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The Monaco Grand Prix is all about peaks and troughs, from the utter delight of winning the most prestigious race on the calendar to the depths of depression when it all slips away. Just consider the last two seasons of its 75 year history; Ricciardo’s pole position and seemingly safe win twelve months ago destroyed by a late call on which type of slicks to use for the remainder of the race, only for those slicks to be hidden away in the back of the Red Bull garage. Or Hamilton’s certain victory in 2015 wiped out by a late dash to the pit lane under Safety Car which allowed both Rosberg and Vettel to pass. Everything is on a knife edge in Monaco, from drivers teetering on the limit of adhesion next to Armco barriers, to the pressure in the cramped pit lane for mechanics, and even the make-or-break commercial deals that can be sealed on the deck of a multi million pound yacht. There is nothing quite like Monaco and it holds a very special place on the F1 calendar.
Mind you, some folk would also accuse it of being dull; a track on which it is almost impossible to overtake, where’s the fun in that? The fun is in seeing who balances on that edge and who falls off. Who makes a miniscule mistake that wipes out a weekend’s work, who has the courage and committment to brush the barriers in qualifying and then stay within those walls in the race. The tales of woe here are endless: Alberto Ascari crashing into the harbour while leading in 1955; the fatal accident of Lorenzo Bandini when hustling his Ferrari in 1967; Jack Brabham spinning out of the lead on the final corner in 1970; Jim Clark suffering mechanical problems on various occasions denying him a single victory despite being on pole position four times; Damon Hill missing out on backing up his father’s five wins when his engine let go in 1996. Ricciardo’s misery last year and Hamilton’s the year before were not isolated incidents on these unforgiving streets. Positive stories also emerge, however, and sometimes from the most unlikely sources. Two French drivers, virtually on home soil, enjoyed their only ever Grand Prix victories here in wet conditions. Jean-Pierre Beltoise mastered horrendous weather in 1972 in his BRM while Olivier Panis stunned everyone by winning in a Ligier in 1996 and so unexpected was his success, he had to borrow a suit for the presentation dinner that evening. Stirling Moss famously fended off both Ferraris in a slower Lotus in 1961 but Ferrari had enjoyed their own surprise win in 1955 when both Mercedes broke down, Ascari disappeared beneath the waves as we have already established, and Maurice Trintignant, then a 37yo journeyman racer who had never won before, took the first of his two wins in the Principality. However, it’s a long time since Ferrari last won around here. 2001 to be precise, a 16 year gap which funnily enough is the same gap they had between wins in 1981 (Gilles Villeneuve) and 1997 (Michael Schumacher). Sebastian Vettel reckons they will be in the fight for pole position this year and if so, there’s every chance of that elusive victory. But Mercedes have won the last four in a row on these streets and this is a racer’s circuit, a chancer’s playground where Hamilton not only feels at home - he IS at home.
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The latest instalment of Vettel vs Hamilton will be the primary focus this weekend as the top two in the points duke it out on one of the most lapped circuits in F1 history. But there are many other scenarios lurking beneath the headlines, and several drivers to keep an eye on. Fernando Alonso. With all the stories building up to his Indy 500 encounter in a couple of weeks time, it’s hard to ignore Alonso, and he’s doing his best to make sure he’s always being talked about. This weekend he races at his home circuit, the track where he last won a Grand Prix all the way back in 2013. Since that day, Lewis Hamilton has won 33 GP which is one more than Alonso has won in his entire career. This weekend will also mark his 50th start since he last stood on the podium, and his 75th since that victory here. So far this season, he has failed to see the chequered flag in any of the four races and he didn’t even make the start in Russia. But he is still worth watching here; last season he put the McLaren-Honda combination into Q3 for the first time and although the Honda is lacking in power, the chassis makes a much bigger contribution on the Barcelona circuit. Reliability is still a bugbear, and there may be grid penalties for engine parts, but Fernando can be relied upon to deliver something special here in Spain. Carlos Sainz. The other Spaniard in the mix, and like Fernando he seems to relish the home support rather than be intimidated by it. His best ever F1 qualifying performance was here in 2015 when he put the car 5th on the grid, outqualifying his then team mate Max Verstappen, while his best race result was also delivered here in 2016 when he finished 6th, a result he went on to repeat in both Austin and Brazil. He’s had a pretty solid start to the season, highlighted by the choice to start on slicks in the wet in China against the wishes of his team, and Shanghai delivered his best result so far in 7th. He blotted his copy book by running into Stroll in Bahrain, but the Williams is a quick car, and there must have been a sense of urgency to pass it promptly when he came out of the pits; sadly his timing was out. That put him three places further back on the grid in Russia and yet he was still able to score the final point. This year’s Toro Rosso is a sound car, and it should show well on the Barcelona layout. He will be targeting a top 10 start, achieved only once so far this year, and another helping of points to keep Toro Rosso ahead of Haas. Valtteri Bottas. He came of age as a Grand Prix driver in Russia and he has been able to go home and build up to the start of the European season with a sense of a job well done. For all fans of the sport, he couldn’t really have timed it any better, as he is now a serious contender and has proved that, like Rosberg, he can take Lewis on and beat him when it all clicks into place on his side of the garage. There will be a sense of relief and of belief that it can be done again. But will it be Mercedes or Ferrari that set the pace this weekend? The Silver Arrows have qualified 1-2 here for the past 4 years and that sequence began before the introduction of the hybrid V6 engines; their car should have good stability in the fast corners and in recent years they have been mighty in the twisty final sector. But the Ferrari is good on tyres, and the combination of surface and layout do present a harsh proving ground. Add in the unknown elements of upgrades on both cars and it would appear to be a wide open contest between the top two teams going into this one. Romain Grosjean. The Haas is fundamentally a good car, an impressive follow-up after the team’s debut season in 2016, but Grosjean doesn’t yet have a great deal to show for it; one finish in the points in Bahrain and a fine 6th place on the grid in Australia which sadly wasn’t converted into a result. Russia was one of those events that just didn’t come together for him, and the frustrations over the radio were growing throughout the weekend, before it all ended on the first lap in a clash with Palmer. Expect to see a rejuvenated Grosjean in Spain, on a circuit where the car showed well in testing and where Grosjean qualified 3rd in the Lotus back in 2012. He scored some useful points here in 2014 and 2015, but was only 14th on the grid last year and retired early with brake problems. They are still trying to get the brakes right, but aero balance will be more crucial here and that should be a benefit. The Frenchman will want to start the European season in style. Jolyon Palmer. The other half of the contretemps in Russia, and a driver who has had a miserable start to the season. Two accidents in qualifying, reliability problems, getting caught out by yellow flags, you name it, and it has probably happened. On top of that, his team mate Nico Hulkenberg is relishing his new environment and making the most of tyres that can be pushed hard, an area of his game that suffered with the previous Pirellis. Jolyon is mentally resilient as he proved last year, when a similarly difficult start to the season was converted into a sequence of decent results in the second half, sufficient to persuade Renault to retain him for this year. But he will need all of that mental strength to cut through the chatter in the background and deliver for what is now a full manufacturer effort with big budgets and big targets. Russian driver Sergey Sirotkin will be driving Jolyon’s car in first practice, just to make life even more difficult but this is a circuit they all know intimately, so he shouldn’t be phased about losing that 90 minute session. What counts is qualifying and the race, and that’s where his best efforts must lie. |
AuthorF1 commentator Ben Edwards sets out some thoughts. Archives
May 2018
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