2021 Monaco Grand Prix - Monte Carlo, May 20 - 23

[El Scorchio]

Some lovely trading of times between Hamilton and Verstappen there. Tomorrow could be a humdinger.

Humdinger about what? The Monaco holiday?

Haha! Great point
Damn the unique nature of the Monaco weekend...

SATURDAY should be a humdinger.

[PlatinumZealot]

Anyone think bscause of the red flags the Ferraris went unchallenged at the end there?

[LM10]

Predicted Ferrari would be 3rd best here.

But today’s results will be based on 1 thing:

Fuel.

I'd say minimum fuel, maximum power, and nearly a 100% focus on qualifying pace. This is probably their best chance at a podium this season, if we don't have any races with crazy oddities.

Minimum fuel, maximum power and a 100% focus on qualifying pace is the only logical approach for Monaco. So I guess every single team will do that come qualifying.

[dans79]

Predicted Ferrari would be 3rd best here.

But today’s results will be based on 1 thing:

Fuel.

I'd say minimum fuel, maximum power, and nearly a 100% focus on qualifying pace. This is probably their best chance at a podium this season, if we don't have any races with crazy oddities.

Minimum fuel, maximum power and a 100% focus on qualifying pace is the only logical approach for Monaco. So I guess every single team will do that come qualifying.

Even in Monaco you need to do some long runs to ensure brakes and tire temps stay within reason.

[LM10]

I'd say minimum fuel, maximum power, and nearly a 100% focus on qualifying pace. This is probably their best chance at a podium this season, if we don't have any races with crazy oddities.

Minimum fuel, maximum power and a 100% focus on qualifying pace is the only logical approach for Monaco. So I guess every single team will do that come qualifying.

Even in Monaco you need to do some long runs to ensure brakes and tire temps stay within reason.

I thought you meant the approach setup-wise come qualifying (more towards qualifying or more towards race).

Yea, ensuring temps and other stuff is important. But if there is any track where you can win the race without any single long run simulation before, then it's Monaco. Ricciardo won even without ERS a couple of years ago.

[JordanMugen]

Who do you got for pole?

I think Leclerc can do it. The Ferrari has a handy chassis.

Told ya so.

We'll see if Leclerc can repeat in the real Qualifying...

[Mansell89]

Would there be a reason that Merc and Red Bull haven’t gone for it today?

There isn’t a huge amount of time to get it right here in Monaco with the shorter practice sessions and we know track position is king.

Ferrari were pretty handy in Barcelona sector 3 too- have they been written off a bit too quickly?

[JordanMugen]

Would there be a reason that Merc and Red Bull haven’t gone for it today?

Is it so impossible that Scuderia "handy chassis" Ferrari is just plain faster on a chassis track?

Having dropped the low drag concept, the Ferrari has come along in leaps and bounds in terms of cornering capability with the wise Ferrari engineering team doing great work when given the brief to find as much downforce as possible. Quite possibly Ferrari may have the finest chassis in F1, and at Monaco the deficient nature of the Ferrari power unit is less troublesome than usual.

[Juzh]

Anyone think bscause of the red flags the Ferraris went unchallenged at the end there?

Everyone was on high fuel at that point.

[dans79]

Would there be a reason that Merc and Red Bull haven’t gone for it today?

There isn’t a huge amount of time to get it right here in Monaco with the shorter practice sessions and we know track position is king.

No need to risk the car, as the sim guys back at home base will be going non stop for the next 40 hours or so. Also for Saturday, the temperature is going to drop 5°C, and cloud cover will be almost 100% dropping the track temperature significantly.

Edit: Max did look on the ragged edge a few times, but that was mostly down to the balance issue he had.

[MKlaus]

Would there be a reason that Merc and Red Bull haven’t gone for it today?

There isn’t a huge amount of time to get it right here in Monaco with the shorter practice sessions and we know track position is king.

Ferrari were pretty handy in Barcelona sector 3 too- have they been written off a bit too quickly?

at every point when the fastest times were being set, it was ferrari that looked faster than both merc and rb. considering the fact that, merc generally runs with heavier fuel load compared to both rb and ferrari, to bridge a 4 tenth gap, they should be somewhere 15kg heavier. if merc have to be clearly faster than ferrari come qualifying, they should be over 20kg heavier. i doubt they were that heavy. it seems like both ferraris are in the mix for pole with lewis and max.

[214270]

Chandhok on the skypad broke the LEC lap down pretty well I think vs HAM. It looked to me like there’s some laptime still to come from the chasing pack. A combination of gain up the hill, laziness through the corners and leaving a good gap to the barriers.

[Gilles27Kimi7]

Yes, I feel Hamilton has a good chance of taking pole. Red Bull otoh might have some problems outqualifying Ferrari.

[Marty_Y]

Did anyone hear Max on the radio complaining about "engine braking", I assume he was talking about the energy recovery?
From memory it's not the first time I heard him complaining about it, last race weekend he was saying the same.
Why is it something they can't resolve for him?

[falonso81]

Chandhok on the skypad broke the LEC lap down pretty well I think vs HAM. It looked to me like there’s some laptime still to come from the chasing pack. A combination of gain up the hill, laziness through the corners and leaving a good gap to the barriers.

I agree, but if they cant bring their tyres to 100%, Ferrari is looking good for quali. They might even have a little bit more pace in hand than what they did today.