Grand Prix thread It's Monaco Baby!!!!

depends who does it

 

That Bubba pit stop entrance may have been the best entry I have ever seen!

 

That one looked painful

 

The problem I have with Monaco is they steadfastly refuse to change the slightest part of their little town to improve the race.

There's 3 or 4 places where a bit of ****ing work might actually create one passing opportunity.

Look at the massive ****ing up the cars drive round.. year on year on year.

Today we had an opportunity to create a classic race but the race director bottled the restarts twice. He waited an hour for no reason at all then sent cars out to jog round and rolling start.

Then a little bit of a race broke out as the track dried with some fun and then .. well... the guy who is staying an f1 seat crashes and they red flag the race and again bottle it when a standing start was fine.

It was then an utter procession to the end.

Surely there's a better way to change this thing up to at least make a straight somewhere. But they won't so I am firmly in the camp if scrub this from existence.

If it had not rained at the start today would f1 have red flagged the race? If the answer is yes then f1 is in real trouble.

 

I have no problem with a rolling start or some caution when it comes to wet races somewhere like here.

A standing start hinders all drivers on a damp line, and go in too early and you risk wiping out all half the field.

There are a couple of spots they could possibly widen the track though, and that somehow has to happen if we want to keep the "jewel in the crown". Because if they insist on making the cars bigger and bigger, we're just going to have more of a procession.

 

I’m torn about Monaco, because I do feel it should be on the “untouchables” list, with Monza, Spa and Silverstone, but it’s hard to justify it as a race.

We used to get passing at Sainte Devote, but I guess the changes to the corner for the pit exit have ended that and passing at the Nouvelle Chicane seems to have dried up in the hybrid era too, probably because the motor torque compensates any low speed exit errors leaving Portier. The fiasco with the start lights this year hasn’t helped its cause either.

Once we got going, I actually didn’t mind the race this year because the weather brought a strategy element in, so things did seem to be going on through the field. I’m simultaneously delighted for Checo and gutted for Charles, made even worse in his case as the only one of the top four to have a “bad result” in the context of the season. Verstappen’s weekend was very mature and the kind of thing his detractors accuse him of not being able to do, so while it’s bad for the championship, It’s good for him to get some reward from that.

 

its called racing though.

if we are that nanny we might as well ban racing in the wet totally.

now lets call a spade a spade here. we had a tragedy this century in Japan due to having loader on the track area so safety is paramount..... however.... if the track isn't safe to race with the cars only and a bit of rain then its not safe period imo.

Roman grosjean accident ffs. how can you predict that.. well.... theres not too many tracks with a big gap between the armco that you cna spear into i suppose. the tyre barriers are actually there.

My point would be don't have a GP weekend unless the whole place is ready for any possibilities. This is why jeddah is a death trap. Theres still no way for cars going 190mph to see a car hit a wall in front.

Monaco in the wet is still monaco. Either its not suited or it is.

my questions would be:

a) was there the ability to get the medivac helicopter to nearest hospital yes/no (this is part of all race weekend issues)
b) was there time to change to full wets. Yes/no... imo yes there was.
c) was there a dry enough track yes/no. imo yes there was. there certainly was by the time they started and they still ****ing had a safety car restart.

the whole point of F1 is its not e-racing. its dangerous stuff.

I could understand the red flag for the schumacher incident. i was actually shocked they didn't drop and instant safety car frnakly. I was also shecoked it took them that long to see the issue with the water drums.

The repair to the barrier wasn't that hard but it would require marshalls etc to go behind the barrier and between it and the hard barrier behind to re-erect the red drums that where scattered in there. That is an unnecessary risk with cars tooling about at 70mph or whatever.

what i cannot accept is a dry track with a safety car rolling restart. Its purely down to luck whos car is where. get on with it. might as well be a kindergarden if we are more concerned with "fairness" and "boo boos".

 

IMO (just imo) theres three of 4 things that could be done here.

a) the chicane needs to go. you barely come out of a fairly short but high speed run thorugh the tunnel and theres no bloody room. theres a run off area down there and a rather stupid set up. theres ****ing trees for **** sake.

Look at the possibilities that exist there to create a drag strip if they were actually serious. We have a barely half car width chicane where people are now tagging the barrier as the new 18" wheels and rims are making it impossible



this could be a genuine passing spot and drs area as you go through the tunnel and pile down the hill. Remove the Trees!!!!

b: saint devote

please log in to view this image

Look at this again. Its extremley narrow on entrance now due to pit lane entry and the "stand. Again there's pointless trees. the entire area could be widened significantly and the pit lan exit moved right out such that this again could be a genuinely wide area where a move might be "attempted"

We can see 3 cars down to 2 and then 1 here and this is #oldendayz now they are so wide this is a 1single car train.

c) they should by right and by policy bring the absolute softest tyres going here. this was down as a one stopper this year. If there was no rain it'd have been an absolutely procession broken up with probably a bit of a dash to pit stops with ferrari just reacting to redbull and then another procession to end.

at the very least force this to be a 2 or 3 stop race and break up the procession into 2 or 3 boring parts.

d)la rascasse

please log in to view this image

Again old cars but look at this ****.

please log in to view this image

Look at how narrow the entry is. it precludes any hope of passing. again the position of the barriers could at least be looked at on the outside. the line taken by all cars is tight and slow round this ****hole resturant. the stand makes the entire track on the entry narrow as hell so you can never get side by side

 

Fair play for having the skill and patience to do this.

 

Pointless trees?

You're kinda forgetting it's an urban area not a race track...

 

they've a choice. cut the blooming things down and make a track or lose the event. simple as.

nobody is asking the Azerbaijanians to knock the castle down... why? cos theres actually passing spots on the track in other zones.

If they want an urban area have an urban area. move the race out of there.

Melbourne did a little to help and still it wasn't good, they resurfaced as well.

this lot actually have a lot of scope at that chicane to dramatically improve the spectacle but they won't. they've never got rid of that horrendous bump or disastrous drainage.

ergo. bye.

 

Just caught some Sky f1 replays and both Latifi and Stroll hit barriers on the Safety Car lap

Astonishing that this pair are in the sport whilst the likes of Piastri are queuing up waiting for their chance.

 

I used to think Stroll was ok based on a few good previous performances in his early career, including some in the wet, but he actually does seem to have been going backwards in the last couple of years…

 

As bad as Stroll may be he’s still better than Mick Schumacher

 

You mean Zhou Guanyu

 

I’ve reported your post for racist language.