F1 2012

[RichC]

blimey just seen there was a fire in the Williams garage after the race

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/18051779

[Daniel 7]

Ok - predictions for Monaco?

I'm going for another Alonso win. Monaco is a leveller and generally the best drivers win there. Put Nando in a car that is within 0.2 or 0.3 range of the fastest car and and he'll make that up. Ferrari have made improvements to a dog of a car, seem to make sensible decisions throughout the race and are the leaders of the pack in the pits - they're like machines in the pit crew at Ferrari - awesome.

Hamilton and Button might well be up there, but with the race strategy and team decision making they have displayed over the last few races, who's to say they won't **** it up again. Their pit crews seem to have all been spooked as well.

As ever though, the pole sitter will have a huge advantage, but the tyres will have a big say again - remember Vettel last year...

Its generally a **** race at Monaco, but I still look forward to it. Its a spectacle isn't it?

[CJ]

pastor maldonado to have another good race!!!

think alonso or hamilton for the win .

[Gaz]

I'd love to see Hamilton or Kimi win this one

[RichC]

Good win from Webber today.

Interesting to see if any complaints on the Redbull car are upheld

[Daniel 7]

Complaints? Missed that, what were they?

Good win, dull race as ever. The end was interesting with a bit if a bunch up, but no real prospect of passing.

McLaren slightly less bad in the pits, but that 0.5 seconds they lost to Ferrari in their stop and a stellar in lap from Alonso cost Hamilton the podium (yeah I know Vettel got past too, but, y'know)

[G]

Complaints? Missed that, what were they?

Monaco GP: Rival teams say Red Bull car design is illegal

Rival teams believe a design on the Red Bull car is illegal.
McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and Lotus all argue a hole in the rear floor of the Red Bull contravenes rules but it is not known if any will protest.
The design has been on the car since the Bahrain GP and Red Bull were made aware of rivals' dissatisfaction early in the Monaco weekend.

The Red Bull has a slot in the floor of the car just in front of the rear wheel
Red Bull have said they will not change the car, so are vulnerable to a protest.
Team boss Christian Horner said: "The car complies with the regulations, we're happy with that. It's the nature of F1 that there are complaints when you have a competitive car.
Technical director Adrian Newey added: "It first arose at the Bahrain Grand Prix and we have a letter from Charlie Whiting at the FIA saying he is convinced it's legal."
However, teams are notoriously wary of protesting items on rival cars - they prefer to get them removed by arguing behind the scenes.
In recent years, rivals have questioned a number of items on the Red Bull, but it has tended to be dealt with by race director Charlie Whiting warning them that the design in question should be removed by the next race.
The latest row is about a rectangular hole in front of the rear wheels on the Red Bull.
Article 3.12.5 of the technical regulations says this area must be "uniform, solid, hard, continuous, rigid, impervious surfaces under all circumstances".
Red Bull's rivals believe this hole is illegal because it means the floor is not "impervious". They believe it is there to provide an aerodynamic advantage

Ferrari and Sauber also use a cut-out in this area but in the case of their cars it is open at the edge of the floor, so it is considered just to be the shape of the floor.
Having it open at the edge means the aerodynamic advantage gained is not as large.
However, there is a view that the hole might be legal as the rules could provide for a hole in the surface of the 'step plane' - a horizontal plane that is 100mm higher than the bottom of the car.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/18226959

[Daniel 7]

Ah ok.

Now this is interesting. Hamilton giving it both barrels to his team. He;s basically saying "I'm fine, but you're letting me down.."

No way he's staying there next season

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/may/27/lewis-hamilton-attacks-mclaren-monaco

McLaren, whose season has been stuck in reverse gear since their opening win in Australia two months ago, had another wretched day on Sunday when Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button ended the Monaco Grand Prix in frustration.

Button spent 70 laps stuck behind Heikki Kovalainen and when he did attempt to overtake, injudiciously, he collided with the Caterham car and span out of the race. Hamilton finished fifth and lost out to both Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel when Ferrari and Red Bull produced faster pit stops.

A dejected-looking Hamilton said: "I really dislike going backwards. My start was one of the worst in a long time. I don't know what my team was up to there. I just don't understand why it happens when the two guys next to me and two behind get perfect ones. I was very fortunate not to get caught up in a crash. It's quite an easy thing we do, we do thousands and thousands of practices, it should not be a problem. In the pit stop I lost quite a lot of time, not able to keep up with Alonso and then Seb got me through his pit stop. We haven't had a grand prix weekend where something hasn't gone wrong."

To make matters worse, Hamilton was distracted by debris falling on to his helmet from the pit-lane area. "When they put the sign board out in the pit area, the slips that go in there that show what lap you are, they kept falling out," Hamilton said. "A couple of them hit me in the front of the helmet. I thought 'this is getting ridiculous'."

Hamilton also complained about a lack of communication with his team, and was particularly annoyed to lose out to Vettel as he came out of the pits. He said: "I wasn't really informed. I didn't have the information to say Sebastian was going to get me. I could easily have pushed. Those are communication things which you work on. I just have to ask them next time to give me more info.

"I'm driving as well as I've ever driven. I'm not making mistakes at all and it feels great. I can feel comfortable now leaving the track and knowing that I couldn't have done any more. It's just unfortunate the car wasn't quick enough. But we are a great team and we will meet next week and see where we can improve the car."

Button, whose season has gone into serious decline since that win in Melbourne, said: "It's my leanest period since the old Honda days but **** happens. It has got to clear up and then we can move on. We still think every time we do a race that we are still learning. We tried to go longer [on the tyres] because we thought the rain would come. We had to take a gamble. My pit stop wasn't surprisingly slow.

"I am just happy the consistency is back. The pit stop might not be as good as Ferrari but we are not making mistakes. We have some way to go in terms of time but we are getting there."

The one consolation for McLaren is that with different winners in every race no one is getting away at the top of the drivers' championship table.

But there are worrying signs that Ferrari and Red Bull are beginning to muster the sort of consistency that has been so elusive for the Woking-based team.

The team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, said: "Cars are never quick enough and stops are never short enough, in my experience. Jenson is struggling a little bit with tyre energy. We were trying to get the tyres to run as long as we could as we were waiting for rain.

"When we could not get the tyres to go any longer we had to stop and Fernando [Alonso] went very quickly and got in front which was frustrating but it was nothing to do with the stop but to do with Fernando's pace.

"You're never satisfied but I think Lewis is scoring points at every race. He's keeping his head and doing a very good job. It's anyone's to play for. We and Lewis and Jenson can win this year's championship."

[RichC]

See the FIA has now said the holes in the redbull cars are illegal and should be removed before the Canadian GP.

Seems to me they're massively inconsistent with their rulings as how could these have been legal previously and are now not, you'd have thought it would have called into question the result of the Monaco GP.

[Gaz]

You'd have thought it would have called into question all of their results as Christian Horner admitted last week prior to the start of the Monaco GP that they'd been on the car since the start of the season and had been noticed after the Bahrain GP but had a letter from Charlie Whiting stating he "thought" they were legal, if now they've been proved to be illegal then there should be no difference to if a car was found to be non-compliant under parc ferme conditions i.e disqualification

[RichC]

[Gaz]

Seems to be a recurring theme with Red Bull being found with illegal parts on their car only for Charlie Whiting to just slap them on the wrist and say make sure you change it before the next race

[RichC]

yup, I think if that had been McLaren we'd have seen some tough punishment

[CJ]

i am not so sure

its quite common for something to be called legal then after a few races its illegal and cant be used from then onwards.

its something red bull asked for clarification on and were told they had a clever interpretation of the rules. Charlie and or the stewards or whoever have now decided it isnt. If it had been done without clarification there may have been punishment.

[Leyton388]

If it is illegal then surely Redbull should be stripped off all their race results while using this verson of the floor? After all they have used an Illegal part over their rivals and as a result have gained the advantage.