2018 Monaco Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, May 24-27

[J.A.W.]

'no danger'
https://twitter.com/tgruener/status/999622472449298432

"... in a manner that posed no danger to the other drivers"

So entering not only the track, but the racing line, in reverse, while a car is coming, is not dangerous??

Video of the incident
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/head ... ejoin.html

He could have turned left while reversing to avoid the racing line, then turning right he could have rejoin the track, but instead he reversed straight into the racing line. IMHO that deserve, at least, a reprimand, but it looks like FIA will never say a word to Max, no matter what he does

Yeah, I'll have to back you on this one Andres.. & its just so blatant..

The 'Golden boy' has it seems.. carte blanche to do as he sees fit.. esp' while operating under his colour, yellow..

This glaringingly permissive attitude to abuse of longstanding norms is - likely IMO - going to predicate a monumental crash..
& when that occurs.. why.. it'll be 50% Dan's fault.. ah no.. sorry.. I mean it it'll be on the stewards.. (& R.B.)..

[Ennis]

Drastic simplification of a sport which is complicated and extreme in its nature seems odd to me. Dumbing down stuff never works for the masses. It only attracts casual fans who then disappear soon after. Just look at the state of the video games industry right now.

The HS lasts 77 laps? Is that a typo or correct? Isn't it supposed to be the softest and least lasting of the range?

I agree in general, my favourite sports are F1, football and fighting. I tend to get caught up in the technical stuff of all 3, I love the tiny little details which make the difference.

However, the tyre thing seems like something that would help the casual, at absolutely no detriment to the more hardcore. We'd all see a list of tyres before the weekend, we'd see that they're taking Hyper as the soft, supersoft as the medium, etc. We'd join the dots and lose nothing.

[djos]

I agree in general, my favourite sports are F1, football and fighting. I tend to get caught up in the technical stuff of all 3, I love the tiny little details which make the difference.

However, the tyre thing seems like something that would help the casual, at absolutely no detriment to the more hardcore. We'd all see a list of tyres before the weekend, we'd see that they're taking Hyper as the soft, supersoft as the medium, etc. We'd join the dots and lose nothing.

Yeah I'm ok with this too, for many years we had multiple tire compounds with only two being brought to each weekend - we then called these prime and option knowing full well what the actual compounds where.

[f1316]

Love Monaco on a Thursday because it’s sooner before more F1 - hate it on a Friday because no F1!

[Manoah2u]

Why was that again? i forgot why it's on a thursday instead of a friday.

[NathanOlder]

I agree in general, my favourite sports are F1, football and fighting. I tend to get caught up in the technical stuff of all 3, I love the tiny little details which make the difference.

However, the tyre thing seems like something that would help the casual, at absolutely no detriment to the more hardcore. We'd all see a list of tyres before the weekend, we'd see that they're taking Hyper as the soft, supersoft as the medium, etc. We'd join the dots and lose nothing.

Yeah I'm ok with this too, for many years we had multiple tire compounds with only two being brought to each weekend - we then called these prime and option knowing full well what the actual compounds where.

Exactly , So hopefully for 2019 its something that will change and be a way more simple for me when I'm explaining to my wife that the supersoft is actually the slowest hardest tyre available this weekend. Although surely its something that can be changed over night.

[FrukostScones]

speaking of tyres, I do feel its a bit silly when the slowest and HARDEST tyre for the weekend is the SuperSoft.

Can they not keep the colours (so we know what the real compound is) but just call the 3 tyres Soft , Medium and Hard. Surely this makes sense for new viewers too.

When a new viewer watching on TV hears Martin Brundle say "He pits and takes the harder tyre to try and get to the end" and see's the onscreen graphics say SuperSoft, it may be a little confusing ?

Something like that is in the works.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/pire ... &q=pirelli

dumpest F1 move in while.

I thought people loved the ultrasofts beeing introduced. Also it is all quite clear what they use during the weekend.
My brain doesn't find it strange that there are using supersoft as hardest tyre. They are just part of the range, and were chose to be the "slowest" tyre for the weekend. Also that there are more than one "soft" tyre? Is that too much? Really?
Next year it will become an "Etikettenschwindel", they pretend it is something, what it is not.
Also Pirelli is probably amused by the labelling backtrack. As they nicely will still inform us about what they are
we will get the Pirelli dictionaay table to find out what the tyres really are. Isn't it simple.
Also the Pirelli rainbow was quite beautifully colorful.


Maybe some FOM offical's wife was turned off by it.

[djos]

Just finished watching P2, the RedBull lads are way out in front.

Just so hooked up compared to the Merc which is clearly not where they'd like to be. Hamilton was clearly unhappy with the car on the radio, just wasn't comfortable at all.

The Ferrari's look good, just not RedBull good.

Surprisingly decent effort from Hartley too. Hopefully he finds his F1 mojo here.

Ps some other circuits could really learn from the Monaco marshals, they are so dam efficient!

[Phil]

Just so hooked up compared to the Merc which is clearly not where they'd like to be. Hamilton was clearly unhappy with the car on the radio, just wasn't comfortable at all.

I think that was on the SS. Higher ideal temperature range of the tire == tires not enough heat == less grip.

[Sieper]

Hamiltons hyper runs was at that time (only a little later then RB so only a bit more rubbered in track) about as quick as RBR, tad quicker then Ric had been, tad slower then Max had been at that time. Hamitlon also said the W09 is better here then the W08 so he has the confidence in the car. Merc will be in the mix come Saturday. As will be Ferr I think and I hope RBR can really beat the power deficit (with their much improved car as opposed to last year) as then they were 5 and 6 as usual.

[GrandAxe]

I can bet that P3 and qualifying will throw up a different order.

Both Ferrari and Mercedes are likely to have been sandbagging heavily, since there is a full day (a huge amount of time) for engineers to analyse their own cars as well as the strengths of the opposing cars. For example, Ferrari's heavy graining in P1 might have been due to fixes to cope with a tight circuit, such as steering and suspension parameters; it could also have been due to driving style - whatever it was would have revealed a lot to Mercedes about things like best overtaking points and likely race strategies.
Ferrari too would have been taking note of things like Mercedes RPM, their graining (particularly with Bottas); and the difficulty Lewis had on at least one run to the hairpin, which is the tightest corner.

In the sort of scenario above, Red Bull wouldn't have featured on Ferrari/Merc radars at all - they aren't championship contenders - aside from as potential spoilers (during safety car periods etc).

My bet is for either a Merc or Ferrari pole. Anyway, we'll see on Saturday.

[vanburin]

Why was that again? i forgot why it's on a thursday instead of a friday.

I understand that the race weekends in Monaco were typically scheduled alongside a holiday in the principality in the early days of F1 (Ascension Day I believe). Initially the day was avoided by F1 to respect the holiday, but now it's a combination of both maintaining that tradition and not crippling the streets of Monaco on a busy Friday afternoon/evening.

That and I'm sure it doesn't hurt Monaco tourism to have another day/night of $$$ coming in!!

[Phil]

I'm predicting RedBull on pole, maybe Mercedes in second, followed by Ferrari closely. Just a hunch though.

[Restomaniac]

I'm not a casual fan nor a new fan but I think the tyre change is a good idea. Calling the tyres "soft", "medium", "hard" makes more sense than the current system. Adding complication doesn't make something better.

For the casual yes, but for us? Pirelli have, what? 7 different compounds? We know that certain cars favor certain compounds more than others. To keep the name as is helps us understand [technical minded fans] know what exact compounds they are racing on.

Perhaps Pirelli should have rather used "compound A, B, C, D... F" instead of "hyper soft, ultra soft" etc. Like this, they could name the tires soft/medium/hard, but still give us the opportunity to identify them by their compound spec (A, B, C). The casual fans won't care and for them it will just be hard/soft whatever, but we could still discuss them in more detail more accurately.

I feel this was possible the year before last, when we used to refer to the tires as PRIME/OPTION, but since we now have 3 compounds to choose from each race, that has gone out the window...

Moreover using A,B,C,D,etc is far easy to understand and explain. The tyres in every weekend can start at the Swiss cheese of tyres at A and end up at poured concrete at F. If a weekend has tyres B,C & D then it’s self explanatory.

[Sieper]

I think RBR will have a very real shot on pole as well but it will be very close at best (if your are a RBR fan like me) imho. Merc and Fer will be close, they can find better set-ups and have the extra horses in the qualy mode.