Horner on DR: "He was not going to give this race up. We loose the MGU-K halfway into the race. He lost 2 tenths per lap." "They told us on the intercom that we might have to retire in two more laps. Then the tyres dropped off." "He has lost 25% of the engine. That then puts the rear breaks going through the roof. He has to cool the brakes. Cool the car" "He totally nailed it. He was the coolest guy out there. The chassis is just fantastic. He was pulling away from LH without an MGU-K" on Max: "To finish 9th. He was right behind Gasly and Hulkenberg. A well controlled race. He will approach Montreal in a different manner"
If you were to ask all of the teams, and all of the drivers if they'd like to drop Monaco from the calendar, I think the number who would say: "yes", would be minute (if there are any!). They all know that it's hardly ever a great race. They all know that it's a pain in the ar$e for space, and for not being able to show what their car can really do, but they pretty much all love it. It's more about the occasion than the race, and for the drivers, it's more about the personal challenge to skim against the barriers for 78 laps, than the actual racing. For the winners of Monaco, it carries more prestige than any other race on the calender, because it makes them a part of the F1 folklore! Monaco is a crazy place to hold a race - And just about everyone involved absolutely loves it!
I enjoyed the race...yep bit processional as to be expected here but I liked it. Stunning weekend from Ricciardo. Just fantastic. Ferrari and Vettel keeping their head, think of the championship. Max at the toughest track in a way faster car showed he DOES have control and capability to think ahead, lets hope he thinks about this in the coming races.
Finally getting to see the rest of the results. Max into the points. Ocon 6th. Stroll strolling. Alonso watching the Indy500 early. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Monaco: a track not built for TV coverage. A bunch of back marker passes that only belatedly showed on the frequently frozen leader board. A bunch of camera shots of Sainz, Hulk, Verstappen, then nothing until the board showed Hulk, Verstappen, Sainz. No replay. Sky was struggling with this one. Monaco; where a good chassis can manage even with a power problem. That's one Ric will remember in his old age.
Let's be fair to Max here - In FP3, he was "in the groove" , going faster and faster every lap, he got a little bit distracted by the Renault ahead of him, which put him slightly off the line he really wanted to be on, and he turned in too early, hitting the barrier on turn-in, breaking the steering arm, after which he was just a passenger. Yes it was a needless accident, yes it was costly for him, and yes, it let the team down badly. Let's not forget though, that even F1 legends have been caught out by the Monaco track out of the blue when they were under no pressure whatsoever:
Yeah - A lot of people are jumping on the "bash Verstappen!" band wagon, but the fact is: Monaco can bite even the best of them!
Thats nice. I wouldnt miss the 'race' if it was deleted at all. Its not a race but challenge. It should be a charity event.
I dont hear much bashing. All drivers have issues and points of low in their careers. Max has made some rookie--esque mistakes for 4 year, 65 race veteran. At times almost in denial. He brought an immense amount of attention on himself.
Really? I'm on a number of sites that cover F1, and there are people on those sites picking fault with the slightest thing that Max does, wetting their knickers every time he's involved in an incident/accident and jumping on their keyboards and declaring that he will kill someone with his driving, and claiming that he simply doesn't have the talent to be an F1 driver (Which is absolute nonsense! ). They can't wait to spot something to lynch him for over a race weekend! Totally agree! Last season Max seemed to have calmed down a lot, cut out the dodgy moving around under braking when someone was looking to overtake him, and stopped over-driving the car. For some reason, this season he's gone back to his old ways of over-driving the car, pushing too hard, and making silly mistakes again. The fact is, he doesn't need to do it! - If he just calms down a bit, uses his head a bit more, and stops trying to push so hard, he will race better, and get better results. He has the talent and ability to be a great F1 driver - He just needs to lose the Playstation mentality, because in the real F1, you can't turn damage off and bump people out of the way with no penalty incurred, and you can't just press the reset button when you get it wrong! I like Max. I like the fire that he brings to F1, and I still see hints of Gilles Villeneuve in his driving (and let's be honest here, Gilles got mixed up in more than his fair share of incidents/accidents!). He just needs to learn that to be successful in F1, he needs to drive at 9~10 tenths of his ability, and not 11 tenths as he seems to think right now.
