2014 Monaco Grand Prix

[PlatinumZealot]

I feel like they could potentially be fuelling him lighter, if they know he won't use 2kgs of fuel but Nico will, why put it in?

The evidence in the race points to Hamilton and Nico being fueled exactly the same at the begining. The reason why is because Nico's fuel became critical even though he was running in cleaner air and in a track that has no slip stream benefits for Hamilton. Hamilton surely must have reached the cross over point before Nico if he was fueled less but that was not the case.

[CHT]

If you are not a fan of merc dominance, then lets hope this rivalry will continue till Abu Dhabi.

[thomin]

I feel like they could potentially be fuelling him lighter, if they know he won't use 2kgs of fuel but Nico will, why put it in?

The evidence in the race points to Hamilton and Nico being fueled exactly the same at the begining. The reason why is because Nico's fuel became critical even though he was running in cleaner air and in a track that has no slip stream benefits for Hamilton. Hamilton surely must have reached the cross over point before Nico if he was fueled less but that was not the case.

Actually, that's not true as the graphics showed that Nico was using more fuel than Lewis.

So even if Lewis had less to start with, he may not have run into the same problems as Nico because he could have saved even more.

At the end of the day, we cannot know who got how much fuel, but it's certainly a trend now that Lewis uses less than Nico, so it would only be logical for Mercedes to put less in his tank as well.

[thomin]

If you are not a fan of merc dominance, then lets hope this rivalry will continue till Abu Dhabi.

How terrible would it be if the champion would be decided because of double points?

Then again, Senna won his first title against Prost because back then the five worst results were crossed out and only the best eleven counted. Over the entire season, Prost collected significantly more points than Senna. Apparently that didn't bother anyone either. Though admittedly, this years double points system is somewhat worse as you can't choose at which race to double your points.

[turbof1]

Something I don't get: why didn't Hamilton pitted a second time? At one point the difference to ricciardo was over 15s, with raikkonen sufficiently behind. Hamilton would have much fresher super softs versus weared softs of Ricciardo, so chances would have been good that he could overtake Ricciardio, with around 15-20 laps to get to Rosberg and use the extra grip to overtake him.

The biggest risk would be loosing 3 points if he wouldn't get pass Ricciardo, but I believe the difference in grip would be enough to succeed in it and then challenge Rosberg.

[beelsebob]

Something I don't get: why didn't Hamilton pitted a second time? At one point the difference to ricciardo was over 15s, with raikkonen sufficiently behind. Hamilton would have much fresher super softs versus weared softs of Ricciardo, so chances would have been good that he could overtake Ricciardio, with around 15-20 laps to get to Rosberg and use the extra grip to overtake him.

The chances are near 0 of being able to pass Ricciardo. Even with fresh supersofts he would only have been about 1 second a lap faster. He would need to be 3-4 seconds a lap faster to make an attempt at a pass at Monaco.

[Waywardism]

Personally I like it when they bitch and moan and complain. It shows emotion and that's what I want to see. His comments about the Merc strategist were maybe a bit harsh, but he wants to win, and currently it seems there is no opportunity to use strategy to do so between team mates, which I think is a little unfair.

Maybe if they let him pick his own strategy he would feel better, if it goes wrong they can tell him to shut up, if it goes right, they will likely still get a 1-2 and Hamilton will be happy.

I think there is a lot to enjoy about this year but Mercedes are slowly taking away from it. If they want to turn up the engine, let them. If they want to make their own strategy, let them. The problem here is the drivers championship is way more fun to follow than the constructors, and Mercedes are SO far ahead they should let them do what they want.

I'd rather have the drivers show their emotion than bottle it all up and play happy families. Imagine what 1988 would have been like if they had done that? Nowhere near as exciting. Same goes for this year, let them fight, let them race and give the fans a show. We love the gossip and the fighting, the arguments and the complaining really, if everyone was best friends it wouldn't be half as exciting.

There will probably be a nice long, well constructed argument following up, where someone picks apart my thoughts and has a nice little factual retort or pedantic one liner, but I don't care. I want to see real competition, not muted competition.

From what I can see Merc are doing their very best to allow their drivers to race each other and to give them both equal opportunity. I think the main reason it's 'muted' is because of the need to save PU components, get rid of that and I'm sure Merc would have no problem with them turning up the engine.

Not sure about the strategy thing, they have one guy doing strategy for both cars, that's just how they choose to operate. I think the onus is on the driver to force the situation. For example, if Lewis REALLY wanted to pit when he saw Sutil crash he should've been on the radio saying "hey guys, we need to pit now there's going to be a safety car, if Nico doesn't turn into the pits then I am so be ready for me". Of course it's dodgy territory going up against your team like that, but if you know it's the right thing to do and you want to be world champion then you have to push it.

[MercedesAMGSpy]

Something I don't get: why didn't Hamilton pitted a second time? At one point the difference to ricciardo was over 15s, with raikkonen sufficiently behind. Hamilton would have much fresher super softs versus weared softs of Ricciardo, so chances would have been good that he could overtake Ricciardio, with around 15-20 laps to get to Rosberg and use the extra grip to overtake him.

The biggest risk would be loosing 3 points if he wouldn't get pass Ricciardo, but I believe the difference in grip would be enough to succeed in it and then challenge Rosberg.

As we have seen, Hamilton or his crew can't decide that. The leader will pit one lap earlier, then the second car and that's the pattern we have seen the whole year, only different tyres for the second stint.

[thomin]

Something I don't get: why didn't Hamilton pitted a second time? At one point the difference to ricciardo was over 15s, with raikkonen sufficiently behind. Hamilton would have much fresher super softs versus weared softs of Ricciardo, so chances would have been good that he could overtake Ricciardio, with around 15-20 laps to get to Rosberg and use the extra grip to overtake him.

The biggest risk would be loosing 3 points if he wouldn't get pass Ricciardo, but I believe the difference in grip would be enough to succeed in it and then challenge Rosberg.

As we have seen, Hamilton or his crew can't decide that. The leader will pit one lap earlier, then the second car and that's the pattern we have seen the whole year, only different tyres for the second stint.

I think the point was that Hamilton could have made a second stop, which he clearly should have been able to do.

However, I doubt that it could have possibly worked out. Making up 1second per lap for 20 laps on Nico is virtually impossible around Monaco, even on fresh tires. After ten laps they wouldn't have been much better than Nico's. Not to mention that he'd had to find a way around Ricciardo which wouldn't have been an easy feat to begin with and certainly cost lots of seconds even if it worked out. Also, that always carries the risk of crashing out.

[turbof1]

Something I don't get: why didn't Hamilton pitted a second time? At one point the difference to ricciardo was over 15s, with raikkonen sufficiently behind. Hamilton would have much fresher super softs versus weared softs of Ricciardo, so chances would have been good that he could overtake Ricciardio, with around 15-20 laps to get to Rosberg and use the extra grip to overtake him.

The chances are near 0 of being able to pass Ricciardo. Even with fresh supersofts he would only have been about 1 second a lap faster. He would need to be 3-4 seconds a lap faster to make an attempt at a pass at Monaco.

No I think it'd be faster. On equal tyres at the beginning of the second stint Mercedes was already around 1 second faster. Now on relative fresh tyres, softer tyres against worn tyres I sincerely believe you'd get 2-3 seconds difference. I think it'd give better traction out of the corner right before the tunnel, leaving Ricciardo very vulnerable.

Again, there's of course the risk of loosing 3 points, but in return you'd get a shot at winning. We've seen in the past and indeed this race that you can get this done when the difference in tyre grip is that big.

As we have seen, Hamilton or his crew can't decide that. The leader will pit one lap earlier, then the second car and that's the pattern we have seen the whole year, only different tyres for the second stint.

No this is different. It's true that on similar strategies the leading driver gets the undercut. The difference here is that Hamilton makes 1 extra stop which Rosberg wouldn't.

[CHT]

Something I don't get: why didn't Hamilton pitted a second time? At one point the difference to ricciardo was over 15s, with raikkonen sufficiently behind. Hamilton would have much fresher super softs versus weared softs of Ricciardo, so chances would have been good that he could overtake Ricciardio, with around 15-20 laps to get to Rosberg and use the extra grip to overtake him.

The biggest risk would be loosing 3 points if he wouldn't get pass Ricciardo, but I believe the difference in grip would be enough to succeed in it and then challenge Rosberg.

I read in the press conference that the merc drivers are only given two opportunities to overtake each other, At start and pit stop. So pitting for fresh tires will no longer be an option for over taking.

[zeph]

Alonso had tech issues, apparently:

Fernando Alonso feared he could have been forced to retire from the Monaco Grand Prix on the first lap after an ERS problem with his Ferrari engine.

Alonso qualified fourth with what he described as his best lap of the year, but fell to sixth at the start of the race.

The Spaniard, who lies third in the Formula 1 drivers' championship, admitted his Ferrari lost power for the first few corners.

"The electric engine [ERS] didn't work so I didn't have the power going until Turn 3 [Casino Square]," said Alonso.

"I had a good jump, but I didn't have any more power to keep going.

"But the McLarens were fighting and also it is not completely straight so I was lucky that no one else overtook me.

"It was more stressful after Turn 1 [Sainte Devote]. Between Turn 1 and 3 I was very, very slow and I was a little bit worried I would have to retire after lap one. And then suddenly the electric motor started working."

Alonso conceded that, even if he had full power, he would probably have been boxed in on the run to Ste Devote.

"If I did have the power available I would have had to brake anyway because I didn't have the space," he added. "I tried to go to the left at one point but Kimi [Raikkonen] was doing a good start so it was not the place to go."

BRAKE PROBLEMS AT END

After problems for Ferrari team-mate Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, Alonso chased Daniel Ricciardo for third, but suffered brake issues in the closing stages.



"At the end we had some brake problems," said Alonso.

"The car was braking with only right brakes so I had to hold the steering to the left.

"Once you are in that position you just try to bring the car safely home and get these points, but obviously we will try to do better next time."

Despite the issues, Alonso believes fourth was the best the F14 T could manage in Monaco.

"Fourth was the maximum," he said. "The top three showed their potential and that they were faster than me.

"I'm happy with the weekend in general. The race was difficult, it was tough, but I've got more points than I had yesterday."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114137

[komninosm]

Do you forget how Vettel treated Mark?

.

I cannot remember Vettel saying anything bad about Mark or the team, certainly nothing that is even close to what Hamilton has said in recent weeks. No mind games or dicey interviews or anything. In fact every time Seb spoke of Mark, he was very respectful.

Sure, we've had the famous Multi21 incident, but then that's just being competitive. Mark has tried the same with Vettel before several times and as we've now heard, so did both Nico and Lewis in Bahrain and Spain.

Are you for real?
Aside from the in-team war of nerves and passing him when they were told not to (sneaky liar) and another time Vettel put finger in his head and wiggled it to call Mark crazy and tons of other stuff. Do you think Mark even remotely liked Seb at the end?
I'd rather my team mate call me a team favorite than to pass me on track after it is agreed that we won't fight. If you want to pass me, then say so first, do not sneak by like a thief in the night.
You're just a Hamilton hater and that's all...

[komninosm]

Personally I like it when they bitch and moan and complain. It shows emotion and that's what I want to see. His comments about the Merc strategist were maybe a bit harsh, but he wants to win, and currently it seems there is no opportunity to use strategy to do so between team mates, which I think is a little unfair.

Maybe if they let him pick his own strategy he would feel better, if it goes wrong they can tell him to shut up, if it goes right, they will likely still get a 1-2 and Hamilton will be happy.

I think there is a lot to enjoy about this year but Mercedes are slowly taking away from it. If they want to turn up the engine, let them. If they want to make their own strategy, let them. The problem here is the drivers championship is way more fun to follow than the constructors, and Mercedes are SO far ahead they should let them do what they want.

I'd rather have the drivers show their emotion than bottle it all up and play happy families. Imagine what 1988 would have been like if they had done that? Nowhere near as exciting. Same goes for this year, let them fight, let them race and give the fans a show. We love the gossip and the fighting, the arguments and the complaining really, if everyone was best friends it wouldn't be half as exciting.

There will probably be a nice long, well constructed argument following up, where someone picks apart my thoughts and has a nice little factual retort or pedantic one liner, but I don't care. I want to see real competition, not muted competition.

From what I can see Merc are doing their very best to allow their drivers to race each other and to give them both equal opportunity. I think the main reason it's 'muted' is because of the need to save PU components, get rid of that and I'm sure Merc would have no problem with them turning up the engine.

Not sure about the strategy thing, they have one guy doing strategy for both cars, that's just how they choose to operate. I think the onus is on the driver to force the situation. For example, if Lewis REALLY wanted to pit when he saw Sutil crash he should've been on the radio saying "hey guys, we need to pit now there's going to be a safety car, if Nico doesn't turn into the pits then I am so be ready for me". Of course it's dodgy territory going up against your team like that, but if you know it's the right thing to do and you want to be world champion then you have to push it.

My thoughts EXACTLY!

[George-Jung]

Are you for real?
Aside from the in-team war of nerves and passing him when they were told not to (sneaky liar) and another time Vettel put finger in his head and wiggled it to call Mark crazy and tons of other stuff. Do you think Mark even remotely liked Seb at the end?
I'd rather my team mate call me a team favorite than to pass me on track after it is agreed that we won't fight. If you want to pass me, then say so first, do not sneak by like a thief in the night.
You're just a Hamilton hater and that's all...

First of all I am not a Vettel fan, but what you say is pure B.S.
Vettel 'wiggled his finger' after he crashed in the Turkish GP.. A completely normal reaction in the heat of the moment, or do you really think that Hamilton would do nothing if Rosberg and he should collide with a DNF as a result for Hamilton?

The fact that both Hamilton and Rosberg used an 'ilegal' engine mode confirms that they too ignored an agreement between drivers and team.. And were prepared to disobey a team agreement.

And no 'we' are not Hamilton haters, as a matter of fact he is one of my favourites (after Alonso)..
You just need to open your eyes