Looks to be a ****storm this year, thunderstorms for practice 1 and 2, rain for practice 3 and qualifying and not very clear for Race day.... Good luck predicting who will win this lol... Horner: http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews/2011/5/12072.html Weather: http://www.weather-forecast.com/locations/Monaco/forecasts/latest
I heard Horner say that, I looked at BBC weather and they said thunderstorms for Thursday. weather.co.uk (?) said it would be dry all weekend though. I'd love it if it did rain, it'll be carnage with the Pirellis. I can remember (hazily and with Wikipedia's help) when Panis won and three drivers finished, Hakkinen and Salo picked up points despite colliding five laps before the finish.
Well I haven't seen the BBC go that far into the calender yet so i'm just using the first thing that comes to hand lol.
Well, if it's wet, I would expect ... I don't know lol. I hear the Pirelli wet tyre isn't very good, so it's all about who can get the most out of their car in qualifying/ race. When it comes to that sort of thing, it's hard to overlook Fernando Alonso. Not strictly on topic, but on one of the links, it has Horner saying: "It was a game of chess with Ferrari and in the end we managed to sell them a dummy and get Mark past." That would refer to Alonso's final pit stop. Silly Ferrari!
I don't know about the full wets but apparently the inters are terrible, they displace hardly any water, judging by the tread depth (or lack thereof) on them I imagine the grooved Bridgestones would offer more grip. It'll be interesting to see what they'll do if it's varying conditions, will the full wets last long enough for them to skip the inters altogether and save a stop? It'll be a complete lottery and could easily become a race of attrition. Even for the teams who ran in the wet over the winter it's unexplored territory.
Not only do the drivers have little experience with the wet and inters, but also they dont last long. On one of the Practice sessions (can't remember where - turkey?) it was wet and Alonso did only 5 laps before saying the tyres were finished. Pirelli certainly need to do more work with the wet tyre, but having said that, it will make for very interesting racing.
I completely forgot about the wet morning in Turkey. Hopefully there'll be a bit of rain in Monaco, but it will stay dry enough for them to actually finish the race. Nothing worse than red flags and long safety car periods.
I've just watched a few clips from the Monaco 96 race mentioned, very eventful! I can't remember the last truly wet Monaco (I'm sure it can't have been that long ago), but I'd love to see another as it adds another dimension to an already tough race. If Barcelona was a big test for DRS and the tyres, Monaco is surely the biggest test of the lot. If Pirelli and DRS manage to produce some interesting overtakes in Monaco, then things will be very interesting. I think the tyres will be a much bigger factor than DRS, but it'd be very welcome if some overtaking on track occurred!
DRS is already banned in wet conditions due to safety. KERS will be interesting though --- in qualifying, a driver who has confidence in his car (Vettel for example) may get a bit ... overambitious with his KERS and spin.
Well then, what happens when the cars are coming in every 10 laps to change their wets, do we then maybe suggest Pirelli make their wets a little better wearing
Or at least bring some more of them to the race, I think teams have three sets of wets and four sets of inters for the entitre weekend, it could be disastrous.
The forecast looks clear on most sites now: UK Weather / BBC / Weather Forecasts Saturday looks to be the trickiest day with strong breezes and cool temperatures. There is a small possibility of showers for qualifying but race day improves again.
