhaps Hamilton's biggest error is to allow the team to pit Rosberg first. If Rosberg would have had to wait for Hamilton vettel would have likely passed him. The same as happened in China.

Rosbergs biggest mistake is that he did not repay it by having Hamilton slot in first after the last pit stop. At least he could have have had Hamilton slot in behind him on P 2.

So Hamilton worked with the team to ensure a 1-2. Rosberg gave away a 1-2 in favor of his own championship chances.

I think Rosberg will not get many favors from the team going forward.

[henra]

Oh Boy, the level of desperation of some here is simply mind boggling. It was a clear mistake by the Team (doesn't matter if he contributed or not). Happens where Human beings are involved. Lewis lost 10 Points. He will get over it. And you all should, too. He is sitting in the fastest car (still by a margin) and tends ro be a bit quicker than Nico in the race. He is leading the WDC. So, why all the panic and desperation ???
Chances are it will keep the WDC open a little bit longer which I generally consider a good thing. End of Story and now, let's move on.

[aral]

This race really had me gutted. But alas this is Monaco, when it's not a boring procession it's a roll of the dice.THe only upside for me is Hamilton will come out stronger from this and mark my words, it'll be total domination from here on out.

I hope you are right, but the incidents in Monaco 2014 really affected his performance in the European part of the season and I fear this could happen again and with Ferrari closer this year it might be far more costly. Different circumstances though, Hamilton always defeats adversity in the end.

like he did in 2009,10,11,12,13?

[Edax]

Oh Boy, the level of desperation of some here is simply mind boggling. It was a clear mistake by the Team (doesn't matter if he contributed or not). Happens where Human beings are involved. Lewis lost 10 Points. He will get over it. And you all should, too. He is sitting in the fastest car (still by a margin) and tends ro be a bit quicker than Nico in the race. He is leading the WDC. So, why all the panic and desperation ???
Chances are it will keep the WDC open a little bit longer which I generally consider a good thing. End of Story and now, let's move on.

You're right of course.

Still these kind of races are terribly frustrating ( I wouldn't call it desperation) It is not often that I feel the wrong guy is occupying the podium. But when it does it makes you wonder why you spend 1.5 hrs watching.

I still think Rosberg would have done better falling back 2 meters, it would have saved the team the disgrace of the mistake, him a hollow victory, and me a frustrating end of the Sunday afternoon.

And now it's time for a beer to recover

[andartop]

Why should he?
I thought it was established earlier that each driver should look at his own race and not worry about what the other one is doing...
For all Rosberg knew at that stage, Lewis might have had a problem and was obliged to pit. What should he do, wait for him??? By the time they reached the top of the hill even Ferrari were still trying to figure out if Lewis should have been behind Vettel or not..

[matt_b]

I still think Ferrari missed a trick by not undercutting Nico earlier in the race, imagine if they did

On a positive note for Mercedes, they have now managed 6 races on 1 ICE, with an upgrade in Canada they have planned that very well.

[Wayne DR]

What I dont understand is the difference between the Alonso incident and the Ricciardo incident. The Ricciardo one is a distinct mistake and barging of an opponent!

He was always going down the inside, so the Stewards decision (when compared with Alonso's) is inconsistent. I wouldn't say Ricciardo's move was a "mistake", it was deliberate barging. There is simply no room to overtake at Monaco, so this is the only way to get passed.
It's just a shame Kimi couldn't get Ricciardo on the line when he slowed down to let Kvyat past (like Max)...

[Phil]

Lewis lost 10 Points.

.
No, 17. If he had won the race, he would have gained 7 points on second place instead of losing 10 by finishing 3rd. So the net loss is a total of 17 points.

The gap is now 10 points, when it should be 27.

Unfortunate/undeserved as the result may have been, purely from a close championship perspective it was a good thing.

I dont share this at all. By this logic, we should be strapping weight to the [champion] leaders car to make it a more "level playing field". Or bring back double points final madness to improve "the show". What makes this inacceptable is that it was an "unforced" error. They werent under pressure and yet they committed this stupidity. When they started showing the Mercedes crew jump out to do a pitstop, i was at first laughing in disbelieve wondering if they were just doing it for show. Then i saw Hamilton come in and in knew it wasnt going to be enough. The team might have lacked GPS, but basic first grade math would have been enough to establish that a 20 second gap wasnt going to cut it - and with every pit stop, there is ALWAYS some risk in that it may take longer; an error, a sticky tyre, traffic in the pits or what not. Yet they still pitted him, at Monaco of all places, with what - 6 laps to go, despite having the freshest set of all his direct competitors? Idiots, there is no other word. Complete morons.

[Phil]

If Vettel and Nico had pitted, they would most likely have ended up behind both Kimi and Riciardo, so I don't see any permutation in which they could have been any sort of threat. The strategy call was just dumb.

Exactly. I unfortunately cant review the data, but i am fairly confident that the gap between Hamilton and Rosberg was larger than the gap between Vettel and who ever was behind him. So even if Vettel had pitted, he would have had to overtake at least the cars he would have lost position over by pitting, then get past both Mercedes... In what, 6 laps. In monaco. Of course.

[Jordan44]

This race really had me gutted. But alas this is Monaco, when it's not a boring procession it's a roll of the dice.THe only upside for me is Hamilton will come out stronger from this and mark my words, it'll be total domination from here on out.

I hope you are right, but the incidents in Monaco 2014 really affected his performance in the European part of the season and I fear this could happen again and with Ferrari closer this year it might be far more costly. Different circumstances though, Hamilton always defeats adversity in the end.

like he did in 2009,10,11,12,13?

At times yes. 2009 he won in a very bad car and salvaged his season. 13 he took his maiden victory despite struggling with the car under braking in the first half of the season and loosing out in Silverstone. I was trying to say it's very rare we see him defeated.

[radosav]

So Pastor didn't finish race yet this year?

[andartop]

Unfortunate/undeserved as the result may have been, purely from a close championship perspective it was a good thing.

I dont share this at all. By this logic, we should be strapping weight to the [champion] leaders car to make it a more "level playing field". Or bring back double points final madness to improve "the show". What makes this inacceptable is that it was an "unforced" error...

He didn't say a handicap should be enforced, just stated the obvious, that from a 'close championship' perspective it was a good thing. That is a simple truth, nothing to argue for or against!

Indeed it was an error. Maybe Lewis complaining about dropping tire temperatures contributed to it, maybe not. A lack of his usual radio comments (along the lines of 'what happened, man? Why did you pit me? Why didn't Nico pit?' etc.) might be an indication that it was indeed a Team decision, hence a Team error. Unless there was such radio communication but was not broadcast.

To be honest, when the race started and Lewis got around the first corner in first place I thought that was the end of it, as the Merc is so dominant and he has been driving so well the last couple of years that I thought not even a safety car could make this race interesting. Surely, I thought, even if there is a safety car they will simply chose not to pit. Especially after hearing on BBC the softs were good enough to last the whole 78 laps. Seemed like a no-brainer. Yet, it happened. Further confirmation that indeed, in this life, all sorts of s&!t may happen.

[Chuckjr]

Just like a manager is held responsible for decisions his/her employees make when they are not around, so a racing driver is responsible for where the car goes on the track regardless of the teams orders. At the end of the day, it is the driver who is responsible for where the car ends up on the track, and therefore the driver determines his/her own future--as it should be.

Just as Vettel ignored the "multi-21" order from the team to take victory in Malaysia 2013 (for which he was eventually praised by many), so Hamilton should have ignored the order to box so he could take victory in Monaco.

At the end of the day, it is the hands on the steering wheel which determine where the car is at the end of the race. Like it or not, that's the way the system works.