FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2017: RACE *** SPOILERS ***

+1, but reliability (well, parts and penalties) are a bit of a worry.

+1, and must say the banter between him and Alonso was excellent pre-race!

yep

absolutely. I need to know who is the girl handing out the microphones. She was drop dead gorgeous.

 

Come on. Really?

He's been right with Vettel speed-wise, but got robbed plenty with just utterly retarded pitcalls that even armchair experts like myself where calling many LAPS ahead of Ferrari. It is like you say though, that's how Ferrari operate and that's fair enough, but to say/imply he's been driving around the wrong way around all season until this weekend is definitely not fair or anywhere near the truth.

I don't mind Ferrari backing Vettel (in fact encourage it), he is the future of this team in the next 3 years or further. We desperately need championships, it's been 10 years....

 

Kimi had a 2.5 second gap to Seb whilst leading the race, in the exact same car as Seb, so how did the 0.4 second stationary time change that?

Kimi was held up to a degree by the traffic after his stop, but just before his stop, Seb closed the gap to Kimi from 2.5 seconds, down to @ 0.8 seconds and was right behind him. Nobody was holding Kimi up in order to get Seb right behind him, Seb was simply faster when he needed to be.

Just before his stop, Seb was putting in fastest lap times, which Kimi didn't before his stop.

Had Kimi maintained the 2.5 second gap to Seb prior to his stop then he would have won today - It really is that simple!

 

You just give the best argument for a stop on mandatory pit stop.

Their outcome can be terribly unfair, as we have seen again today at Monaco.

They exist under present rules to enforce the tyre change imposed by the FIA.

Any tyre supplier could supply covers that would last a whole race.

 

So you want to get rid of them altogether? That doesn't seem right. I think they need to bring back fuel stops also. So much better when multiple strategies could be used.

 

In an interview just shown on the UK's Channel , Sebastian Vettel has stated that the plan today was always to pit Kimi first if he was ahead in the race, and it was always his plan to try and run longer, to make the most of his laps in the lead.

Asked if team orders were put in place, he said no, they just followed the pre-race plan.

He said he could understand if Kimi wasn't very happy with how the race had turned out, and said that had it been the other way around then he wouldn't have been happy either.

He said that if you look at Red Bull's race, they did the exact same thing, they pitted their leading driver first, and left their second driver out on track, the result of which was exactly the same. He added:

"If you go and talk to Max, I'm sure he's not very happy right now either, because Daniel was able to gain an advantage by staying out on track and pushing hard before his stop, the same as I did, and the result was much the same."

Seb then added that he had every respect for Kimi and could understand him not being happy, but for the team it was obviously a great result for the team today.

When asked if winning at Monaco with Ferrari meant more to him than previous wins there, he said that looking down and seeing the Ferrari team celebrating a Monaco win was a memory that would stay with him for ever, and that it was an incredibly special win.

 

Today is a bad day for the sport. I'm very sad about that, as I'm Italian and I like Ferrari very much, but not when they act like today, despite a big victory: it's a shame.

I think that Kimi, If in a next GP will be followed by a Mercedes, will let the car overtake him very quickly.

I think Ferrari DS is not intelligent: they gained 7 points for Vettel, but Kimi won't give anymore his contribute to this F1 season to the team, so it's very stupid Ferrari DS behaviour, as this F1 championship is still very long.

ciao

 

So Kimi had a longer stop, and came into traffic....but the gap between them as Vettel exited the pit was ~.5. Had they had the same stationary time the gap would've been .1, and if Kimi wasn't in traffic, he'd be leading.

 

Kimi has admitted himself this season that he has been struggling to get to grips with the 2017 Ferrari due to it under-steering too much for his liking, and that it was taking longer than hoped to get on top of the situation (From: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/disappointed-raikkonen-still-plagued-by-understeer-891112/ ):

Kimi Raikkonen has admitted he continues to struggle with understeer in his Ferrari SF70H, as he placed fourth again in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix....

....He conceded then that he "suffered a bit with understeer" throughout the Australian GP weekend - and it was an issue that has not been sorted fully in time for qualifying in China.....

...."It's taking a little while [to solve the problems] and obviously not ideal, but we know the issue and we just need some clear Fridays. I'm sure next race we can be a bit more happy."....

In races, he hasn't been on Seb's pace every race, and he hasn't been hampered by team strategy at every race.

In general this season, Seb has simply been the faster of the two so far!

 

I feel certain the plan from the start of the race was team orders to put Vettle in the one position. It has been done in the sport before and by Ferrari before.

 

Postcard of Monaco GP
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+1

 

great, but that was 2 races into the season, pace definitely picked up after that. Ferrari's strategy certainly didn't help.

Either way, not like I wasn't expecting the Ferrari pitstop swap today...and if Vettel wins the title by less than 7 points, we'll look back onto todays race as brilliant foresight/strategy whatever.

 

But Seb had already closed down a 2.5 second gap to 0.8 seconds just before Kimi pitted.

Had Kimi not been too slow before his stop, and he'd maintained the 2.5 second gap to Seb in second place, then he would have come out of the pits comfortably ahead of both his team-mate, and the back markers - The 0.4 second pit difference wouldn't have meant a thing!

Prior to his pitstop, Kimi's lap times simply weren't fast enough. If they were, why wasn't he setting fastest lap times in the same manner that Seb managed once he was in the lead of the race?, and how was Seb able to catch him up so easily? - Same car, same tyres, same amount of wear!

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/vettel-denies-monaco-gp-win-result-of-team-orders-911799/

Vettel denies Monaco GP win result of team orders

Monaco Grand Prix race winner Sebastian Vettel has denied that Ferrari’s race strategy was part of a pre-arranged plan to switch its cars around to benefit his Formula 1 title hopes.

Vettel jumped ahead of polesitter and race leader Kimi Raikkonen by staying out five laps longer during the only pitstop phase of the race, prompting suggestions that it was a predetermined strategy to swap the cars around.

When asked if the strategy was a result of team orders, which are not illegal in F1, Vettel said: “Not really, there was no plan on team orders.

“We spoke about the race before and it was clear – the lead normally gets priority, and if I had the choice to go first, that is normally what you want to do.

“This is one of those rare times where the ‘overcut’ [stopping after a rival] is positive.

“The rule of thumb, if you qualify ahead you get priority at the first stop. Today it worked out in my favour and I take it.”

Vettel said he could understand if Raikkonen – who said his result didn’t “count a lot” – wasn’t happy after the race.

“There is no reason to lie, I am very happy,” said Vettel. “But I can understand he is a bit more upset.

“For me [the strategy] meant staying ahead of Valtteri [Bottas] and close to Kimi – I was surprised when I came out ahead.

“It worked well to stay out longer today, but if you were looking at it before the race, you cannot predict. We are racing, we get on well. I can understand Kimi is not entirely happy today.

“He drove well in the first stint but then you get the message to go in, you do the stop and then you push.

“When I heard the lap times of Bottas, I felt I needed to stretch myself and I was surprised I could get so much pace from the car.”

 

I am against any gimmicks in Grand Prix.

Pit stops don't bring anything to racing as such.

F1 was pure when there were no pit stop at all; no refuelling and no tyre change.

I am not interested in strategy, I want to see racing.

Strategy means coaching, team interference and tactics devised in the pits, where the driver should instead be making the decisions on the track.

 

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/vettel-denies-monaco-gp-win-result-of-team-orders-911799/

Red Bull did the same thing with their two drivers - Same result: The driver who stayed out gained the advantage.

(I suppose that must have been Ferrari's doing also! )

 

Well done for Ferrari! A Ferrari 1,2 is the best result for the team one could ask for. Kimi did exactly as planned and as he always has...been a complete team player.

Regarding post race comments. No surprises at all.

Let's just say that Ferrari have learned from past mistakes and over the years have gotten very skilled at concealing "team orders". ;-)

 

Hummmm.....

His body language at the prize-giving ceremony says different !

 

Hmmm..... Not impressed! - I've told the wife about standing on that ledge before! She'll mark the bloody paintwork!

 

But with today's cars, that would likely mean the order at the end of lap one would be the finishing order, hardly entertaining. At least pit stops give the illusion of excitement and something could go wrong

 

Totally agree - This was not in his script.

By the same token, Max Verstappen was much the same! - Red Bull would not allow him to go to the press pen for at least half an hour so he would calm down a bit, and then he was choosing his words incredibly carefully to hide how pissed off he was!

Same race plan as Ferrari, same outcome: THe driver who came in early lost out and ended up being pissed off, the driver who stayed out longer got the better result and was happy!

 

Pictures or it didn't happen! [emoji6]
T

 

Jenson Button has been handed a three place grid penalty for his next F1 race this season for causing the accident that put Werhlein on his side, and has had two penalty points put on his racing license: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-button-handed-three-place-grid-penalty-911857

Perez has been given a 10 second time penalty for his collision with Kvyat (which didn't change anything!), and he too has been given two penalty points on his racing license, taking him to five points for the season.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari are now favouring Vettel in their bid to win the WDC: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-ferrari-favouring-vettel-hamilton-911872/

He states: "It's clear to me that Ferrari have chosen their number one driver, so they're going to be pushing everything to make sure Sebastian will get the maximum on all of his weekends," said Hamilton, who trails the German by 25 points after recovering from 13th on the grid to seventh after a tough weekend.

"With the strategy, it's very hard for the leading car to get jumped by the second car unless the team decide to favour the other car, so that's very clear."

Completely over looking the fact that Red Bull did the exact same thing with Verstappen and Ricciardo, achieving the exact same result as Ferrari did - The swapping over of their drivers.

(Now why would Red Bull prefer to have Ricciardo finish 3rd rather than Verstappen? - After all, that is what Hamilton is suggesting!)

Hamilton also says that he would not ask his team to give him priority over his team-mate for the WDC, but this seems to be at odds with the fact that in Bahrain, Bottas was told by the team to let Hamilton pass him for the sake of the WDC!

 

Ugly shoes!

 

LOL!