2025 Monaco Grand Prix - Monte Carlo, May 23 - 25

[TimW]

The most likely thing to happen is that if a team gets 1-2 in quali. they will take turns backing the entire field up so they van pit and still come out p1, then swap positions and let the other teammate build a 20 second gap, then pit and come out in p1. Repeat that two times and you get a 1-2 finish.

That would theoretically be even easier in one pitstop race, yet it was never attempted. So why would it be considered a viable strategy now?

[djones]

I don’t understand…

Ferrari have had a dog of a car and said Monaco would be especially hard for them. Why are they suddenly doing quite well?

[Farnborough]

Ferrari should have one of their best chances here so far this season.

Two drivers of considerable experience across them for pace at this circuit, all cars lifted a little to cope with track irregularity/camber etc, car seems most relaxed on softer spring setting.

Could be a good recipe

I know it's not Q yet .... but this car seems to operate well so far this season with "gentle" generally softer setup. Effectively it looks like the track comes to them in making use of this attribute.

Very positive so far.

[JPower]

I don’t understand…

Ferrari have had a dog of a car and said Monaco would be especially hard for them. Why are they suddenly doing quite well?

Ferrari almost always overperforms at Monaco, no matter how bad the car is.

Usually I put it down to Ferrari running a relatively soft suspension.

[f1isgood]

I don’t understand…

Ferrari have had a dog of a car and said Monaco would be especially hard for them. Why are they suddenly doing quite well?

Ferrari have a car that is not a dog in any reasonable way if they could run it marginally lower (probably the quickest as Hamilton showed in China).

In Monaco, everyone raises their car and others lose more.

Ferrari have been forced to run their car higher than usual because they clearly miscalculated their rear suspension interaction with the ride height.

[Farnborough]

I don’t understand…

Ferrari have had a dog of a car and said Monaco would be especially hard for them. Why are they suddenly doing quite well?

The ability to accept slightly softer input in transition (think entry and exit to swimming pool) to build absolute confidence in the chassis not hitting a "spike" response because of track camber changes etc, pays dividend in driver confidence.

That real chuck it in, run the ragged edge of margin without feeling its going to need late correction, then brings with it speed in repeatability.

If it's slightly lazy, then the driver can build that in with his track "cadence" as long as that ultimate repeatability is present.

Not necessarily productive on a fast open circuit (as we've seen so far this season) but can be valuable in spades in this place.

Good to watch too

[search]

I don’t understand…

Ferrari have had a dog of a car and said Monaco would be especially hard for them. Why are they suddenly doing quite well?

Ferrari have a car that is not a dog in any reasonable way if they could run it marginally lower (probably the quickest as Hamilton showed in China).

In Monaco, everyone raises their car and others lose more.

Ferrari have been forced to run their car higher than usual because they clearly miscalculated their rear suspension interaction with the ride height.

that explanation would make sense, but is it really the case that they used to run higher than others in races before? My understanding always was that the car just doesn't work as well as others when it's not possible to run low (in general).

[f1isgood]

I don’t understand…

Ferrari have had a dog of a car and said Monaco would be especially hard for them. Why are they suddenly doing quite well?

Ferrari have a car that is not a dog in any reasonable way if they could run it marginally lower (probably the quickest as Hamilton showed in China).

In Monaco, everyone raises their car and others lose more.

Ferrari have been forced to run their car higher than usual because they clearly miscalculated their rear suspension interaction with the ride height.

that explanation would make sense, but is it really the case that they used to run higher than others in races before? My understanding always was that the car just doesn't work as well as others when it's not possible to run low (in general).

I think this was a explanation due to Venkyhere a while back. They struggle more in the quali than race because they raise the car to avoid DSQ. In the race with the fuel, the floor is closer and basically the car just has more downforce in that configuration which would explain their poor quali and better than expected race performance relative to qualifying. Of course these are all theories but I think it's a plausible one, especially given when they did get DSQ they seemed quite quick or even the quickest at some part of the weekend.

[Luscion]

For whatever its worth, race sims

[codetower]

Hows the weather holding up for Quali?

[search]

Tires left (in case Stroll did the same as Alonso)

[search]

- Stroll got a 1 place grid penalty for the crash with Leclerc
- Bearman got a 10 place grid penalty due to a red flag violation

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... m4iCTEqtj3

[AR3-GP]

I think they should increase to 3 mandatory stops in 2026 and 4 mandatory stops in 2027.

[SB15]

I think they should increase to 3 mandatory stops in 2026 and 4 mandatory stops in 2027.

No, this is better: Mandatory running of the tyres. You're supposed to use the Softs, Mediums and Hards during a race.

Similar to how Indycar does it.

[AR3-GP]

I thought Lando Norris had an odd looking race sim in FP2. His lap times tanked very suddenly. I think his front tires were destroyed. There were very dark bands. His tires were of the same age as that of Verstappen (16 laps by end) who was also doing a race sim on the mediums and didn't seem to run into the same problem.

Monaco FP2:





Last weekend in Imola, Mclaren seemed to chew up the rear tires on the C5 (med) quite a bit. That led to Piastri's early stop and I also found out from the radio messages that Norris also had similar problems with his rear tires.

From Imola

Lap: 7/63 NOR: 1’21.347
Norris Yeah, pace is good, just stuck at the minute I think.

Lap: 9/63 NOR: 1’22.486
Joseph Russell complaining about rear tyres, keep pushing on it.

Lap: 11/63 NOR: 1’23.050,
Norris Norris passes Russell
Yeah, my rears are pretty f*k*d.

It's a bit unusual to see evidence of tire deg on a Mclare. Normally they have perfect management, no degradation, and their free practice race sims are in another world. It has looked a bit "off" for the last 2 weekends.