2018 Formula 1

I don’t think I’d get on with Maurizio Arrivabene, simply from the TV coverage I’ve decided he’s a bit of an arse :+1:

Just because they’ve refused to build you that wankel engined model…

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Arrivabene seems OK. It’s Marchionne who needs a slap.

fixt

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Simply put; not enough. The reverting to the wide front wing, which was a complete nightmare when last on the cars, just seems stupid.
Get more “under body” downforce (diffuser) and less shit on and around the front half of the car.

I was watching a couple of old Quali laps and note that the current cars are considerably heavier than cars in 1996 and yet are lapping Monaco 9 seconds a lap quicker.

Blimey, 9 seconds!

He’s a very silly boy!

Ricciardo gets his 2nd pole :ok_hand:

Well at least McLaren now know exactly how far they are behind with their chassis…

1.3 seconds… lol.

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There is a constant time offset between them in every session so far.

Marcus was close to Pascal last year, but Charles is a very quick driver and so Marcus is going to struggle to compete with him at some circuits.

The Monaco grid is even tighter than usual this year.

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What a dull race. Congratulations to Ricciardo on his great win on reduced power. Very surprised that Vettel couldn’t get closer but the Red Bulls seemed perfectly set up for the circuit.

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Sad to say that if there aren’t any safety cars, Monaco is always boring.
The scenery is nice though

Agreed, I’m bemused how he couldn’t get closer through the tunnel. I’m sure we’ll find out the coming days

Still, great for Ricciardo that he get’s his Monaco win, finally.

I didn’t see this as a dull race. Yes, there was no overtaking, but there was plenty of Will they - Won’t they.
Monaco is an anachronism within F1 - long may it remain.

Monaco is a one off and as such poses some different challenges to other circuits. Aero drag has almost no effect on laptime so as downforce does help, you put as much on as you can (other circuits need it efficiently so different, one off solutions could apply). Very difficult to get the brakes balanced as there is very little cooling. Very difficult to keep the tyres in the ideal operating window due to the duty cycle, and so you end up with graining. Extremely difficult to overtake and once you are stuck in a train of cars you damage the front tyres even more.

This year the cars raced (but were very fast in qualifying) much slower than their potential for a variety of reasons.

It is great to go there and race, but if it was suggested as a circuit nowadays, I am not sure that it would get added to the calendar!

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When I first worked at Monaco in 1977 it was a nightmare of almost no space and lots of people. The trucks were on the harbour side with awnings (where the hospitality gin palaces are now), there were no pits so for each session the cars had to be pushed up the hill to the “pit-lane” through a throng of people, and we had a total of 9 people on the team to do it.
It has got easier and easier to work at over the years but it is still a bit cramped!
Whilst Horner was saying the MGU-K was worth 2.5 secs per lap is that true Ian? They still had the MGU-H which should have charged the batteries a fair bit, his biggest nightmare would have been sorting the brake balance with no negative torque from the MGU-K and having insufficient cooling on the rear brakes which will have had ducts set for the MGU-K contribution.
As Ian wrote drag isn’t a penalty there as long as it comes with a bit of downforce.
One of the most interesting variations that took place over the 35 years I was involved was the variation in the optimum aero parameters as the rules changed.

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