Monaco F1 *SPOILER* Thread
 

I've waited patiently. I need to talk about today's race.

It seems to me, Hamilton very intentionally handed Nico the win by holding the field back to allow for his pit stop.

I also kind of wonder what the deal is with Pirelli's "private" tire tests...

The FIA statement in full:
“At the beginning of May, the FIA was asked by Pirelli if it was possible for it to carry out some tyre development testing with a team, using a current car. Within the contract Pirelli has with the FIA as single supplier, there is provision for them to carry out up to 1000km of testing with any team - provided every team is offered the opportunity to do so.

“Pirelli and Mercedes-AMG were advised by the FIA that such a development test could be possible if carried out by Pirelli, as opposed to the team that would provide the car and driver, and that such tests would be conditional upon every team being given the same opportunity to test in order to ensure full sporting equity.

“Following this communication, the FIA received no further information about a possible test from Pirelli or from Mercedes-AMG. Furthermore, the FIA received no confirmation that all teams had been given an opportunity to take part in this test.

“In addition, with regard to the application of the sport’s rules, including principles of sporting equity, it should be remembered that the International Sporting Code provides that on the basis of a report of the stewards of the meeting, or on its own initiative, the prosecuting body of the FIA may bring a matter before the International Tribunal.

“The Tribunal may decide to inflict penalties that would supercede any penalty the stewards of the meeting may have issued. Such procedure would be followed in pursuance of the FIA Judicial and Disciplinary Rules.”

My understanding is that Ferrari had such a private test earlier in the season.

I'll need to look for news on that. But as you know F1 politics will have this all screwed up.

Payback for Malaysia. It is ostensibly a team sport. Some teams are more teamish than others.

Considering it knocked him back off the podium, that was a nice move. That being said I'm not sure he could have held off either Vettel or Weber. Cool win for the Rosberg's and the Silver Arrows.

I finally managed to watch most of the race after my TiVo got the time wrong on one try and didn't record long enough on another try. Weird. Anyway, I thought it was rather uneventful. As long as Hamilton was willing to hold up the Red Bulls, Rosberg would hold the lead. The safety car periods and pit stops took away Rosberg's rearguard, but then with fresh tires and it being Monaco, it would still have been quite a job for Vettel to pass. Plus Vettel is not the world's most daring passer - his best work seems to be done from P1. It's not like Rosberg had Kimi or Alonso dogging him. I love the Monaco GP for the spectacle, but for it to be a good race, I always hope for rain.

I was impressed by the balls of the one mid-packer (I think it was Sutil) who consistently dive-bombed people at the hairpin.

But overall, it was Monaco. That is to say it was a really fast parade with pretty cars.

RE Hamilton's pitstop: I missed that part of the race, but in the post race they said if he had not slowed down he would have been waiting in the pits for Rosberg to clear out. True?

Hamilton had allowed a gap to Nico then came the pit stop window. He was advised to close the gap to be closer to Nico to give him (Lewis) a chance to exit the pits ahead of the Red Bull cars. Hamilton did not close the gap enough and when they brought them in for tires, you could see the gap from the time Nico left the pit box to the time Lewis came down the pit lane. That was about the same time between Seb passing the exit to pit lane and Lewis rejoining the track.
Lewis said later in an interview he didn't realize how critical the timing was and he should have been closer to Nico.

Best
Les

Think that may have been Sergio Perez for McLaren.

Romain Grosjean apparently had trouble with his depth perception again. He is going to seriously injure someone one day with his poor judgment.

thats some funny stuff sir :D

Meh, there have been plenty before him. Michael Andretti bent a few. There was Andre de Crasheras. Grosjean will come about.

And did you see his bit in qualifying? 4 minutes to go and he jumps in a car that had just been assembled, goes out and sets fast lap for the session up to that point. Sure, several drivers were on a cooker and upped the ante, but he was in the hunt with a 3 lap drive.

Nope, he was thinking of Sutil. He had more success with his passes than the fiesty little Mexican.

Don't give either of them too much credit, though. As Alonso pointed out, you can do that sort of thing if you have nothing to lose. I'f you're trying to win the title, discretion is the preferred choice.

Kimi got lucky...

JR

That's what I was thinking. When you have nothing to lose, you can take bigger risks.