Monaco stands out on its own in the F1 calendar.
It is rightly billed as the most glamorous event on the calendar, with the rich and famous able to watch proceedings from their own yachts or the balconies overlooking the circuit.
The circuit itself it unique – this is a road race that winds its way around tight and twisty corners, down harbourside streets and even into a tunnel. There are no run-off areas here, teams are lucky if they even get a good trackside garage.
Even the race timetable is different from the other races. First practice takes place on Thursday and no action takes place on Friday.
At the end of the race a rostrum replaces the podium and winners have to be careful not to spray any Champaign in the direction of the prince.
This is the slowest of all the grand prix, but the most racy in terms of advertising. It is the race which team sponsors get invited to the most. It is also the most important of all race venues for advertising purposes. And advertising can take on surprising twists. A few years ago a Jaguar car had a diamond embedded in its nose cone, and nobody seems to know what happened to it after a crash.
Last year Red Bull used the event to promote the Superman movie and David Coulthard obliged by placing third and going up for his trophy wearing a Superman cloak. This year the McLaren drivers will wear diamond studded helmets by team sponsor Steinmetz.
But even without all the glitz which makes Monaco special, this race’s event has assumed great importance because of the way the championship has evolved.
Briton Lewis Hamilton heads the championship even though he has still to win a race. Reigning champion and teammate Fernando Alonso is two points behind and reportedly still fuming over the first corner incident in his home race in Barcelona on May 13.
The man who got the better of that incident, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa is third, three points behind Hamilton, despite having won two of the four races so far, and Kimi Raikkonen dropped to fourth after his electrical problems at the last race.
All could be heading the table by the time the Monaco race is over. Although this is Hamilton’s first year in F1, he has raced in Monaco three times before in Formula 3 and GP2, and won each race.
Alonso won last year and Raikkonen the year before, for Renault and McLaren respectively. Massa’s best result here has been a fifth for Sauber.
The Monaco race has often been likened to a lottery – slower teams almost have as much chance of winning points here as the faster ones because the focus is not on speed as much as on downforce, set-up, tyres and, of course, the drivers’ ability to avoid the barriers. Accidents are common and the safety car has made an appearance in the last four races. Luck, therefore, plays a major part too.
It is a circuit where overtaking is extremely difficult and getting it right in the qualifying session is therefore half the job done. Yet the weatherman says it might rain this Saturday afternoon!
Last year’s was one of the most controversial qualifying sessions in recent times, with Michael Schumacher “parking” his Ferrari in the last corner, denying a charging Alonso. The stewards sent the German to the back of the grid. Alonso got pole and victory but Schumacher repented for his actions – if they were wilful – with an outstanding performance that saw him carve his way into the points.
The former champion is expected to make an appearance at the Ferrari garage again after having showed up in Barcelona. Mika Hakkinen lives round the corner, and he too could pop down, to the McLaren garage, as he has done before.
BMW appear to have a particularly good chance of doing well in this race, if their reliability holds, given their superb mechanical grip. They also plan to introduce new power steering and other upgrades in Monaco following the successful debut of their new front wing in Barcelona.
One has to see if the slightly longer wheelbase on the Ferraris will have any impact. Testing at Paul Ricard last week makes that unlikely.
Red Bull have been improving and this is something of a second home race for Briton David Coulthard, a Monaco resident who has won this race twice. He is likely to be in the mix with the Renaults and the Toyotas. Jarno Trulli, especially, seems to like this circuit but Toyota team-mate Ralph Schumacher has never hidden his disdain for it.
Further back, Honda have again said they expect improvement. Rubens Barrichello has gone so far as to say that following the Paul Ricard tests, he expects the car to be half a second faster! Their’s has been a dismal season so far and there have been several reports this week of the team trying to rebuild its technical department, with approaches even to Ross Brawn, the former Ferrari technical director now on a sabbatical. Nigel Stepney, unhappy at the Scuderia, could also be heading that way.
Worth looking out for this weekend would be Adrian Sutil in the Spyker, he had a brilliant race in F3 here last year.
It all makes for a very interesting weekend.
It is rightly billed as the most glamorous event on the calendar, with the rich and famous able to watch proceedings from their own yachts or the balconies overlooking the circuit.
The circuit itself it unique – this is a road race that winds its way around tight and twisty corners, down harbourside streets and even into a tunnel. There are no run-off areas here, teams are lucky if they even get a good trackside garage.
Even the race timetable is different from the other races. First practice takes place on Thursday and no action takes place on Friday.
At the end of the race a rostrum replaces the podium and winners have to be careful not to spray any Champaign in the direction of the prince.
This is the slowest of all the grand prix, but the most racy in terms of advertising. It is the race which team sponsors get invited to the most. It is also the most important of all race venues for advertising purposes. And advertising can take on surprising twists. A few years ago a Jaguar car had a diamond embedded in its nose cone, and nobody seems to know what happened to it after a crash.
Last year Red Bull used the event to promote the Superman movie and David Coulthard obliged by placing third and going up for his trophy wearing a Superman cloak. This year the McLaren drivers will wear diamond studded helmets by team sponsor Steinmetz.
But even without all the glitz which makes Monaco special, this race’s event has assumed great importance because of the way the championship has evolved.
Briton Lewis Hamilton heads the championship even though he has still to win a race. Reigning champion and teammate Fernando Alonso is two points behind and reportedly still fuming over the first corner incident in his home race in Barcelona on May 13.
The man who got the better of that incident, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa is third, three points behind Hamilton, despite having won two of the four races so far, and Kimi Raikkonen dropped to fourth after his electrical problems at the last race.
All could be heading the table by the time the Monaco race is over. Although this is Hamilton’s first year in F1, he has raced in Monaco three times before in Formula 3 and GP2, and won each race.
Alonso won last year and Raikkonen the year before, for Renault and McLaren respectively. Massa’s best result here has been a fifth for Sauber.
The Monaco race has often been likened to a lottery – slower teams almost have as much chance of winning points here as the faster ones because the focus is not on speed as much as on downforce, set-up, tyres and, of course, the drivers’ ability to avoid the barriers. Accidents are common and the safety car has made an appearance in the last four races. Luck, therefore, plays a major part too.
It is a circuit where overtaking is extremely difficult and getting it right in the qualifying session is therefore half the job done. Yet the weatherman says it might rain this Saturday afternoon!
Last year’s was one of the most controversial qualifying sessions in recent times, with Michael Schumacher “parking” his Ferrari in the last corner, denying a charging Alonso. The stewards sent the German to the back of the grid. Alonso got pole and victory but Schumacher repented for his actions – if they were wilful – with an outstanding performance that saw him carve his way into the points.
The former champion is expected to make an appearance at the Ferrari garage again after having showed up in Barcelona. Mika Hakkinen lives round the corner, and he too could pop down, to the McLaren garage, as he has done before.
BMW appear to have a particularly good chance of doing well in this race, if their reliability holds, given their superb mechanical grip. They also plan to introduce new power steering and other upgrades in Monaco following the successful debut of their new front wing in Barcelona.
One has to see if the slightly longer wheelbase on the Ferraris will have any impact. Testing at Paul Ricard last week makes that unlikely.
Red Bull have been improving and this is something of a second home race for Briton David Coulthard, a Monaco resident who has won this race twice. He is likely to be in the mix with the Renaults and the Toyotas. Jarno Trulli, especially, seems to like this circuit but Toyota team-mate Ralph Schumacher has never hidden his disdain for it.
Further back, Honda have again said they expect improvement. Rubens Barrichello has gone so far as to say that following the Paul Ricard tests, he expects the car to be half a second faster! Their’s has been a dismal season so far and there have been several reports this week of the team trying to rebuild its technical department, with approaches even to Ross Brawn, the former Ferrari technical director now on a sabbatical. Nigel Stepney, unhappy at the Scuderia, could also be heading that way.
Worth looking out for this weekend would be Adrian Sutil in the Spyker, he had a brilliant race in F3 here last year.
It all makes for a very interesting weekend.