2017 Monaco Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, 26-28 May

[Vanja #66]

Amazing how the Ferrari just finds the tire sweet spot so easily.

I wouldn't say it's amazing, they were very busy with 2017 tyre tests last year and this is the result...

As for Merc problems, don't know if it's only me seeing things, but it looks like their tyres have more lateral movement than other cars when they go over the curbs. It doesn't make sense to me but I did notice it...

[Juzh]

Raikkonen vs Vettel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcam7TvhEjY

[ismail1991]

As a Hamilton fan, I am very disappointed. He is a really experienced driver but he can't keep his cool when the things are not going his way. All he had to do was to qualify inside q3 and get maybe 6th or 7th. I am sure even his not set-up properly Mercedes can easily take 6th. However, he started to cry like a child and couldn't get a timed lap to be qualified to q3. Tomorrow, I don't expect anything from him. He will lose very valuable points in the championship.

[Manoah2u]

Remember this little guy?

http://www.sportfair.it/wp-content/uplo ... kkonen.jpg

yeah but i dont want to get constantly bombed with some kid that can't take reality.
I really thought it was cool what happened, but please for all that is holy, leave it there and behind
before it becomes fiercingly annoying and we're gonna get a whole bunch of kids slammed into roles by their
parents just for the attentions.

hate me if you don't agree with it, but that's the darn truth.

[Artur Craft]

....and that's why you never wait until your final attempt around monaco, a bit of a baku 2.0 from lewis today

or Sochi 3.0(2016 & 2017), or Singapore 2.0.....

Lewis was unlucky with Vandoorne's crash but he dug his own grave because he ran through all of Q2 and the speed wasn't there. His S1/S2 were just on par with the midfielders

Anyway, I don't think Mercedes(Bottas) was as fast as Q3 suggests. Vettel had already done 1.12.3 on FP3 and Kimi's ideal lap is almost 2 tenths quicker, so Ferrari definitely had potential for 1.11.

Also, apart from Kimi, everybody was very slow on the first set of tyres during Q3. Then, on the second, Bottas was the only one to do the right thing and run two fast laps. His first lap of the second set of tyres was 1.12.5 which was a bit slower than Verstappen's best Q3 lap(the sole one he did on the second set of tyres). Ricciardo didn't do a fast lap on his second set, so that's why he was so slow. Which was a pitty cause I'm sure he had much more to show.

All in all, I think the pecking order at Monaco is : Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes, Toro Rosso, Mclaren.

W08 is not a dominant car(the PU advantage still exists but not as huge as before, in relation to Ferrari's) and Mercedes is in trouble for the championship, imho

- How many slow laps they kept showing this weekend? TV coverage of F1 is bad.

Agree entirely. It was very often all weekend for the director to follow full cruising/warm up laps and then switch once the fast lap started.

@Manoah2u, I subscribe what you said there.

[ringo]

As a Hamilton fan, I am very disappointed. He is a really experienced driver but he can't keep his cool when the things are not going his way. All he had to do was to qualify inside q3 and get maybe 6th or 7th. I am sure even his not set-up properly Mercedes can easily take 6th. However, he started to cry like a child and couldn't get a timed lap to be qualified to q3. Tomorrow, I don't expect anything from him. He will lose very valuable points in the championship.

I really dont think the car was up to the task. I think he did well to even keep the car on the track. Result could have been worse.

[Edax]

As a Hamilton fan, I am very disappointed. He is a really experienced driver but he can't keep his cool when the things are not going his way. All he had to do was to qualify inside q3 and get maybe 6th or 7th. I am sure even his not set-up properly Mercedes can easily take 6th. However, he started to cry like a child and couldn't get a timed lap to be qualified to q3. Tomorrow, I don't expect anything from him. He will lose very valuable points in the championship.

Actually you sound a lot more bitter than Hamilton himself.

The car was undrivable. Whether he took the setup in the wrong direction, or his team did, or there was some voodoo in play, doesn't matter. If the tires are not at temperature then forget p6, even in a Merc.

It was pretty obvious that the car was doing its utmost to get him into the wall. It jumped from oversteer to understeer and back. If he would have pushed it harder he would have crashed for sure. And maybe without Stoffel he would have made q3 but probably not much further.

[seventhsin]

Bit of a Monaco shake up! Fascinated to see how the race plays out this evening, we've had more than a few surprises this season and this could certainly be another.
Thrilled for Kimi to take pole, he's looked in good shape all weekend and I've been a fan for near his whole career. It's also great to see sportsmen retire in good form, rather than slowly fade away and be forgotten.
Lewis has a tough race ahead of him, I hope the team can sort his car out so he can work his way back into the points, we may even see some overtaking

Does anyone else read the press quotes in the persons voice? Seb, Kimi, Toto etc

[SectorOne]

I wouldn't say it's amazing, they were very busy with 2017 tyre tests last year and this is the result...

All three were busy with tire tests last year, only one has really understood them.

[BosF1]

And the award of funniest driver duo of the paddock goes to...


(With thanks to TurboF1 for letting me know the solution for embedding a youtube clip )

[Vanja #66]

All three were busy with tire tests last year, only one has really understood them.

From reports I read at the time, Ferrari were busiest (Seb especially) and they obviously made the biggest effort to replicate downforce levels with their testing mule. Even they didn't do it fully, but they must have been closest with that big and high-up rear wing...

[Schuttelberg]

As a Hamilton fan, I am very disappointed. He is a really experienced driver but he can't keep his cool when the things are not going his way. All he had to do was to qualify inside q3 and get maybe 6th or 7th. I am sure even his not set-up properly Mercedes can easily take 6th. However, he started to cry like a child and couldn't get a timed lap to be qualified to q3. Tomorrow, I don't expect anything from him. He will lose very valuable points in the championship.

I really dont think the car was up to the task. I think he did well to even keep the car on the track. Result could have been worse.

Well, the second car almost got pole. By your stand of judgement, Bottas did a miracle yesterday!

[f1316]

All three were busy with tire tests last year, only one has really understood them.

From reports I read at the time, Ferrari were busiest (Seb especially) and they obviously made the biggest effort to replicate downforce levels with their testing mule. Even they didn't do it fully, but they must have been closest with that big and high-up rear wing...

But then let's not forget that exactly this time last year, the whole problem was *Ferari* not being able to get tyres to stay in the window, and hence going backwards from Q1-Q3.

It seems to me that teams sometimes fall foul of only really concentrating on an issue when they have a problem; it used to be Mercedes eating up their tyres (2012, 2013) and we saw them put a huge amount of effort into getting this right. Now perhaps it's the same with Ferrari? Curious though that all teams don't maximise this area - it really is the single most important factor.

FYI Bottas and Hamilton had the same set up and Hamilton just couldn't make it work - he himself is at a loss to explain why:

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/194 ... qualifying

It is quite reminiscent of Sochi though, so seems like something in the car's characteristics/the drivers styles makes a difference here, and seems like it happens on street circuits.

[Fulcrum]

If you were to pick two events with the lowest degradation, Monaco and Sochi would be good choices.

Perhaps Hamilton's driving style doesn't induce enough temperature on low deg. tarmac, and he fell below the operating threshold?

At other events (Bahrain being one I can think of) Bottas had issues with overheating. If Bottas does work his tyres harder, in general, then he would maintain higher operating temperatures than Hamilton, which would have been of benefit yesterday.

In the race Hamilton will have an additional 100kg (or so) in the car; I wouldn't be surprised if the temperature issues don't manifest today and he has a good race.

[Stormy]

This year's cars are way faster than say 2004. However, we still haven't seen broken track records during race. Is this because there is no refueling now and the cars are heavier during race?