[Official] Monaco Grand Prix 2016: Grand Prix Weekend Thread

[MarkG]

Agreed, this race was Danny Ric's, he was the master of Monaco this weekend, and it was taken away from him by an unbelievable team blunder. Without this blunder he would have been way ahead of the sulk and there wouldn't have been a chicane incident . It was this blunder that made me make a general comment about F1 conspiracies. There may be some wild conspiracy theories out there I agree, but what isn't wild speculation, is that there's a lot of bull and lies in F1, and I believe Mercedes' saying Rosberg had brake issues is either baloney or a lie. It looked to me in the early laps that Rosberg was driving with the championship in mind, he had his nearest threat behind him. Whether he then became a pasty for Mercedes I do not know, but that's what I suspect.

[bauble]

In Spain Mercedes gifted Red Bull a win by making a mistake, so at Monaco Red Bull simply repaid the favour!

Simple explanation, no conspiracy theories required.

[Adam43]

Presumably Max has to go back to Toro Rosso and Sainz now gets a chance at Red Bull.

[John Turner]

You have to think that Ricciardo is the one who on current form should be challenging Rosberg on points since he could/should have won the last two races. Despite all the hype around Max V, and there is no doubting his talent and superb win in Spain, DR is still the better overall driver. He has both the pace, and something MV has yet to acquire - experience. OK, stating the obvious but felt like saying it anyway.

[Tja]

Originally Posted by MarkG

Agreed, this race was Danny Ric's, he was the master of Monaco this weekend, and it was taken away from him by an unbelievable team blunder. Without this blunder he would have been way ahead of the sulk and there wouldn't have been a chicane incident . It was this blunder that made me make a general comment about F1 conspiracies. There may be some wild conspiracy theories out there I agree, but what isn't wild speculation, is that there's a lot of bull and lies in F1, and I believe Mercedes' saying Rosberg had brake issues is either baloney or a lie. It looked to me in the early laps that Rosberg was driving with the championship in mind, he had his nearest threat behind him. Whether he then became a pasty for Mercedes I do not know, but that's what I suspect.

Where is that brake problem coming from anyways? I must have missed that Rosberg said in his post race interview with German RTL that he was struggling with a lack of grip which is exactly what it looked like. He was painfully slow mid corner and out of them while top speed and braking looked alright to me... In the end they had to ask Rosberg to let Hamilton through if they wanted a chance to win it. And I'm sure that the boss Mr Zetsche would not want to see yet another failure to win after Barcelona.

[rwintle]

Oh my. Entertaining race let down by Sauber clownery, Red Bull WTF pit stoppery, and Hamilton ignoring everyone on the team to let the Bieb have the first glug of champagne.

Best comment I've seen was Giedo van der Garde on Twitter: "Terrible communication at Sauber. In other news; water is wet."

[RWill2073]

The rosberg brake problem was reported and confirmed through will Buxton on the broadcast. Whether the team was being honest is another story.

To echo a previous poster, I think at least one racer drove himself out of formula 1 in this race. Kyviat had some way to explain the previous incidents at least. This one punched his ticket to another series.

As cutthroat as red bull is, it makes their mistake even more egregious. Ricciardo surely knows how quick they are to drop very talented drivers. He sees an 18 year old come in and basically become the chosen one. Anything less than perfection from his team could lead to that hammer calling on him in a year or two if verstappen is performing as expected. So for that to happen is just inexcusable. And ricciardos post race radio comment felt like him paying the groundwork for his exit on his own terms. He will be at Ferrari or Mercedes or some other competitive team soon.

I'll also agree with others that Hamilton is extremely annoying. Bringing bieber out to celebrate with and make a point to talk to as soon as he got out of the car is just cringey. Cam Newton caught a lot more flack than Hamilton for being a frontrunner. Celebrating and showboating when times are good and sulking and pouting at the first hint of adversity. I know everyone keeps saying he's in a better place mentally and stuff, but he comes across as miserable and unhappy no matter what's going on around him. I get the feeling he'll be one of those stars we year from 20 years from now saying that he was on top of the world from the outside looking in, but wasn't happy personally no matter what he tried. Just an opinion, so not to be taken seriously, just the impression he gives off to me.

[RWill2073]

The rosberg brake problem was reported and confirmed through will Buxton on the broadcast. Whether the team was being honest is another story.

To echo a previous poster, I think at least one racer drove himself out of formula 1 in this race. Kyviat had some way to explain the previous incidents at least. This one punched his ticket to another series.

As cutthroat as red bull is, it makes their mistake even more egregious. Ricciardo surely knows how quick they are to drop very talented drivers. He sees an 18 year old come in and basically become the chosen one. Anything less than perfection from his team could lead to that hammer calling on him in a year or two if verstappen is performing as expected. So for that to happen is just inexcusable. And ricciardos post race radio comment felt like him paying the groundwork for his exit on his own terms. He will be at Ferrari or Mercedes or some other competitive team soon.

I'll also agree with others that Hamilton is extremely annoying. Bringing bieber out to celebrate with and make a point to talk to as soon as he got out of the car is just cringey. Cam Newton caught a lot more flack than Hamilton for being a frontrunner. Celebrating and showboating when times are good and sulking and pouting at the first hint of adversity. I know everyone keeps saying he's in a better place mentally and stuff, but he comes across as miserable and unhappy no matter what's going on around him. I get the feeling he'll be one of those stars we year from 20 years from now saying that he was on top of the world from the outside looking in, but wasn't happy personally no matter what he tried. Just an opinion, so not to be taken seriously, just the impression he gives off to me.

[chillibowl]

if you ignore the stuff outside of the car, LH drove around 1/3 of the race on full wets and the remaining 2/3 on the ultra softs. basically he did something on those two compounds that no one thought possible.

yes its hard to overtake at Monaco but the level of car control LH showed and tire management was really impressive imo.

for sure the pit stop played a part, but it wasnt the end of DR's race either. honestly DR's demeanor post race (talk about sulk) makes me think he gave up at some point in the race possibly because he was demoralized. you got to fight until the end.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Several drivers ended their F1 careers in that race though I feel!

Taxi for.....

Some exceptional driving in the top order but some very ordinary levels and desperate stuff further back.

Palmer (Mansell white line syndrome but plainly not quick enough), Kimi (half asleep) , Kyvat crashes again (will be lucky to finish the year), The Sauber clowns.

Dear oh dear.

I am surprised there is not more talk about Kyvat's performance. It was a series of desperate and wholly unrealistic overtake attempts over a handful of corners ending in a crash. It really looked like pure red mist.

Richard

[chillibowl]

indeed, he looked desperate all race.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Christian Horner says the pit layout at Monaco, caused the tyre mix up which delayed Ricciardo's stop.

http://classic.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/124560

I would have thought RBR would be used to the layout by now?

[chillibowl]

is it more shocking that they were originally thinking to go for the soft (yellow) compound at first?

for me RB failed to cover the Merc's twice. first by opting to go to inters while LH stayed on wets and then opting to go for a harder compound after they had seen what LH did.

in hindsight, but that was a bit of inspired strategy by Merc/LH imo. hero that he made it work but easily could have been disaster if it didnt. thats racing!

mirrored by Rossi's great bit of fuel saving drive at Indy as well.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

is it more shocking that they were originally thinking to go for the soft (yellow) compound at first?

for me RB failed to cover the Merc's twice. first by opting to go to inters while LH stayed on wets and then opting to go for a harder compound after they had seen what LH did.

in hindsight, but that was a bit of inspired strategy by Merc/LH imo. hero that he made it work but easily could have been disaster if it didnt. thats racing!

mirrored by Rossi's great bit of fuel saving drive at Indy as well.

Mercedes had the better tyre strategy and be that as it may, it was the botched stop that gave Hamilton the lead and ultimately the win.

[chillibowl]

agreed that the botched stop helped but DR still had 40+ laps to make up for it on a set of tires that theoretically should have lasted longer then the ultra softs.

dont want to turn this into a LH vs DR thread (as i rate both drivers) but DR had more then enough time to make up for that bad stop.

cant put all the fault on his crew or that stop imo.

[MarkG]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

..............
.
honestly DR's demeanor post race (talk about sulk) makes me think he gave up at some point in the race possibly because he was demoralized. you got to fight until the end.

Come on, are you serious? You may be a LH supporter (and yes, Lewis did drive very well) and you get defensive when people say Hamilton sulks, but DR was angry at the podium, and rightly so, but he was quite smiling and polite in the pen later, even though still angry.
LH is always sulking unless winning and he's getting very irrtating to be honest.
Danny R doesn't sit on his own on the track-parade bus with his ego for company like a prima donna, or sulk like a kid when things aren't going ALL his way. His great driver image doesn't really compare well with previous great drivers, even if his actual driving does.

[RWill2073]

While Mercedes strategy was good and Hamilton was great to make it work, it wasn't the optimal strategy. Even with the pit stop failure, Ricciardo came out right behind hamilton. Without a bad stop, Ricciardo would have been a few seconds ahead and likely would have won. So their strategy was right, they just failed so spectacularly that If that was a driver making that level of failure he'd be demoted or dropped altogether.

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by MarkG

Come on, are you serious?..

i am serious and thank you for not calling me Shirley.

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by RWill2073

While Mercedes strategy was good and Hamilton was great to make it work, it wasn't the optimal strategy. Even with the pit stop failure, Ricciardo came out right behind hamilton. Without a bad stop, Ricciardo would have been a few seconds ahead and likely would have won. So their strategy was right, they just failed so spectacularly that If that was a driver making that level of failure he'd be demoted or dropped altogether.

and if he had come out ahead would he have been able to keep LH of his rear given the presumable speed difference super softs and ultra softs? thats the problem with the 'what if' scenarios.

the pitstop was an issue for sure but when you have 40+laps to make up for it some of it has to come down to the driver no?

[RWill2073]

Well, he had no problem catching Hamilton and almost passing him, so I'm gonna say yes.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

I am surprised there is not more talk about Kyvat's performance. It was a series of desperate and wholly unrealistic overtake attempts over a handful of corners ending in a crash. It really looked like pure red mist.

Richard

Agreed. The finale looked darned deliberate to me. He should be busted for it.

[Jimmy Magnusson]

He is probably fortunate other parts of RB didn't come out looking like stars either. The attempt was bad enough on its own, but even worse considering he was a lap down and the position he's in at the team, needing to prove he's the more mature driver. It's the kind of move you wouldn't be surprised to see someone fired over, given this kind of context.

[merak1974]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

The tiny principality of Monaco hosts as Grand Prix which is often called 'the jewel in the crown of Formula 1'. Indeed, next to the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, it also form a third of the unofficial Triple Crown of Motorsport; leaving aside any focus on championships, this is an important race to win, one of the landmark achievements in the sport....[/IMG]

Wow - history lesson! ... and a very good one at that Thank you!

[Mike Harte]

Back to Rosberg, the team have acknowledged that he had been unable to "switch on" his tyres during the race, and that his brakes and tyres were not heating up sufficiently to work efficiently.

Whilst he was leading Hamilton and Ricciardo was disappearing down the road, the team asked him if he could speed up otherwise he would need to let Hamilton go by. A couple of laps later and the team asked him to let Hamilton past, which he did without question.

Set up is obviously so sensitive on the Mercedes that any difference between the two cars becomes critical. Since the back end of last year, it seemed that Rosberg has had the upper hand in the way that he has his car set up, and recently Hamilton has been following Rosberg's lead. It would seem as though the tables were turned at Monaco.

[The Fat Clerk]

Having just visited the race for this first time I can see why it's called the Jewel in the Crown, Wow