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

[marmer]

anyone who thinks the race is over on a Saturday need to think again

since 97
its happened 11 times pole has won which is only just more than half
98, 04, 05, 06, 07, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
of the years where the pole didn't win on 5 occasions they didn't make the top 3
97, 00, 01, 02, 03

from 09 onwards all the winners where in by far the quickest car.
button in the brawn 09
redbull 10, 11, 12
Mercedes 13, 14

we don't have a truly dominant team this year 2 top teams and maybe even redbull at this track makes it more likely to be a better race on sunday

[Mansell89]

I was really pleased to see Toro Rosso showing what a very good job they have done on chassis again this year.

They were very much on the pace of their big sister (Red Bull) - do they have the genuine pace to fight for a podium here or is P5 and P6 the ceiling for them this weekend?

[GPR-A duplicate2]

anyone who thinks the race is over on a Saturday need to think again

since 97
its happened 11 times pole has won which is only just more than half
98, 04, 05, 06, 07, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
of the years where the pole didn't win on 5 occasions they didn't make the top 3
97, 00, 01, 02, 03

from 09 onwards all the winners where in by far the quickest car.
button in the brawn 09
redbull 10, 11, 12
Mercedes 13, 14

Let's look at it under some laser beam.
- In modern times, from 09 to 14, pole sitter has won.
- In 15, pole sitter would have comfortably won, if not for his team's strategists to have had a brain fade.
- In 16, the pole sitter's team called him for pits, while the pit crew was having coffee in the backyard.

Unless we witness another unusual situation on the pole sitter's team, expecting anyone other than pole sitter to win, would be a fantasy.

we don't have a truly dominant team this year 2 top teams and maybe even redbull at this track makes it more likely to be a better race on sunday

In 2013, Red Bull had the dominant car, but the guy who started on pole won by bunching up the cars behind and managing the pace. That goes on to prove that, you don't need to have great race pace for Monaco. If you have it in your car to bolt it on pole, you are done.

[marmer]

Thats not true you can bolt all you like but it will come down to luck of the safety car and weather much more than most tacks in the calendar despite the difficulty in overtaking

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[godlameroso]

How many drivers will complain about understeer in the race I wonder.

[BanMeToo]

Why do you say

[zac510]

The number will be (20-x) where x is the number of drivers who complain about oversteer.

[ChrisDanger]

There will be those who complain about both oversteer and understeer.

Then there's the F2 race engineer who knows exactly how to handle such situations: https://streamable.com/tx3qn

[atanatizante]

1. In FP2 Merc team was the only team that didn`t improve from FP1 ...
2. From FP1 to FP2 track temp was 10 degrees Celsius higher and both Merc drivers complained about overheating the tyres and that`s why they look sliding and lacking traction in turn 10 as Brudle spotted Thursday in FP2 ...
2017 US tyre = 2016 SS tyre which gave Merc team some headaches last year for having a low temp operation window hence their overheating issues in FP2 ...
3. There`s the rumor Merc team will use for both drivers the old first spec PU used in previous 4 races until Barcelona ... that means they could recover Bottas PU for here ...
4. W08 has at least 2 major weaknesses : one is their weight based on their longer wheelbase which means less room for setup their car and the other weakness is their FRIC ban which translate to a lesser aero platform hence temp variations over the tyres ...
5. Could they run entire race with one set of tyres and in the last lap they enter in the pits swapping with the mandatory tyres? After all the star finish line is even in the pits, isn`t it? Just like Michael did in 1998 on Silverstone race ...

[Dipesh1995]

15 place grid penalty for Button, MGU-H and Turbo change

[matt_b]

You can clearly see Ferarri get their tyres up to temperature in less laps than mercedes, its ironic because mercedes used to have a reputation for overheating their tyres.

[ChrisDanger]

[marmer]

Is the Mercedes struggling due to its longer wheel base around such a tight track.

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[Sevach]

I'd say they struggle with getting their tires up to temp and are just slower everywhere, right now there isn't a part of the circuit where Mercedes shines, it's all Ferrari.

[Bill_Kar]

I would bet my house on Vettel's pole.
Now it's a scrap for second place between Kimi and Mercedes.
RB seems a little bit off, but they could be into the mix if someone messes up