2017 Monaco Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, 26-28 May

[Vasconia]

and Vettel barely did any fast laps in order to be that close, on FP1, while the others(the Mercedes, RBs, Toro Rossos) did tones of fast laps. It was no surprise to me that Vettel was confortably faster than anybody esle, on FP2, even with little running again.

If you replace "Vettel" with "Hamilton" in the quote above, it fits the description below perfectly.

It was very frustrating reading a few pages of the 2016 thread and seeing the fanboyism related to Hamilton there.

On the race part....

Looking at the long run times, Mercedes seems (or as they have been putting it across) to be struggling to get heat into the tyres, but once they put heat in, their long run pace is on par with the Vettel's times.
Vettel was doing mid 1m15.xxx, which is what Bottas did on a few laps where he did manage to run.
Red Bull were doing high 1m15.xxx, placing them to be third, as usual.
Toro Rosso were doing low 1m16.xxx.
Force Indias were doing similar times to Toro Rosso. Could be a tenth or two behind TR.
Williams is behind both of them, doing high 1m16.xxx.

So no chances to overtake if you are behind. Victory will be for the one who achieves the pole. I just want to see if Mercedes continues on FP3 to struggle with the tyres.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

So no chances to overtake if you are behind. Victory will be for the one who achieves the pole. I just want to see if Mercedes continues on FP3 to struggle with the tyres.

Race is on Saturday. Sunday is just the ceremony to give the awards. Assuming Mercedes would struggle to warm up the tyres, Ferrari's 16 years' drought on the principality could be over.

[The_table]

So no chances to overtake if you are behind. Victory will be for the one who achieves the pole. I just want to see if Mercedes continues on FP3 to struggle with the tyres.

Race is on Saturday. Sunday is just the ceremony to give the awards. Assuming Mercedes would struggle to warm up the tyres, Ferrari's 16 years' drought on the principality could be over.

Hang on, so when is Qualy and FP3, the F1 site says the race is Sunday at 14:00, qualy Saturday 14:00-15:00, FP3 also saturday...

[Chanman141]

He means that the race is done by qualifying on Saturday since there are hardly any passes in the Sunday Race in normal conditions.

[The_table]

Oh ok, i was thoroughly confused there...it kinda made sense since FP1 and 2 were Thursday...

[bonjon1979]

A safety car or VSC is going to decide the race on Sunday. We're going to see the top teams really using their drivers tactically. Because the tyres can go the whole race, there's nothing to stop a team from sacrificing one driver to just stay out and hold up the others behind. I think we're going to see some really funky strategies play out as Teams hold off pitting until a safety car or something happens. Someone will gamble on either staying out or diving in. Being first might be a vulnerable position to be in as you may be vulnerable from the undercut or by the other teams keeping a driver out. I think it's going to be complicated with fate playing a considerable hand.

[Sevach]

Looking at Max's driving i'd say there's a good chance of "redemption" this time.

Yes. He has been solidly quick all day but this redemption will not come as pole/win, I'm afraid, and the best he and Ricciardo will be able to do, imho, is fight the Mercedes(who might have hidden their pace, regardless of the alleged bad setup for FP2, because Kvyat was just 0.68s slower on FP1, despite using the SS)

Redemption in the context of his car yes, which seems nowhere near Vettel's Ferrari.

And who knows, it's Monaco, Mercedes is fumbling a little a bit, Kimi is nowhere and Ferrari is turning bad pit calls into a tradition.

[Gothrek]

A safety car or VSC is going to decide the race on Sunday. We're going to see the top teams really using their drivers tactically. Because the tyres can go the whole race, there's nothing to stop a team from sacrificing one driver to just stay out and hold up the others behind. I think we're going to see some really funky strategies play out as Teams hold off pitting until a safety car or something happens. Someone will gamble on either staying out or diving in. Being first might be a vulnerable position to be in as you may be vulnerable from the undercut or by the other teams keeping a driver out. I think it's going to be complicated with fate playing a considerable hand.

I always thought there is no undercut possible in Monaco

[bonjon1979]

A safety car or VSC is going to decide the race on Sunday. We're going to see the top teams really using their drivers tactically. Because the tyres can go the whole race, there's nothing to stop a team from sacrificing one driver to just stay out and hold up the others behind. I think we're going to see some really funky strategies play out as Teams hold off pitting until a safety car or something happens. Someone will gamble on either staying out or diving in. Being first might be a vulnerable position to be in as you may be vulnerable from the undercut or by the other teams keeping a driver out. I think it's going to be complicated with fate playing a considerable hand.

I always thought there is no undercut possible in Monaco

I guess it depends how long the first stint lasts. That's kind of my point. If they go sixty laps on one set of tyres, I imagine there will be a huge performance differential between new and old tyres. I guess it matters at what lap is the prime one to go for the undercut. There will be a moment in the race when if you're close enough to the car in front you can overtake using the undercut. If the leading car tries to pre-empt that by pitting first then a team could sacrifice their number 2 driver to hold up the lead opposition car to allow their lead car to run longer and overtake the front car that way because the tyres won't go off enough. Do you get what I mean?

[ringo]

It may be best to pit early...
Since the tyres last the whole race. With no need to pit again a safety car cannot affect your race even if it bunches up your rival behind you, who may have on fresher rubber, he cannot pass in monaco.

[Big Mangalhit]

Is there any chance the top teams do q2 with ss and then go for a undercut with us? Or is it to bad to start the race with ss and have lower grip off the line?

[marmer]

Is there any chance the top teams do q2 with ss and then go for a undercut with us? Or is it to bad to start the race with ss and have lower grip off the line?

Normally its too slow but the first corner is not far away at Monaco so might be ok. Could be worth a risk with the 2nd cars so they would block the undercut by staying out longer and still having life in tyres

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[Sevach]

If you are infront and on US just wait for the SC, you can't be undercut by someone taking the SS anyways.
If you are out of position, bad qualifying for whatever reason... start on SS, get rid of it immediately, and go to the end collecting misfortunes.

[Sevach]

Is there any chance the top teams do q2 with ss and then go for a undercut with us? Or is it to bad to start the race with ss and have lower grip off the line?

It's unlikely that a car on SS would be able to hang close enough to one on US to make this work, the car on ultras should be able to pull a gap of over 4s easily imo.

Unless we are talking about a Ferrari following a Williams or something unbalanced like that.

[f1316]

So no chances to overtake if you are behind. Victory will be for the one who achieves the pole. I just want to see if Mercedes continues on FP3 to struggle with the tyres.

Race is on Saturday. Sunday is just the ceremony to give the awards. Assuming Mercedes would struggle to warm up the tyres, Ferrari's 16 years' drought on the principality could be over.

Sunday is also the opportunity the FIA gives to the winning driver/team combo to hand back their trophy - the last two years the Saturday winner's team apparently didn't want it