2012 Monaco GP - Monte Carlo

[beelsebob]

Love the williams mechanic picking his nose behind the rear wing

[ParanoiD]

Hamilton with a Grand Slam. Pole, Fastest lap, Win.

Meh

[Mr Alcatraz]

It looks like the yellow branded soft tires will be "the primes" and the red branded supersofts (being used for the first time this season) will be "the options". According to Pirelli the primes are worth 50 laps plus on the Monaco circuit.

The soft tyres are capable of lasting for 50 laps or more, making a one-stop strategy entirely realistic

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/pirel ... in-monaco/

[raymondu999]

I think Vettel (given he made it work last year) will be a prime (no pun intended) candidate to try for a 1-stopper.

[Lycoming]

It was obviously not ideal... he won the race in spite of, not because of that strategy, which they decided to switch to after that botched pit stop where they fitted the wrong set of tyres to his car. On top of that, the soft tyre this year is even less durable.

Ehh... if he has a crappy qualifying, maybe.

[Mr Alcatraz]

I think Vettel (given he made it work last year) will be a prime (no pun intended) candidate to try for a 1-stopper.

I think that what will determine who does a one stopper is if they really can get 50+ laps on the primes, and 20-28 laps on supersofts in practice without falling off the cliff.
Of course conditions will change by Sunday, and I doubt if anyone will be sure of their strategy until they see how well (and far) the supersofts go in the race. That is those that start on them, which I'm guessing will be everyone that makes it into q3.
Of course than there is the prospect of rain which could render this hypothesis useless

[raymondu999]

It was obviously not ideal... he won the race in spite of, not because of that strategy, which they decided to switch to after that botched pit stop where they fitted the wrong set of tyres to his car. On top of that, the soft tyre this year is even less durable.

Ehh... if he has a crappy qualifying, maybe.

I disagree. After he lost track position and erroneous strategy, he won BECAUSE of the one-stop. Had he not lost track position, possibly the two stopper would've been a quicker option, and under normal circumstances, if he had done a planned 1-stop, then we can say he won in spite of it. But it was a conscious decision to employ said strategy

I think that what will determine who does a one stopper is if they really can get 50+ laps on the primes, and 20-28 laps on supersofts in practice without falling off the cliff.

For reference - last year after Thursday most were saying the primes would hold for about 40 laps. Vettel did something like 57, albeit some were safety car assisted.

Of course than there is the prospect of rain which could render this hypothesis useless

I love a good wet race, especially without changing conditions (ie only wets or inters should be seen, with the slicks taking shade) but to be frank, I wish it was dry. The FIA has recently been over gung ho with red flags and safety cars. Canada 2011, Malaysia 2012 come to mind. Malaysia has massive runoffs. Can you imagine how rain-averse they'd be in Monaco!? Canada has walls too, but the braking zones all lead to runoffs, which isn't quite the case in Monaco.

[Mr Alcatraz]

@ray I'm just going by what is said by Hembrey in the link I posted a couple of post above which also says:

The supersoft is the only compound that remains unaltered from last year

Hembrey believes that 50+ laps with primes on a rubbered in Monaco is realistic. I don't know how well this circuit will be rubbered in because of the likekihood of rain. Do you have data on how many laps were run on supersofts last year?

[raymondu999]

You mean who did the single longest run on supersofts?

According to my notes, no one ran supersofts in FP1. FP2, Vettel did a 23-lap stint on the supersofts (outlap, 21 fliers, inlap). I must've missed FP3 - I'm drawing a blank on my notes.

The longest "used supersoft" opening stint was Massa with 26 laps.
The longest "new supersoft" opening stint was Barrichello with 32 laps.
The single longest "used supersoft" stint was Sutil - 34 laps (L34 to L68)
The single longest "new supersoft" stint was Liuzzi - 40 laps (L32 to L72).
If you want data from someone other than a backmarker, single longest "new supersoft" goes to Kobayashi with 38 laps (34-72)

Here's the official Pirelli pit stop summary: http://www.pirelli.com/mediaObject/pire ... ay2011.pdf

Given that lap 72 was the red flag, we can assume that Liuzzi and Kobayashi wouldn't have stopped with 6 laps to go. Had the race run its course, Liuzzi was on for 46 laps on the supersoft, and Kobayashi for 44 laps on the supersoft.

[Mr Alcatraz]

Thanks ray for the info and the link. We should be in for some interesting strategy this weekend.

[raymondu999]

Should be noted that Kobayashi and Liuzzi were on for one-stoppers - Lap 72 was the red flag

[Mr Alcatraz]

It seems like a one stopper is a very realistic option if it stays dry, however I expect rain.

[raymondu999]

Even if it rains in the race, knowing the FIA - we'll still see only slicks

[Lurk]

Hi, I took a day off to go to Monaco and take some pics of the cars. If this post has not its place on this part of the forum, feel free to move it.

[...]

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjzxRQQY

Here the others pics

http://imageshack.us/g/641/dsc01587mu.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/g/191/dsc01699h.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/g/18/dsc01846kb.jpg/

[Mr Alcatraz]

Even if it rains in the race, knowing the FIA - we'll still see only slicks

I'm not going to go there Ray