Technical information – Monaco Grand Prix

The Moving Circus visits the tight and frightening streets of the Principality of Monaco this weekend. The glamorous venue hosts the sixth round of the intense 2018 Formula One Championship.

Ferrari customer teams Haas and Sauber opted for fresh power unit parts. Both drivers of both teams started the Thrusday practice sessions with a fresh internal combustion engine, turbocharger and MGU-H. Drivers are allowed to use three of those components.

With 21 races this season, each of these components have to complete theoretically seven races. With the early change, Haas and Sauber drivers have to swap their engine components throughout the rest of season, using their first turbocharger, internal combustion engine and MGU-H in practice sessions to avoid grid penalties.

Ferrari has planned to introduce its upgraded power unit in Canada which is the next round of the championship. The early changes of Haas and Sauber and change of components in Kimi Räikkönen’s car prompted by issues during the Spanish GP weekend, means only Sebastian Vettel will get the updated power unit while the other Ferrari-power cars will get them only later in the season.

There were other engine component changes beside the Ferrari camp. Sergio Perez started the race weekend with a new energy store while a new MGU-K was installed in Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.

A number of drivers were caught and penalized for speeding in the pit lane. The pit lane of the Monaco track has a length of 324.7m where drivers have to respect the maximum speed limit of 60kph. Four drivers exceeded the speed limit. Sebastian Vettel was 1kph, Lance Stroll 2.9kph Carlos Sainz 3.2kph, Charles Leclerc 66.4kph faster than the limit. The fines set for the drivers are respectively 100, 300, 400 and 700 EUR.

Nico Hülkenberg, Pierre Gasly, Romain Grosjean and Stoffel Vandoorne did not finish the last race in Montmeló which means they could start the Monaco GP weekend with a fresh gearbox.
Toro Rosso driver Brandon Hartley could also swap his previous gearbox for a new one after he had to replace his previous one during the last event for a spare one.

Pirelli debuted the softest compound of its range, the hypersoft which was believed to be a big jump in performance compared to the second softest compound, the ultrasoft.

Red Bull, Williams and Renault were the most aggressive with their tyre choices, opting for the maximum number of 11 sets of hypersofts and just one-one set of the two other compounds while McLaren proved to be the most conservative with its 9 sets of hypersofts.

After the Thursday practices, every driver was left with the same tyre allocation, one set of supersoft, one set of ultrasoft and nine sets of hypersofts.