2015 Monaco Grand Prix - 21-24 May

[radosav]

Q: (Ian Parkes – Autosport) Question for Lewis. First of all, can you gives us just some idea as to how you’re feeling right now. Obviously we see you’re very low, very down but just express in your own words how you’re feeling. And, secondly, when that Safety Car situation unfolded, did you not at all question whether to come in or not? Bearing in mind, regardless of the situation with the tyres, track position is ultimately king in Monaco.

LH: I can’t really express the way I feel at the moment. So I won’t even attempt to. You rely on the team. I saw a screen, it looked like the team was out and I thought that Nico had pitted. Obviously I couldn’t see the guys behind so I thought the guys behind were pitting.The team said to stay out, I said “these tyres are going to drop in temperature,” and what I was assuming was that these guys would be on Options and I was on the harder tyre. So, they said to pit. Without thinking I came in with full confidence that the others had done the same.”

[PlatinumZealot]

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.

And then people bash HAM for not following team orders in Monza 2014 and Hungary 2014. Such hypocrisy. To me there are some situations when the driver does not have all the information or the mental availability to make strategy calls that highly paid engineers and supercomputers are employed to make so he trusts them to make it for him.

[Chuckjr]

LH: The team said to stay out, I said “these tyres are going to drop in temperature,” and what I was assuming was that these guys would be on Options and I was on the harder tyre. So, they said to pit. Without thinking I came in with full confidence that the others had done the same.”

"Without thinking" are the key words from Lewis right there, and further support the point I just made.

[BanMeToo]

In Monaco, you have no GPS and that makes the whole exercise more difficult.

Motor sport's governing body, meanwhile, has also made clear GPS is available around Monaco, despite Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff's claims to the contrary.

Wolff cited a lack of GPS as one of the causes for confusion on the Mercedes pitwall that resulted in Lewis Hamilton being brought in for an unnecessary pit stop shortly after Verstappen's smash that cost him the race victory.

The FIA maintains while the signal is not as robust as at some other circuits, it is in play.

[OblongCheese]

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!

The difference is the stewards were punishing based on the result of the move, and not based on the move itself.

Alonso's move put Hulkenberg in the wall and effectively out of the race.

Ricciardo's move bumped Kimi out of the way, and he only lost that one position.

[diffuser]

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!

The difference is the stewards were punishing based on the result of the move, and not based on the move itself.

Alonso's move put Hulkenberg in the wall and effectively out of the race.

Ricciardo's move bumped Kimi out of the way, and he only lost that one position.

I think you're right... They shouldn't do that. In Monaco, if you want to hang it out on the outside... You're taking a risk.

[Manoah2u]

I must say this race has got me surprised.

The penalty towards verstappen is harsh imho, but oddly enouh, it is conform the regulations, as in the end, Verstappen was behind and not aside grosjean, and thus responsible for causing a collision. Apart from that, I think there wasn't that much blame to be put as the truth is obvious too that Grosjean did brake earler than normal. Very unsportive of the haters around here to completely burn the guy and blame it on his supposed 'inexperience and being too young'. haters. If it was Maldonado behind Romain he would have tumbled down 3 buildings before realising something was happening on the track.

It was a very hefty impact indeed, i was afraid the crash would have been more severe.

Consequently, it triggered a domino effect which resulted in an indeed inexcusabel blunder from the Merc camp.
i'm not going for stupid concpiracy theories; that's just a sign of complete seperation of sense for reality, really.

but, as Ted Kravitz pointed out, either way, pitting was useless. Even if Hamilton did not pit, and even if he had icy tires,
and even if both Rosberg and Vettel switched to fresh tires behind him, they would not have overtaken. Track position.
There aren't enough opportunities to pass and lewis' tires weren't good but not so bad he was defenseless. Just look at it, with fresh tires he couldn't pass Vettel. The entire math thing, as pointed out by Ted, is a whole shamefull sideshow aswell.

I also highly doubt Vettel and Rosberg ever were going to pit because the fact remains, even on fresh tires they could not have overtaken Lewis. And that's not even discussing whether they actually would have kept their position! They could have even lost their 2nd and 3rd spots to Kvyat/Ricciardo/Raikkonen behind with some bad luck.

There indeed was zero reason to decide Lewis should get a pitstop.

Apart from all that; nobody is going to comment on the massive improvement Renault has made? I mean, no engine breakdowns, and in the running for a podium. What happened!

[evered7]

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.

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.

Rosberg probably had no idea where Hamilton was. He was long gone through the long straight adjacent to the pits when Hamilton came after Vettel and since the road from the pit is shorter than the T1 corner, he was just behind Vettel.

Rosberg has to drive to a delta under the SC I suppose and Vettel would have probably clinged to the back of Rosberg if he felt he was slowing down more than required.

In any case, Rosberg shouldn't need to care about Hamilton's race as mentioned by Hamilton himself in China.

I would like Hamilton to remember Valencia 2010 and be happy he didn't lose much. It was a gamble and it didn't pay off. The tire temperature issue was funny since they only had Ferrari behind them and there was no way, the Ferrari would retain better tire temps than the Merc.

Anyway, one more goof up from the stooges at Mercedes pit wall.

[Hail22]

Jeez a lot of tears from the Hamilton fanboys, don't worry he will cry on Puff Diddilys shoulder till he feels better.

Rosberg a worthy winner, held off Vettel the whole race and didn't get involved in any strategic errors. Good win that spiced up a boring race.

I'm not a Ham fan, but I'll just put my opinion firmly that Nico was not a worthy winner. This is another sour controversy in Formula 1 when it's already near the scrap heap.

[evered7]

Jeez a lot of tears from the Hamilton fanboys, don't worry he will cry on Puff Diddilys shoulder till he feels better.

Rosberg a worthy winner, held off Vettel the whole race and didn't get involved in any strategic errors. Good win that spiced up a boring race.

I'm not a Ham fan, but I'll just put my opinion firmly that Nico was not a worthy winner. This is another sour controversy in Formula 1 when it's already near the scrap heap.

This was no controversy. Austria 2002 was a controversy. Indianapolis 2005 was one as was Hockenheim 2010. This one has got something to do with one team and one driver only.

It was a bad call from them and they reaped the fruits of it. If anything, it has got people talking about this race much more than they normally would because of the mistake. This has even overshadowed the big crash that Verstappen was lucky to escape without any big injuries.

[Traction]

Missed the race and couldn't record it due to power outage.. seems like I missed a really controversial moment in F1 . From what I gather Ricciardo managed to pass Kimi with fresh tyres somewhere during the race. When Lewis came out of the pits on fresh tyres apparantly he couldn't get past Seb..what was the issue thee..how close was he to Seb during the last few laps?

[Hobbs04]

In 2013 Kimi put on new supersofts and blitz the field at the end of that Monaco grand prix. Hamilton had new tires and the best car on the grid. He had more then enough chances to win. Too bad all the comments are about how pissed poor the pit call was but think how spoiled Hamilton has become to be in 3rd at a restart with newer tires and not capitalize on it.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

In 2013 Kimi put on new supersofts and blitz the field at the end of that Monaco grand prix. Hamilton had new tires and the best car on the grid. He had more then enough chances to win. Too bad all the comments are about how pissed poor the pit call was but think how spoiled Hamilton has become to be in 3rd at a restart with newer tires and not capitalize on it.

For the basics, there is a difference in blitzing through the back markers and blitzing past the leaders. Are you referring to how Kimi and Vettel blitzed past Bottas in Bahrain and Barcelona?

[Tim.Wright]

Pretty clear were this is heading guys:

[zeph]

FWIW, HAM's DRS wasn't working, I heard.