Round 6 - Monaco 2015 - Delayed Review

Greetings Internet, 

Due an increasing number of rehearsals, everything else had to be rescheduled slightly, and given how late it is tonight this shall be a slightly abridged version of the conventional review post...

It could be said that F1 is a game of percentages, from setting the brake bias front to rear, to filtering out the slowest possible cars in qualifying. Most of the time those percentages are very small, only amounting to fractions of a second, tiniest changes in wing angle and tyre pressure. This season's Monaco GP could be forensically examined - and in one pit stall it certainly will be - to break down those percentages and figures into explanations and reasoning. From here on the sofa those percentages were a lot bigger, wherein the race was 75% dull and forgettable but 25% baffling and inexplicable. And here miles away from anything that matters, out in the wilderness of Northern England it doesn't matter too much if I get those percentages slightly wrong. But when you are sitting on the pit-wall in charge of the leading car in one of the most important races of the season, you have to get those numbers exactly right. Down to the tiniest of all percentages. So when the margins are so small, the margins between victory and defeat, between success and failure - it becomes so easy to look like a bit of a prat. We wouldn't expect the most successful team at present make such fools of themselves now would we... It could be said that there is a certain benefit of having your drivers live in Monaco, because you don't have to endure the awkward flight back to the factory.

The Race

This may be a race of 78 laps, and over 260km but on the streets the most important distance of all stretches from the start line to the entry of St Devote. That is the best opportunity to gain an advantage, and sometimes it is the only opportunity. Often they say that a race cannot be won at the first corner, but in Monaco you can come very close to sealing victory before a single lap has been completed. Despite not getting a strong launch at the start of the formation lap, Hamilton made a far batter start than he did in Spain. Both Red Bulls made strong starts only to find there was no space in front of them - as Ricciardo was blocked by Vettel he lost a place to Kvyat on the inside. Everyone made it through turn one intact - barring a slight collision between Maldonado and Massa in the middle of the pack causing a puncture on the Williams. Further round the lap Alonso attempted a pass down the inside of Nico Hulkenberg but lost control of the McLaren and nudged the Force India into the wall. Hulkenberg lost his front wing but could recover to the pits for a new one. Alonso would later receive a pit-stop penalty for the collision

A couple of laps into the race Lotus were having discussions with Pastor Maldonado: Road Warrior about the state of his brakes. The team claimed they were OK, while Pastor was far less convinced. A lack of braking capability was exploited by Mad Max Verstappen who made an excellent pass down the inside of the Lotus in St Devote. Pastor held on round the outside, brushing the wall almost but had to cede the position. If only Max remembered how to overtake a Lotus which was struggling to decelerate later in the race... but then again if he did, the outcome of the race wouldn't have been nearly quite so amusing. Within a few laps of losing the place to the Toro Rosso, Maldonado had to bring the car into the pits to retire from the race, a hydraulic failure was reducing the braking efficiency and would have utimately damaged the gearbox. Grosjean had already suffered a grid penalty after replacing a gearbox so Lotus could do without another one.

After the opening shenanigans, it was very calm - Hamilton was building a lead from Rosberg with Vettel not too much father behind. But in the midst of the calm feint concerns were building for Mercedes, Hamilton was informed that one of his front brakes was outside it's temperature window. So Lewis was instructed to conserve front brakes for a little while. It does say something when the most intriguing development at the front was a hotter than usual bit of brake material. The messages went on for some while - and given that Monaco is a track with very few straight bits - so it does indicate that Hamilton doesn't mind people talking to him during the corners... as long as he is winning. 

While it was predicted to be a single stop race, several drivers towards the lower reaches of the order opted to pit early, probably an effort to get out of traffic in the middle of the pack. Bolting on the softer, faster tyres while in clean air to gain any faint scent of an advantage. Bottas, Ericsson and Sainz - who had to start from the pit-lane - were amongst the early stoppers. Over the coming laps - Nasr and Grosjean joined the list of drivers trying the alternate strategy. In the end it sort of stops being recognised as an alternate strategy when everyone starts doing it. But those at the very front of the field showed no signs of coming in. They were too busy handling the lapped traffic, predominantly the Manor GP cars, which for once were actually getting some TV coverage for their sponsors... if they had any. People of the internet, if you conveniently have several million quid lying about - feel free to sponsor Manor to get something interesting on their slightly bland livery. 

The discussions of pit strategies, and the lack of stickers on the Manor car are a clear indication that this phase of the race was quite dull, which is always a risk at Monaco. A lot of the images showed cars with no-one anywhere near them - there was a shot of Sergio Perez, who had forward and rear facing cameras and all we could see was blank track either side. The only battle on track was between Raikkonen and Ricciardo which was over 5th and 6th place - the Finn appeared to be considerably faster than the Red Bull, but because this is Monaco overtaking requires a much greater pace difference. The rest of the field started to run through their pit stop sequences, which didn't work out too well for Mad Max Verstappen, who lost 20 seconds as the team had some issues with a jammed wheel nut. This dropped the dutchman a long way down the field. In a world where pitting first in a battle often hands you an advantage on track, Raikkonen was running against the grain. In his fight with the Australian, Ricciardo pitted first but the Ferrari driver took the place away from the Red Bull.

With the pit stops all done the longest stint of the race was upon us, and it was a stint that was to last to the end of the race, which meant positions had to be made on track. Well that was the idea anyway, and things never really go to plan these days - instead we had a stint that was mostly composed of various drivers just building a gap to each other and negotiating lapped traffic. This might seem a little uninteresting, and for the most part you'd be right - but the task of negotiating the lapped cars often brings with it a set of amusing radio calls. Radio calls that generally involve Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn was on top form once more as he was swearing at the slower runners as they impeded his quest of hunting down Daniil Kvyat in the leading Red Bull. One car that didn't have to face the challenge of doing any lappery or face being lapped was Fernando Alonso's McLaren - Emperor Dennis likely finds Honda's lack of reliability... Disturbing. At least Darth Button was still on course to score the McLaren Empire's first points of 2015.

As Vettel was negotiating his way through some of the lapped traffic, something devious was occurring. Mad Max Verstappen was stalking the Ferrari whilst being on fresher tyres. So as Vettel lapped a car, Max followed the Ferrari through and claimed the place - his first victim was his team-mate Carlos Sainz on the exit of Rascasse. This was followed up by a pass on Bottas in the first part of Portier. The folk at Lotus noticed what was happening and informed Grosjean - the next car to be lapped - of Verstappen's strategy. As Vettel lapped Romain at the Loews Hairpin, he eased back across just enough to prevent Mad Max from repeating his latest trick. Verstappen was considerably quicker than the Lotus, but he had to make it past on his own this time in his pursuit of the final world championship point. After a couple of laps of stalking the Lotus, Mad Max Verstappen decided to strike. Sitting in the DRS aided slipstream Max was aiming for a pass in St Devote. However there was a minor problem - he missed. Instead he clipped the rear of Romain's car tearing off his left front wheel before slamming into the barriers in St Devote. The impact buried the car in the TecPro padding, and the accident as a whole illustrated the vast differences in the levels of robustness between front and rear suspension pieces. Grosjean's car was completely undamaged and drove away. But if Verstappen's suspension hadn't failed on impact the Toro Rosso would probably have been launched into the air which would have been a very dangerous accident.

For a brief period of time a virtual safety car was called, as had been used in the GP2 races to clear up accidents. But once the marshals noted that the Toro Rosso was deeply embedded in the wall, the virtual safety car was upgraded to a real safety car. I bet Maylander in the safety car was rather pleased to find out that he was no longer virtual and existed in the real world. 

This is when things went quite a lot wrong, with so many cars a lap down and large gaps between cars several teams and drivers opted for a final pitstop. Putting the faster tyres on for a final sprint for the end. But that strategy is generally reserved for those cars who have someone in front of them they want to pass. Not for those cars who are in the lead, but no-one told Mercedes this - and inexplicably they brought Hamilton in for new tyres. Lewis rejoined in third place... and as he fell in line behind Vettel's Ferrari the magnitude of Mercedes' monumental cock up became evident. They had made an unnecessary pit-stop and cost their lead driver the win - all because they miscalculated his lead by 3.5s. Several radio messages allowed it all to sink in, Lewis asked his team if he had lost the race, and what happens next. To save face the team simply responded with a comment on his superior tyre condition... slightly ignoring the fact that you could have strapped jet engines to Hamilton's Mercedes and overtaking would still be very difficult.

In the few laps that remained after the restart, Hamilton didn't even come close to completing a pass on any of the cars in front. Ricciardo on the other hand did make progress - firstly dealing with Kimi Raikkonen. Daniel nudged the Ferrari out of the way, to which Kimi was not pleased summed up beautifully in another comic radio message. The Finn told his team that he was hit out of the way and the fact that Ricciardo was "not very nice" - so being a lapped car is an offence which deserves all manner of expletives, but a bump and run pass is just, not very nice. Ricciardo followed this up with a choreographed overtake on Daniil Kvyat to allow the Australian to make a final charge on Hamilton... who was still stuck behind Vettel. After it became evident that Ricciardo wasn't going to be able to steal the final podium spot, he allowed Daniil to take the place back which the othe Dan borrowed a few laps earlier. 

By virtue of an almighty strategic balls up, Rosberg claimed a third consecutive Monaco GP win, crossing the line ahead of Sebastian Vettel. An understandably grumpy Hamilton finished third - before pulling over at Portier to contemplate the meaning of life. Eventually he rejoined the rest of the podium finishers on the main straight - ramming into the 3rd place marker board in indignation. Outside the podium Kvyat took a career best 4th place, ahead of Ricciardo and Raikkonen. Perez took an anonymous but impressive 7th. Darth Button scored McLaren's first points this year. Despite not being spotted on TV all race, Felipe 'Fred' Nasr appeared in 9th place, while Carlos Sainz completed a pit lane to points finish.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

In a race which was mostly only good for looking at pictures of the scenery and watching cars driving all by themselves between the barriers... it becomes difficult to pick enough people to give points to. But here goes.

• 25pts - Carlos Sainz Jnr - Pits to points in Monaco is definitely an achievement with so few retirements
• 18pts - Daniil Kvyat - A career best 4th place and an excellent move on Riccardo in turn one
• 15pts - Mad Max Verstappen - Before it all went a bit pants, he made the best passes of the day, and employed a brilliant and devious plan
• 12pts - Sergio Perez - Although he did have an anonymous race, keeping the Force India in the points is a good day for a team lacking development
• 10pts - Darth Button - First points for the McLaren Empire in 2015
• 8pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Scores a helping of points for a brace of amusing radio messages
• 6pts - Romain Grosjean - Scores points for his brilliant defence of Verstappen's devious use of Vettel's Ferrari to pass cars
• 4pts - Sebastian Vettel - For being the only happy chap in the post-race interview, his daft grinning face was priceless
• 2pts - Red Bull - For a team who have been so grumpy and petty, they were pretty sporting today in allowing Kvyat to take 4th place back
• 1pt - Roberto Mehri - Takes home the final championship point for finally being able to beat Will Stevens for the first time in 2015

• -1pt - Mercedes - I don't even need to justify this penalty point

Looking ahead to Canada

With one highly anticipated race over and done with, another is lined up in two week's time. The Canadian GP in many respects has a far more exciting reputation than the Monaco GP, generally because the base line performance of a Canadian race is often far higher than that of the Monaco equivalent. A standard Monaco GP is very similar to the first 60 laps of Sundays race, inactive and bland. Whereas a standard Canadian GP brings a little extra to the party, so when things get a little chaotic the level of entertainment is turned up to 11. The infamous four hour epic race of 2011 will live long in the memory of those who witnessed it - and after staying up all night watching the Le Mans 24hr that weekend it was just the sort of race I needed to keep me awake. Le Mans may be scheduled not to conflict with the F1 calander these days, but something of that echelon would be much appreciated. And it will be interesting to see if any of the Mercedes pit-wall conveniently go missing in the intervening period.