Monaco Grand Prix - Monte Carlo

[René]

The annual carousel in the principality is just around the corner. Lots of glitz and glamor and little overtaking, but it's still a classic on the calendar. It is actually unbelievable that today's cars still fit through the streets and corners at all, but overtaking was almost impossible in the past as well.... almost.



It is the home race for Charles Leclerc and he is always spectacularly fast here, but so far without success. Luck has not been on his side so far, not only in F1 but also in the lower classes. Leclerc's Monaco jinx! All the more reason to put an end to that this year! He will certainly have a shot at pole position and pole at Monaco is more than half the win! Go Charles!

[René]

You are all required to vote for Charles. 

[chrisb]

Sorry Rene I selected George and then read your invitation sorry instruction ,

Irrespective of how outdated the circuit is for these cars there is still something magical about Monaco isn’t there? Especially in qualifying

Rene you may have done something like this previously but I was wondering how size wise these current F1 cars compare with the pre war Mercedes and auto union

[Carl]

May 24, 2023 18:17:28 GMT René said:

You are all required to vote for Charles. 

A similar coercive message was used to keep de Gaulle in the Élysée Palace:

"Vous devez tous voter pour Charles ou son gros nez présidentiel vous dénichera!"

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[René]

Outrageous, my authority is simply undermined! 

[chrisb]

Apologies el president, now duly corrected

[René]

May 27, 2023 12:05:26 GMT chrisb said:

Apologies el president, now duly corrected

Ha ha, no one ever called me that! But thanks Chris, Charles will need it starting from 3rd.

But wow, that was an electrifying qualy with some outstanding driving, especially the top 4! First Esteban taking pole, then Charles doing another amazing lap, then Fernando going even a fraction faster en then that amazing last sector from Max. Didn't think he would make up two tenth in one sector but he did so very deserved I must say. This is gonna be good! 

[René]

And what about Sergio!? He can only hope now that Max doesn't finish to keep his championship dreams alive.... 

[chrisb]

You never know Rene maybe tefllonso and the max will take each other out and Charles will waltz to a well deserved victory

[René]

Damn, Leclerc has been handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Lando Norris on his fast lap. The frustrating part is that Charles did nothing wrong but the team messed up by not warning him about traffic behind. Do you really need to penalize the driver for this? On this track where grid position is so important? Damn. 

[René]

The Monaco curse continues for Charles. All the more reason to win tomorrow! Forza!

[Carl]

There is no longer any open space in Monte Carlo. The small open spaces that once existed have been erased as adjacent buildings are either extended or replaced by ones encompassing an extra fifty square feet. Development has even encroached on the sea with fifteen acres of landfill outside the Portier Corner. Soon, land will be sold by the square inch.

The Hotel de Paris has clearly been extensively remodeled, pretending to tradition with a shallow facade on Casino Square, once spacious balconies now stubs extending a few feet. Because the suite where I shared romantic delight with Jessica Walter during the filming of "Grand Prix" almost certainly no longer exists, $2,500 per day no longer seems reasonable and I've cancelled my reservation for a week in August.

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Today's longer and wider F1 on so narrow a track, more confined than ever by massive walls, is a charade. If they won't swallow their pride and change to F3, the principality should focus on coddling the idle rich.

[mikael]

Yes, on TV, F3 and F2 provide much neater racing in Monaco - they are much better suited for such a track. However, it's remarkable how much faster F1 actually is. Here are the best qualification times, for comparison:

F3: (G. Minì): 1:23.278

F2: (F. Vesti): 1:21.053

F1: (M. Verstappen): 1:11.365

Ten seconds faster than F2, per lap - in Monaco! Remarkable, really!

[mikael]

There is again a rather large gap between the pole position (PP) lap time and the fastest race lap time - this year, in Monaco, more than a 4 seconds difference. It has been like this in other eras as well; but the closer they are, the more exciting the racing is, I think.

At the end of the V10 era, these two times were very close; in 2004, the fastest race lap was within 0.5 sec. of the PP time. Just for comparison, in 1965 the two times were within a second while, most interestingly, in 1966 they were virtually identical. (Actually, the fastest race lap time was 1/10 sec. faster than the PP lap time!)

(P.S.: All times are for the Monaco GP.)

(Source: Wikipedia)

[René]

I only saw the start of both the Monaco GP and the Indy 500 live and watched the rest later. Funnily enough, my wife's birthday is always during this race weekend! I've already suggested to her to celebrate her birthday on a different day, but she thought that was strange. No idea why..

But joking aside, no one can match Max and Red Bull at the moment. A top driver at the top of his game in the best car. We've seen it before, of course, but Max is extremely dominant. I am impressed with Alonso because his career started a long time ago with completely different cars and he is still great. Of course that also applies, albeit to a lesser extent, to Hamilton who entered F1 a little later. But they don't have the car to match the RB and that also applies to Leclerc. Ferrari seems to be going backwards, although here again the strategy did not go well and a podium should have been possible. But winning is out of the question for now. 

The cars have indeed become crazy fast. That is technically fantastic and the quality of the drivers is also formidable, but it is not good for racing as we have often concluded.
Do you remember the race at the Circuit of the Americas a few years ago where an IndyCar race was also held on the exact same track a few weeks earlier? The Formula 1 cars were about 15 seconds faster per lap! That means that even the slowest F1 car will start lapping the IndyCar field within seven laps! Madness.