48 responses to “#F1 Race Review: A showdown in the principality of Monaco”

1. Before everyone piles on about Lewis being unhappy on the podium I really don’t care. It’s going to be a great season between them and will surely result in tears at a corner somewhere. My experience in racing shifter karts is that the guys at the front are usually pissed at each other for something or other. Sometimes it was even me! Some complaint about this corner or that corner or chopping the nose off. I want Lewis to be annoyed. Roll on the next race.

   • Hear hear. It’s going to be a great theatre thanks to Lewis… In a season which could otherwise be dull…

     • It can be great theatre ala Schumacher / Hakkinen or Prost / Senna or Lauda / Hunt, but it doesn’t have to be so graceless and petty. Lewis being visibly unhappy is no problem. Lewis’s rhetoric prior to, during and after the GP weekend shows his delusional, idiotic, childish and flippant character. Fight yes, but fight like a grown up. Be at least a touch resilient and take the shit you give. The metaphorical kiddie slapping style fight from HAM undermines him and ultimately the team. Senna / Prost or Schumacher / Hakkinen had an air of men doing what they had to do to win.

       • Schumacher/Häkkinen was a rivalry defined by mutual respect. Senna/Prost was just pure hatred and what I think about Hamilton’s antics is unprintable.

         • Come on now, we all know what you think of Lewis, even before today, so it wouldn’t have made a difference even if it was printable.

         • I doubt that you know what I think of him.
           It is rather obvious that in your opinion he cannot do wrong and everyone who dares to criticize him finds himself at the receiving end of some of your more childish comments as evidenced in the comment section.

           I’ve been following his career long before he came to F1 since it didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that he was to be a future champion. The more disappointing was his childish whining yesterday.
           They all had such moments – Alonso, Vettel, Button, heck even Senna. But I never remember one of them to be that annoying. Especially since Lewis had started quite a lot of mind games in the build-up of the race. He isn’t a rookie. He should have known that his ‘I’m hungrier than him, because he’s just a rich kid’ spiel would make him look like an utter clown if Rosberg would beat him. Which he did, quite soundly.

         • Good god man!! What’s with the long ranting? Did your watering hole dry up or something?

           As for you saying, you’ve not seen any other driver behave like Lewis did yesterday, well I’m glad your conveniently forgetting the spygate saga in 07. You know that one, where Alonso threatened his team, that if he didn’t get preferential treatment, he would expose them? I haven’t seen anything Lewis has done, that cost a team $100m. How about Kimi in Malaysia in 08, whilst everyone was waiting for the monsoon to pass by, he was spotted eating an ice cream whilst in his civis.

           So what if Lewis started like you say “mind games”, which driver doesn’t? Didn’t jenson just start one with his rookie teammate? Mind games is part of the sport, every driver does it. Why you’re so surprise about it, is beyond me.

           You like most people have clearly taken his comments out of context, so here is an excerpt from the post race interview, where he actually clarified his comments…..

           ”
           Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport Bild) Lewis, to clean the situation, did you tell the BBC in this interview where you said these things with the boat or didn’t you say that?
           LH: I was asked who was hungrier. I think if you ask every driver they will say that they’re the hungriest and I said that what gives me the hunger is where I grew up in comparison to where Nico grew up. You know I’ve always been striving to come and live here. I used to travel around with Nico in his Dad’s plane, I used to go to his boat, I used to go to his house, I used to have those experiences and that gave me those experiences and that gave me the desire to want that one day, which gave me the hunger. It was his Dad obviously who inspired me to be where I am today.

           Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport Bild) So you did say it.
           LH: Yes, but – as Nico said – it was taken out of context a little bit.”

           You talk about childish behaviour, but aren’t we all acting childish (me included) when we sit here and berate the drivers, because they’ve not done what we deam to be the right thing? It’s always easy to sit on the sideline and talk about what they should or shouldn’t have done. But I’m sure that if we were in that situation, we all probably would’ve done the same thing, if not worse. So let’s stop act like we are all so righteous and forthcoming. After all, no 2 people are alike, not even identical twins.

           It’s one race out of 5 that he has won that they have both finished together on arguably the slowest Micky mouse track around, that you probably couldn’t pass anyone on, even if you were in the starship enterprise. And has the commentators pointed out yesterday, of the 5 wins nico has, 3 have been at Street circuits. So let’s see what happens when they get to proper race tracks, because so far, it’s 4-0 to Lewis.

           So continue, to call my comments childish, that’s your choice, but my comments are no different from yours or anyone else, when it comes to talking about the driver we each support. I’ve seen on numerous occasion, you having ago with other bloggers about their views, so aren’t you acting childish then too?

           But like you said, “a government tried to shut you up and failed”, so I doubt any of us here has any hope whatsoever of doing so.

         • I called your comments childish, because I remember some of them consisted solely of cheap shots about my weight of the shape of my derriere 😉
           As for my alleged lack of criticizing other drivers. You really seem to have a long-term memory problem, else you’d remember that I’ve been rather critical of Alonso’s antics and even Vettel got his share of criticism. I don’t see a reason why I should make and exception for Lewis.

         • Like I said, I’m new to this site, so I’m not familiar with your views or what you might have said about the driver you support. Likewise you’re not familiar with my views.

           Buy one thing I am, is fair, maybe a litre bias at times, but who isn’t. If Lewis screwed up, I’m not gonna sugar coat it, I’ll say it like it is.

           I’m a Liverpool supporter and when Gerrard screwed up against Chelsea, no one wanted to lay the blame at his feet, everyone looked to blame someone else, soley because it’s Gerrard and what he has done for the club. I did make any friends in Liverpool forums, because I wasn’t scared to let it be known, “he screwed up and he’s got to shoulder the blame”….

           As for Lewis, I just feel that it’s slightly unfair that he is being vilified, because he felt that his teammate, did something deliberately to gain an advantage. Heck, most comments about the issue, thought nico cheated. I maybe wrong, but I think I saw even the judge saying, “that he felt what nico did was deliberate”….I could be wrong, but if I am, I apologise in advance to the judge.

           So clearly he still harboured those feelings, who wouldn’t? It’s not like this happened on a circuit that would’ve still given him an opportunity to pass nico on the track. We all no Monaco is like trying to get through rush hour traffic in time square. So his only chance of winning, was to get pole.

           So I will hold my hand up, and apologise to you for what I said yesterday. So I hope we can move on and continue to have constructive and insightful debates.

       • Just a quick question, where you of the same opinion during the multi 21 drama? The Schummi v Ruebens farce? Alonso v Massa farce in the German gp and the many other that have occurred similar to this? And I’m asking a genuine question here.

         I’m asking because it seems by almost everyone’s reactions and comments, that what he has done, is something new in F1. Wasn’t this what everyone was talking about and hoping would happen even before the season began. They’re all massively competitive and want to win, so if this had been any other driver who reacted this way, would we also call them names and so on?

         • Well I admit that it would be a lot of work to read all the archived posts, but I can give you the short summary:

           Multi21: I was appalled that the team employed team orders this early in the year. I still think Vettel’s reaction (ignoring it) was correct, but his inconsistency afterwards (insincere apology etc) was absolutely cringe-worthy.

           Schumacher/Barrichello at Austria: Again the team made an absolutely unneccessary decision. Nothing to criticize the drivers for. They just did what they were told.

           Alonso/Massa in germany ’10: copy-paste the the Schumacher/Barichello text

           You are right, we didn’t see such a conduct the first time. We saw it from Button, when Perez attacked him on the track. We saw it from Alonso when Massa didn’t give him enough tow in Monza, we saw it from Vettel in several races in ’12 and ’13. But if you would take of your fanboy glasses for a while, you’d remember that the majority of this site’s readers criticised all of them quite heavily for it, so why should Lewis not be held to the same standards.

         • There you go again, so because I’m trying to give a counter argument in support of the driver I’m in favour of, I’m now a “fan boy”?

           So by that reckoning, aren’t we all “fan boys” then?

           I’m relatively new to this site, so would not know what your veiws and reaction where to those incidents, hence me asking the question.

         • There is one difference, Fortis. You can support a driver and still criticise his actions if he deserves it. I’m a Vettel supporter – that’s the worst kept secret around here – but that doesn’t mean I condone of his bad conduct in the aftermath of Multi 21. I would never defend him for the half-arsed appology and then completely changing his tune two weeks later. That was just stupid.
           Several Lewis fans have voiced their dissatisfaction with how Lewis handled last weekend. That’s the difference between a fan and a fanboy. The fanboy tries to justify his hero’s actions, even if he took a leak in the hotel pool.

2. Great race for Bianchi. And Magnussen.

3. 1. Regardless of the rights or wrongs of yesterday, HAM shows a serious lack of class when he is such a sore loser. This has been prevalent throughout his career, whether it was ALO, BUT or ROS beating him – he’s never sporting at the end of the race when he loses to his teammate.
   2. I’m a little surprised MB didn’t try the obvious different strategy with HAM in the race – why not bring him in before the SC came out? He was still certain to finish second at worst. They haven’t been shy heretofore to try a different strategy when ROS has been running second.
   3. Equally, why didn’t HAM TELL his team he was coming in for new tires then? They’d have no choice but to change them then. BUT excels at those kind of decisions, if not much else. So, I don’t think he can complain too much to the team when he doesn’t have the balls himself.

   • He was saying in an interview that MB have a singular strategy team for both, non preferential, and that the lead driver gets the ‘call’, you can’t just make the call. Does seem a bit silly, but I guess its fair. The stops were really the only hope today, and the SC drawing the pit stops, and the teams system rendered that a non opportunity.

     • And that as the reason Rosberg pushed to hard to overtake before the first round of stops in Bahrain and Spain, wasn’t it? Hamilton is making drama for something he knew would happen if that’s the case. He is being inmature and risking the advantage he had in the champonship, as usual. And if they had tried something different and it hadn’t worked… he would be blaming the team and making drama anyway.

       • Yeah, definately, but in this instance he’s miffed because he didn’t get the chance to push like Rosberg did in Bahrain and Spain, as the SC in effect neutralised that, and its Monaco so overtaking in the same car someone half awake is, well….. with the exception of him maybe nipping in a lap early, i.e an alternate strat/opportunity pit, it was always a loosing drive. Its Monaco, its always a boring race, look at last year.

         Its perhaps not his finest hour, but He’s always been like that, most really competative folks are. Your last sentance is just speculation, but there is probably some truth to it. Again, its frustration, from someone competative.

       • I’ve seen it argued that he was saying that stacking the cars risked losing a place to Ricciardo, thus they should have brought someone in once it was obvious the SC would be out.

         Didn’t see it in person but makes sense.

         • They stacked anyway and made it safely as 1-2

   • He couldn’t have done so, because the team only has one strategist and the rule of thumb is, the driver in front gets first choice

     So the question now is, if the drivers and crews are competing against each other, then why is there only one strategist? Shouldn’t they each have their own? Will that one strategist remain impartial?

     • He is there to decide what is best for the team overall… 2 strategists only potentially divide the teams optimum opportunity

   • He’s not allowed to. The Merc team choose to make the pit stop calls, not the drivers

     • And if he came in anyway, you know at the last minute, before they could say no…? That’s what BUT would have done.

   • I think that Lewis would lost few positions if he was called in box a lap earlier, and then we would listen “Why did you call me earlier?” :).

     He would be cca 20 sec (one pitstop) behind Nico, 15 sec behind Kimi and 10 behind Daniel (times are examples :)) on a slower tire. When safety car is deployed all cars must drive according to delta times for sectors, slower and maintain distance. Distance between the cars would stay the same but interval would grow, if speed during safety car is 1/2 of normal speed interval would be doubled, so Lewis would be 40 sec behind Nico, 30 behind Kimi and 20 behind Daniel. Safety car or no safety car pit stop takes the same time and after their stops Nico would be 20 sec in front of Lewis, Kimi 10, and with Daniel would be close call.

     Did I miss something?

4. Magnussen has been beaten by a Marussia. 😮

   • There are a lot more being beaten by a marrusia today

   • Are you still not watching because after his luck today, my response was “how on earth did Magnussen still get points”

5. I think Lewis has lost himself a lot of fans today… I’ve never been one for taking favourites in any sport (other than Ice Hockey…) but I was willing Ricciardo on today.

   He seems to forget that it only took him 4 races to make up the deficit from failing to finish in the first race. He should have the belief in his ability and just mark this one down as a race where someone else did a better job.

   He reminds me a bit of what I was like when I was about 12 – everything that went wrong was always someone else’s fault and anyone who beat me must have been cheating. It might also be worth him remembering he’s potentially an outsider in a German team – taking that attitude will only strengthen the bond between the team and Rosberg.

   It’s such a shame – he has such innate skill and when he is happy he is really pleasant to hear being interviewed. I know he will still have lots of fans who will follow him no matter what but how he is behaving recently will mean he will lose a lot of the more casual support.

   • Apparently the tension has been festering since the Bahrain gp……

     Hamilton revealed after the Monaco GP that Rosberg had used a similar aggressive engine setting in his bid to snatch victory in Bahrain earlier this year.

     Wolff said that their actions have now forced a clampdown on the drivers, with neither now allowed to play around with the mappings settings on their own.

     “It’s never going to happen again,” declared Wolff.

     “I think they are probably exploring how far you can step up above the line and what the consequences are. But isn’t that normal?

     “You have a chance of winning the championship and as long as it is not detrimental to the team spirit, as long as it is not underhand, we will handle the situation in the way we did before.

     “The moment it goes in the direction where we believe it is not the spirit of Mercedes Benz we will act accordingly.”

     • Taken from an article on Eurosport.

     • Interesting.. but how can they stop them changing the engine mapping in car 😀

     • The difference is that Lewis has, up until now, won every race where they have both finished this season.

       And he’s done things himself that weren’t much different.

       Monaco is always a race where whoever gets pole is more that likely to go on to win. Why make such a fuss? Accept that Nico did a better job this time and go on to blow him in to the weeds for the rest of the season.

       His mood is looking so much like what we’ve seen in the past which leads to a downward spiral. He’s in danger of talking himself out of this championship rather than just getting on with doing what he does best.

6. My, the retirement list looked like my betting slip :(, never mind

7. Ps, I think Nico, should do dedicated his pole position to Schumacher 😉

   • The one that got away 😉

8. Well, securing pole basically secures you the race win, so I don’t see what is so spectacular about Rosberg winning after starting from pole at Monaco… History suggests that as long as you keep it out of the walls you win. Both Rosberg and Hamilton have now shown how much they sulk when they don’t win. Rosberg looks like a miserable c*** when he comes second to Hamilton, and Hamilton himself looks like a miserable c*** when he comes second to Rosberg.

   So now teams head to Canada, this should be interesting, as Hamilton tends to be quite good there. Not that Rosberg is a slouch but just like he has a thing for Monaco, Hamilton has a thing for Montreal. Hopefully we’ll see a cut-down on the shenanigans in qualifying. Hamilton will only be at his best if he stays focused on winning, and Rosberg should count himself lucky that he has yet to DNF.

   • Nice to see a balanced comment today !

     Got my upvote.

   • that pretty much sums it up. no need to berate hamilton for sulking, or nico for parking or not parking his car. neither of them likes to loose and since there is a lot at stake, both of them might try to use a little trick here and there. it’s spicing up the championship and makes it a lot more entertaining than the last couple of years. in the end, that’s what legendary battles are made of.

     • Like the late Vince Lombardi said….

       “Show me a happy loser and I’ll show you a loser”

       Off to Canada we go.

   • A Nico retirement would basically make it Lewis’ championship to lose..

9. as a follower of F1 since 1962 and a former driver (at a much lower level), I am totally conflicted re: the Q3 incident with Nico. I guess I would have to be friends with him AND see the telemetry to make a truly informed decision.

   however, the total lack of any social interaction between Lewis and Nico has come across to me as being akin to a couple of petulant little worthless twerps / spoiled brats. neither them nor Mercedes (who is openly fostering this childishness) any longer have my respect as a viable Corporation, a Man, a competitor, nor an ambassidor for the sport/biz of F1…

   kudos to Jules, Daniel and even Daniil and Hulk
   thanks to Renault for being such garbage – ala Lotus/Judd

   while being fairly good for Monaco, the Indy 500 was much more compelling – just read the story lines…

   Rich

   • @Titanracer69 not to toot my own horn too much but did you by chance take a gander at this: http://thejudge13.com/2014/05/24/f1-days-of-our-lives-letters-from-camp-edition/

     If not you might find it amusing. 🙂

     • yes! it was hilarious in print. on live tv, not so much 🙂

   • I could be wrong but I got the impression Nico was looking for a sign from Lewis that he was open to conversation. Lewis completely blanked him.

     But of course, you don’t know what would have happened if the situation was reversed. I get the feeling Nico is maybe less likely to behave like that – he at least seemed to be prepared to congratulate Lewis in Bahrain despite some robust defending.

     What gets me is that we are less than a third of the way through the championship and this is the first race where they both finished that Lewis didn’t win. He’d look so much better if he sucked it up, shook Nico’s hand then blew him away in the rest of the races this season. Whether he does or not now he has given a poor impression to his fans.

     To me, there is a danger of McLaren happening all over again. There is no way Jenson should have matched Lewis when they were together, I don’t think Jenson is such a bad driver as many on here make out, but there is no way he has the ability Lewis has to drive anything he is given as fast as possible. However, he got under his skin and eventually pushed him out. Lewis needs to learn from that and not let the same thing happen with Nico.

10. Well, I hadn’t realized that Kimi was back in Lotus! Will someone please correct the final results table, please. 😉

    • To be fair, Kimi scored the same amount of points for all the teams he was driving for this weekend 😉 Though he did drive the fastest lap while he was in the Ferrari …

      On the subject of Lotus, I see that MAL is now officially at the bottom of the table (even below the drivers in the non-scoring teams). He seems to have a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time …

11. Wrong.
    It was Button who put a novice “move” on Perez. Very poor. Put his nose where it didn’t belong.

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