72 responses to “Rate the Race: FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2015”
Good beginning, little dip in the middle, strong finish ( due to different circumstances, although both where cockups) gave it a 6.
Rated 7. For mclaren’s first points and mad Max’s shunt which led to the most bizarre decision by Mercedes to stop Lewis. May be he was asking for it last year, and they did it this year. Great reaction time from Mercedes Benz. Royal screw job
1.
That was an FIA-approved sham… First they trigger the VSC, yet the dwarf gives a nod and the Merc is sent out front for a shambolic 10 laps or so of SC advertising.
Then they penalize Fred with 5sec for his coming together with Hulk in T5, when Fred was side by side with the FI and had claim to that corner, so Hulk was in a position to back down. YET when Danny boy barges in on Kimi and has NO CLAIM on the apex of T5 whatsoever, the nice professional stewards at FIA rule that Danny boy is squeaky clean! How inconsistent can it get?!
In all likelihood Verstappen won’t get a grid penalty for the next GP for having rammed into another car and ruined Grosjean’s race, and the FIA’s stewarding of the Monaco GP will have been complete.
You deel bad for grosjean? Really? Its karma if anything…
Alonso’s penalty was a big cock up which thankfully didnt cost him.
No, not really. If Maximilian needed to find someone on whom to learn how to crash an F1 car (and he was badly looking for such an opportunity since the beginning of the season), the Grosjean CrashKids School seems as good as any. We know karma is pestering Pastor; a little bit tricks to Grosjean, too.
He was badly looking for it? What are you looking for in a RACING driver? Rosberg or Hamilton? Sainz or verstappen? Apparently Nico “always a dull moment” Rosberg by the sound of things.
This race would have been amazingly dull without MV in my honest opinion.
MV is still a Diamond in the rough just like vettel was, just like Senna was. You need to keep an eye on the end result is all im saying.
Mad Max was taking too many risks, from the beginning of the season, and rear-ending another car was simply a matter of time. I had predicted something similar happening in the aftermath of China…
I could not agree more, this lack of consistency from Tom K. and crew makes F1 look like an even bigger joke than it already is.
10/10. This season needed some drama and we just got it in spades.
I believe the expression is…
PMSL
Hard luck, but still bloody funny 🙂
Gave it a 7, it was a bit better than what I expected from a Monaco GP.
Who would have thought? A Monaco GP worth watching until the end. Thank you Mercedes.
I’m glad Max walked away from a nasty one. But as predicted (insert self-deprecating tone here), Carlos ahead of Max when it counted and one more championship point.
Meanwhile Max captures more race hearts.. We’ll find out which approach is best.
According to lauda, paddy Lowe made the call to pit, overruling everyone else in the process. Lol.
“paddy Lowe made the call to pit”
Ouch! I wouldn’t entrust Paddy with such decisions… Ever.
You’re probably right re. who’s going to get the better treatment between the TR drivers. Should a seat open up at RBR, there is no doubt in my mind that Max would get the nod.
I hear HAM has renamed him Paddy Love.
“According to lauda, paddy Lowe made the call to pit, overruling everyone else in the process.”
really? in the interview i saw, he complained that there were “too many cooks” discussing too much, and that somebody (paddy lowe) should have put a stop to it and overruled them but didn’t. he also said that this was a general problem at mercedes.
Can someone clarify why RIC was asked to let Kaviat (probably misspelled…) through at the very end btw? Odd team decision from what I can tell…
In my understanding, Danny boy had newer tires and the RB pit were expecting a penalty for his indiscretion on Kimi, so they wanted him to go in free air and put a 5sec cushion between him and Kimi so as to offset a potential penalty. When that penalty didn’t come, they wanted to reestablish “fair” racing order, so they let Daniil through at the very end.
Incorrect….
Because he pit and was on new tires, they allowed to get pass Kyvatt with the hope of passing either Lewis or Seb so as to get on the podium. But they told him that if he couldn’t, he would have to give the position back. Which was what he did.
Of course this is what they’ll say, because saying that you expect a penalty on the radio may be construed as admission of guilt. Since they knew full well that overtaking was supremely unlikely, I’ll stick to the covering potential penalty theory.
That actually makes sense, thanks.
Yes, it was a brave play on RB’s part, and well played, too. I was impressed.
Man I doubt anyone in Hollywood could’ve written a script like what I just witnessed!
SiS must be laughing so hard right now. Which ironically wouldnt be surprising at all haha.
When they showed the Merc crew out in the pitlane, I was thinking….. WTF!!!!!!
The excuse they gave of covering off the Ferrari’s was a joke. Seb was behind Nico, so even if he had boxed, it wouldn’t have changed the out outcome of the race.
I gave it an 8 and a 9. Apparantly that was possible.
Max entertained the hell out of us. And at the end of the day, reminded me of Jos.
And then the Mercedes crew.
The theories which will emerge here will lengthen the pleasure!
This race was running about a 3 up until Mad Max appeared. Then it went to about a 7 due to the drama that followed.
Some quick points:
1.) Max – he’s being near doing that for a while now. Out braking himself and turning it into an overtake to save his skin, today he got it wrong. If his name were Pastor or Romain (or Rosberg or Perez for that matter) he’d be slated by all.
2.) The Hamilton issue, I’m sure the Judge will look at this. but… The lap prior to the safety car Hamilton had 17s on Rosberg. With the safety car out, it was suddenly 24.5s. How so? Did the timing screens not work properly (giving Merc false info to base Lewis’s pitstop request on) or did Rosberg go slowly initially under the VSC then realise and speed up a bit to meet his delta? Either way, I’m pretty sure this will be where the Merc error was made, looking and seeing a 24s+ gap when in reality it wasn’t that big.
“Max – he’s being near doing that for a while now. Out braking himself and turning it into an overtake to save his skin”
Exactly. Couldn’t have said it better myself. Nice touch on Mad Max — for now it’s more fitting than Maximilian…
‘Mad Max’ is reserved for ‘Spanky’ Mosley.
How about Max(imum) Overdrive?
Seriously, it the roles had been reversed in the Max/Grosjean accident, GRO would have been chastised and given some sort of penalty as this was nothing like a “racing incident”. But, you know, he is only 17, a rookie, sponsored by Red Bull, blah blah blah.
Well, Max is now stating that GRO text-braked him by changing is breaking point vs the previous lap, but he was actually given a 5-spot grid penalty for the next race, so….
Yet we all know the one who hits the other from behind is in fault. only the dutch see it a bit different but who can blame them, max is a big talent and they love their talents…
Totally. I was in no way suggesting that this wasn’t Max’s fault 🙂
I’m dutch and would love to see Vandoorne succeed at Mclaren, go figure. The biggest critics of dutch athletes are usually the dutch themselves tbh. Keep on hating.
I wasnt hating, I like max. I laugh with the dutch sometimes but that’s just for a bit of fun (life is to serious as it is)
Max had new tires and Romain old, used ones. Romain brakes earlier, and Max was following too closely. I remember to his chagrin Nick Heidfeld made a similar misjudgment in his Lotus years with the blown diffuser, flying over a some other hapless car at Monaco…
Good to hear Mad Max gets a penalty for next GP. At least some sense coming from the stewards today…
Better yet, Grosjean pulled the same stunt on Vergne in 2013.
I gave the race a ’10’ because, 1) I love the Monaco GP generally and, 2) This was Monaco at its finest. I enjoyed the whole race from the slippery start to Verstappen’s crash, let alone the strategic blunder. This is the pain and beauty of Monaco… This is why the victories here are so special, and why it is part of the ‘Triple Crown of Motorsport’. There have been as many great losses as there have been great victories. Nigel Mansell spoke eloquently on the matter post race. It’s pure elation to win it and devastating to loss it when a driver is owning the race, as Lewis was. Senna, Schumacher, Mansell etc all should have more Monaco GP wins, or more correctly, all had wins fall away from them whilst dominating…
A few notes:
-Curmudgeon brought this to my attention on Twitter, but I think Lewis lied about being even with Vettel. He was clearly behind Vettel at the white line. Either way, Vettel correctly kept 2nd position. No harm, no foul I suppose… I think Lewis would have known he was behind, it’s clear enough.
-Rosberg has, for whatever reason, carved 17 points out of Lewis’ championship lead, which is good for the championship; certainly at this early stage. Swings and roundabouts…
-Rosberg is a three-time winner now of the Monaco GP… Only Senna (6), G.Hill (5), Schumacher (5) and Prost (4) have more victories. Only Senna, G.Hill, Prost and now N.Rosberg have won it three consecutive times.
-Hamilton, whilst understandably gutted, acted and presented far better than he did last year in the post-race celebrations, and with more reason to lose his shit I might add. I have noticed a far more resilient Lewis this season. It’s good to see. We all know he destroyed Rosberg this weekend, but that’s Monaco. That’s why the victories there are so special and why it’s part of the Triple Crown…
-There’s a fair bit of schadenfreude about the strategist getting it wrong, I even made a meme about it on my Twitter, but I am curious to see how much of the stop was “strategist” and how much was “Lewis” wanting to pit… I don’t think the situation is crystal clear yet. Details are emerging on the matter.
-Verstappen is going to learn the hard way…
“Rosberg is a three-time winner now of the Monaco GP”
In part courtesy of two particularly well placed yellow flags (one possibly of his own intentional doing), on weekends on which he didn’t particularly impress relative to his teammate… Takes a bit from the shine of the achievement…
I agree. Check out my Twitter, if you want, as I made a meme of that very thing…
@WTF_F1
The first part of your post is correct, the rest is of no importance.
Actually, all 3 of Rosberg’s achievements in Monaco were obtained in iffy circumstances. In addition to the two fortuitous yellow flags, his first win came from Merc choosing to go as fast as a snail (courtesy of Ross Brawn)…
@landroni “Takes a bit from the shine of the achievement…”
As did the consistent suggestions Ferrari ‘cheated’ year after year during the last five of Michael Schumacher’s 7 world championship titles.
@thejudge13
Yes, that too. Nico’s being ecstatic reminded me of two separate incidents, actually. One being the infamous press conf where Lewis and Seb wiped the floor with Nico at the beginning of the year. Can’t find the reference, but Nico was saying something along the lines of “it’s good when other cars take points off of my teammate”, and both Vettel and Hamilton jumped on him saying that “not everyone thinks that way” implying that they were both more content with beating their direct rivals on track, whereas Nico was (actively) hoping for their rivals to get beaten by other cars.
The 2nd incident was Kovalainen’s first and only victory. It came in the wrong circumstances, after Vettel’s RB popped up (I think), and he didn’t feel like he deserved it and the awkwardness was palpable after the race. Contrast this to Rosberg’s joyful enjoyment of his Monaco wins both this year and last year…
Lewis’ comments about his role….
“”To be honest it happened so fast I didn’t really know what was going on. It was a good race up until then. I can’t really express the way I feel at the moment so I won’t even attempt to. You rely on your team and I saw a screen and it looked like the team was out, so I thought Nico had pitted. Obviously I couldn’t see the guys behind so I thought the guys behind were pitting.
“When the team said to stay out I said that these tyres were going to drop in temperature and what I was assuming was these guys would be on options, and I was on the harder tyre, so they said to pit. So without thinking I came in with full confidence that the others had done the same.”
Now even if he was concerned about Seb and Nico being on fresh options, the te still should’ve told him to stay out.
Earlier in the race, there was a radio message to one of the drivers (can’t remember who) telling him that the yellowatked tires are switching on much better than originally thought. So even if they had fresh tires, he still had the upper hand, especially when we look at Kimi failing to get pass Kyvatt despite being on tires 9 laps fresher.
Against my better judgement, but anyway…
“Now even if he was concerned about Seb and Nico being on fresh options, the te still should’ve told him to stay out.” – Fortis
They did tell him to stay out, according to Lewis anyway, which you yourself quoted…
“When the team said to stay out I said that these tyres were going to drop in temperature and what I was assuming was these guys would be on options, and I was on the harder tyre, so they said to pit. So without thinking I came in with full confidence that the others had done the same.” – Lewis in post-race conference
It’s sounding like Lewis took his lead, and made assumptions, from a trackside screen, which I garnered from another quote attributed to Lewis in your comment.
It also sounding like the team did say “stay out” initially and that – based on the on track screen – Lewis convinced them to allow the pit, and he pulled in.
Not entirely sure this is the case. But it doesn’t seem black and white to me, even with the Mercedes apology on the calculation… Details continue to emerge. It may take a day or two.
One thing we can agree on, Lewis should not have come in.
I’m guessing where Mercedes are to blame is that their poor calculation allowed the option to pit safely to remain on the table, thus giving Lewis the ability to push for that option, instead of saying, it’s not an option.
Badly written comment. I blame that one on being too pissed off to think straight….
Dear Fortis, I´m totally confused! This new Fortis, so cautious and civil, are you channeling your hero? Where is the fire and damn the ack ack spitrit 😉
Agree with it all apart from how he acted, how we meet defeat defines us as a man and sadly he (lewis) has done himself no favours. From hitting the sign on parkup followed by a slow,teenager walk to the podium then walking away during the interviews and lastly refusing to attend the post race photo. All this could have been kept in check, he is a double (soon to be treble) world champion. Yes,you have had a really bad day but dont kick the dog
Emotions are a big part of F1. Its sterile enough as is man…
You’re joking right?
@fortis96..no joke, he had a really great race and controlled everything up to the forced pitstop. There have been reports of Lewis insisting on a pitstop but I don’t really hold to that thought, my guess was the team saw the gap, thought they had enough time to give him fresh boots without dropping a place. I did wonder if the sauber hampered him here but as a whole, a real cluster f#@k by Merc, a team missing Ross (to coin a phrase)for sure. Its just the way he dealt with the blow,yes,last yr there prob would have been tantrums at teatime so its an improved champion but the petulant kid attitude is still there. Again,how we deal with defeat marks who we are and a show of support to his team(who must be kicking themselves harder than he would) makes a difference.Like him or not he is still the champion and fought hard to be there but he is also an ambassador for the sport and many young drivers and fans look to the guy so he needs to put aside his personal feelings and be the professional,Lewis is a good champion but with some polish he could become a great one.imho he just needs to drop this attitude,it really doesnt suit him
Well, I did LOL when he hit the sign, then I was thinking of Fortis and LOL a lot more.
My driving hero got one in the a$$ as usual, but that was expected and of course the blind men saw nothing wrong, or maybe Monaco has adopted rallycross rules, what do I know.
Indeed. Even if hamilton looked pissed (with every right ofcourse) he did behave him self in a mature manner. Suits him much better and this doesn’t give the haters a chance to beat him when he’s down…
After the last race, I suggested maybe it was possible time for HAM to have an “engine malfunction” since he had unnecessarily push his and ROS’s engine in Spain. Some here got offended suggesting that HAM could get hurt or worse should this happen. Well,the Merc team seem to have agreed and delivered a “pit wall” ,malfunction instead. All is well that ends well 🙂
Now why would you wish for any driver to suffer an engine failure? If the team felt he was putting undo stress on the engine, they would’ve said so. And Rosberg didn’t put any stress on his engine.
HAM decided to ignore team orders in Spain, hence putting extra stress on both Mercedes engines as ROS had to push more. Not sure what else you need? Also, I never said that I wished him or anyone any physical harm, just got your panties out if whack here.
Nico had a 20+ seconds lead with 13 laps or so to go, Lewis would have needed to take 2 seconds a lap to take the win. With a couple laps to go, the gap was 13 seconds and that’s without Nico having to push. Lewis stressed his engine, Nico was cruising out in front.
What a disaster for LH. That was the grossest pit mistake I can ever remember. Haters must have loved it though and I expect plenty of mentions to ‘Hamfosi’ from the writers here.
Hard to classify this as the worst pit stop ever, since we don’t know if it will cost him a championship.
The two worst pit stops ever were Irvine’s 1999 European Grand Prix pit stop and Massa’s 2008 Singapore Grand Prix pit stop. If these two pit stops were normal pit stops, both of them would have been world champions.
Needless bullshit drama just had to happen, of course. I feel for Hamilton, he tries really hard for Monaco but it just won’t ever come together, stars won’t align and all that. If the decision to pit came from Paddy Lowe, then I guess we will see Hamilton go with his gut-feeling more next time, but that doesn’t really change the problem.
I hope Hamilton doesn’t dwell on this one and moves on. For the first time, he had Rosberg beaten in Monaco and I hope that him and his crew don’t lose sight of this. He got pole, he controlled the race and did what any driver would have done to win in Monaco but one idiotic driver ramming another is not something he can do anything about.
Unbe-fu*king-lievable, mercedes display a masterclass in how to make a dog’s arse of a 20 second lead by pitting under safety car when there’s nothing to be gained. Hamilton handled that botch up far better than i did at home.
Lewis’ pace was simply outstanding this weekend – could have been a bigger gap if he really had pushed. Potentially a second a lap faster… Rosberg should be spooked, the same car and to have that pace in hand is the stuff of legends.
“Unbe-fu*king-lievable, mercedes display a masterclass in how to make a dog’s arse of a 20 second lead by pitting under safety car when there’s nothing to be gained. ”
yup, they managed to win the 2015 mclaren trophy for most embarrassing way to shoot yourself in the food after only six races and with all the top brass of the company present. must be a new record. on rtl, lauda made this a clear leadership issue (he basically pointed the finger at paddy lowe). since leadership was the issue last season already, maybe this is finally a wake up call to sort these things out once and for all.
Trouble is, Paddy can’t lead. And unless Toto takes the reins, which nominally he should be as Paddy is merely responsible for the cars to paddle as they’re supposed to, there ain’t anyone left. Well, unless they put Niki in charge of all those snap decisions that need to be taken… 🙂
Weren’t you, a 40 year long loyal F1 fan, gonna keep away from F1 after the race in Monza last year?
Or do you just enjoy looking up pics of Lewis?
Bit of an Elton John pubic hair wig maybe!
Come on that’s was such a joke with ham. Can’t believe that happened. Nico with his sh*t eaten grin.
Luck box. And don’t want to hear how verstapen was driving so well!! He didn’t he fkd the whole race. Only good thing was seb got 2nd.
Would love to see nico in an rb and see how that panned out. He is such a luck box.
Yes, he was lucky, and I love it!
While it was a bad call, it went worse that it could have. Lewis seemed to go just long on his marks in the pit box so the stop was longer than necessary and he then had to wait for another car coming down the pit lane. Without either of those he would have made P2 after the stop at least and I can’t see the team not asking Rosberg to make up for their mistake.
Good beginning, little dip in the middle, strong finish ( due to different circumstances, although both where cockups) gave it a 6.
Rated 7. For mclaren’s first points and mad Max’s shunt which led to the most bizarre decision by Mercedes to stop Lewis. May be he was asking for it last year, and they did it this year. Great reaction time from Mercedes Benz. Royal screw job
1.
That was an FIA-approved sham… First they trigger the VSC, yet the dwarf gives a nod and the Merc is sent out front for a shambolic 10 laps or so of SC advertising.
Then they penalize Fred with 5sec for his coming together with Hulk in T5, when Fred was side by side with the FI and had claim to that corner, so Hulk was in a position to back down. YET when Danny boy barges in on Kimi and has NO CLAIM on the apex of T5 whatsoever, the nice professional stewards at FIA rule that Danny boy is squeaky clean! How inconsistent can it get?!
In all likelihood Verstappen won’t get a grid penalty for the next GP for having rammed into another car and ruined Grosjean’s race, and the FIA’s stewarding of the Monaco GP will have been complete.
You deel bad for grosjean? Really? Its karma if anything…
Alonso’s penalty was a big cock up which thankfully didnt cost him.
No, not really. If Maximilian needed to find someone on whom to learn how to crash an F1 car (and he was badly looking for such an opportunity since the beginning of the season), the Grosjean CrashKids School seems as good as any. We know karma is pestering Pastor; a little bit tricks to Grosjean, too.
He was badly looking for it? What are you looking for in a RACING driver? Rosberg or Hamilton? Sainz or verstappen? Apparently Nico “always a dull moment” Rosberg by the sound of things.
This race would have been amazingly dull without MV in my honest opinion.
MV is still a Diamond in the rough just like vettel was, just like Senna was. You need to keep an eye on the end result is all im saying.
Mad Max was taking too many risks, from the beginning of the season, and rear-ending another car was simply a matter of time. I had predicted something similar happening in the aftermath of China…
I could not agree more, this lack of consistency from Tom K. and crew makes F1 look like an even bigger joke than it already is.
10/10. This season needed some drama and we just got it in spades.
I believe the expression is…
PMSL
Hard luck, but still bloody funny 🙂
Gave it a 7, it was a bit better than what I expected from a Monaco GP.
Who would have thought? A Monaco GP worth watching until the end. Thank you Mercedes.
I’m glad Max walked away from a nasty one. But as predicted (insert self-deprecating tone here), Carlos ahead of Max when it counted and one more championship point.
Meanwhile Max captures more race hearts.. We’ll find out which approach is best.
According to lauda, paddy Lowe made the call to pit, overruling everyone else in the process. Lol.
“paddy Lowe made the call to pit”
Ouch! I wouldn’t entrust Paddy with such decisions… Ever.
You’re probably right re. who’s going to get the better treatment between the TR drivers. Should a seat open up at RBR, there is no doubt in my mind that Max would get the nod.
I hear HAM has renamed him Paddy Love.
“According to lauda, paddy Lowe made the call to pit, overruling everyone else in the process.”
really? in the interview i saw, he complained that there were “too many cooks” discussing too much, and that somebody (paddy lowe) should have put a stop to it and overruled them but didn’t. he also said that this was a general problem at mercedes.
Can someone clarify why RIC was asked to let Kaviat (probably misspelled…) through at the very end btw? Odd team decision from what I can tell…
In my understanding, Danny boy had newer tires and the RB pit were expecting a penalty for his indiscretion on Kimi, so they wanted him to go in free air and put a 5sec cushion between him and Kimi so as to offset a potential penalty. When that penalty didn’t come, they wanted to reestablish “fair” racing order, so they let Daniil through at the very end.
Incorrect….
Because he pit and was on new tires, they allowed to get pass Kyvatt with the hope of passing either Lewis or Seb so as to get on the podium. But they told him that if he couldn’t, he would have to give the position back. Which was what he did.
Of course this is what they’ll say, because saying that you expect a penalty on the radio may be construed as admission of guilt. Since they knew full well that overtaking was supremely unlikely, I’ll stick to the covering potential penalty theory.
That actually makes sense, thanks.
Yes, it was a brave play on RB’s part, and well played, too. I was impressed.
Man I doubt anyone in Hollywood could’ve written a script like what I just witnessed!
SiS must be laughing so hard right now. Which ironically wouldnt be surprising at all haha.
When they showed the Merc crew out in the pitlane, I was thinking….. WTF!!!!!!
The excuse they gave of covering off the Ferrari’s was a joke. Seb was behind Nico, so even if he had boxed, it wouldn’t have changed the out outcome of the race.
I gave it an 8 and a 9. Apparantly that was possible.
Max entertained the hell out of us. And at the end of the day, reminded me of Jos.
And then the Mercedes crew.
The theories which will emerge here will lengthen the pleasure!
This race was running about a 3 up until Mad Max appeared. Then it went to about a 7 due to the drama that followed.
Some quick points:
1.) Max – he’s being near doing that for a while now. Out braking himself and turning it into an overtake to save his skin, today he got it wrong. If his name were Pastor or Romain (or Rosberg or Perez for that matter) he’d be slated by all.
2.) The Hamilton issue, I’m sure the Judge will look at this. but… The lap prior to the safety car Hamilton had 17s on Rosberg. With the safety car out, it was suddenly 24.5s. How so? Did the timing screens not work properly (giving Merc false info to base Lewis’s pitstop request on) or did Rosberg go slowly initially under the VSC then realise and speed up a bit to meet his delta? Either way, I’m pretty sure this will be where the Merc error was made, looking and seeing a 24s+ gap when in reality it wasn’t that big.
“Max – he’s being near doing that for a while now. Out braking himself and turning it into an overtake to save his skin”
Exactly. Couldn’t have said it better myself. Nice touch on Mad Max — for now it’s more fitting than Maximilian…
‘Mad Max’ is reserved for ‘Spanky’ Mosley.
How about Max(imum) Overdrive?
Seriously, it the roles had been reversed in the Max/Grosjean accident, GRO would have been chastised and given some sort of penalty as this was nothing like a “racing incident”. But, you know, he is only 17, a rookie, sponsored by Red Bull, blah blah blah.
Well, Max is now stating that GRO text-braked him by changing is breaking point vs the previous lap, but he was actually given a 5-spot grid penalty for the next race, so….
http://en.f1i.com/news/13274-verstappen-blames-grosjean-for-brake-test.html
Yet we all know the one who hits the other from behind is in fault. only the dutch see it a bit different but who can blame them, max is a big talent and they love their talents…
Totally. I was in no way suggesting that this wasn’t Max’s fault 🙂
I’m dutch and would love to see Vandoorne succeed at Mclaren, go figure. The biggest critics of dutch athletes are usually the dutch themselves tbh. Keep on hating.
I wasnt hating, I like max. I laugh with the dutch sometimes but that’s just for a bit of fun (life is to serious as it is)
Max had new tires and Romain old, used ones. Romain brakes earlier, and Max was following too closely. I remember to his chagrin Nick Heidfeld made a similar misjudgment in his Lotus years with the blown diffuser, flying over a some other hapless car at Monaco…
Good to hear Mad Max gets a penalty for next GP. At least some sense coming from the stewards today…
Better yet, Grosjean pulled the same stunt on Vergne in 2013.
I gave the race a ’10’ because, 1) I love the Monaco GP generally and, 2) This was Monaco at its finest. I enjoyed the whole race from the slippery start to Verstappen’s crash, let alone the strategic blunder. This is the pain and beauty of Monaco… This is why the victories here are so special, and why it is part of the ‘Triple Crown of Motorsport’. There have been as many great losses as there have been great victories. Nigel Mansell spoke eloquently on the matter post race. It’s pure elation to win it and devastating to loss it when a driver is owning the race, as Lewis was. Senna, Schumacher, Mansell etc all should have more Monaco GP wins, or more correctly, all had wins fall away from them whilst dominating…
A few notes:
-Curmudgeon brought this to my attention on Twitter, but I think Lewis lied about being even with Vettel. He was clearly behind Vettel at the white line. Either way, Vettel correctly kept 2nd position. No harm, no foul I suppose… I think Lewis would have known he was behind, it’s clear enough.
-Rosberg has, for whatever reason, carved 17 points out of Lewis’ championship lead, which is good for the championship; certainly at this early stage. Swings and roundabouts…
-Rosberg is a three-time winner now of the Monaco GP… Only Senna (6), G.Hill (5), Schumacher (5) and Prost (4) have more victories. Only Senna, G.Hill, Prost and now N.Rosberg have won it three consecutive times.
-Hamilton, whilst understandably gutted, acted and presented far better than he did last year in the post-race celebrations, and with more reason to lose his shit I might add. I have noticed a far more resilient Lewis this season. It’s good to see. We all know he destroyed Rosberg this weekend, but that’s Monaco. That’s why the victories there are so special and why it’s part of the Triple Crown…
-There’s a fair bit of schadenfreude about the strategist getting it wrong, I even made a meme about it on my Twitter, but I am curious to see how much of the stop was “strategist” and how much was “Lewis” wanting to pit… I don’t think the situation is crystal clear yet. Details are emerging on the matter.
-Verstappen is going to learn the hard way…
“Rosberg is a three-time winner now of the Monaco GP”
In part courtesy of two particularly well placed yellow flags (one possibly of his own intentional doing), on weekends on which he didn’t particularly impress relative to his teammate… Takes a bit from the shine of the achievement…
I agree. Check out my Twitter, if you want, as I made a meme of that very thing…
@WTF_F1
The first part of your post is correct, the rest is of no importance.
Actually, all 3 of Rosberg’s achievements in Monaco were obtained in iffy circumstances. In addition to the two fortuitous yellow flags, his first win came from Merc choosing to go as fast as a snail (courtesy of Ross Brawn)…
@landroni “Takes a bit from the shine of the achievement…”
As did the consistent suggestions Ferrari ‘cheated’ year after year during the last five of Michael Schumacher’s 7 world championship titles.
@thejudge13
Yes, that too. Nico’s being ecstatic reminded me of two separate incidents, actually. One being the infamous press conf where Lewis and Seb wiped the floor with Nico at the beginning of the year. Can’t find the reference, but Nico was saying something along the lines of “it’s good when other cars take points off of my teammate”, and both Vettel and Hamilton jumped on him saying that “not everyone thinks that way” implying that they were both more content with beating their direct rivals on track, whereas Nico was (actively) hoping for their rivals to get beaten by other cars.
The 2nd incident was Kovalainen’s first and only victory. It came in the wrong circumstances, after Vettel’s RB popped up (I think), and he didn’t feel like he deserved it and the awkwardness was palpable after the race. Contrast this to Rosberg’s joyful enjoyment of his Monaco wins both this year and last year…
Lewis’ comments about his role….
“”To be honest it happened so fast I didn’t really know what was going on. It was a good race up until then. I can’t really express the way I feel at the moment so I won’t even attempt to. You rely on your team and I saw a screen and it looked like the team was out, so I thought Nico had pitted. Obviously I couldn’t see the guys behind so I thought the guys behind were pitting.
“When the team said to stay out I said that these tyres were going to drop in temperature and what I was assuming was these guys would be on options, and I was on the harder tyre, so they said to pit. So without thinking I came in with full confidence that the others had done the same.”
Now even if he was concerned about Seb and Nico being on fresh options, the te still should’ve told him to stay out.
Earlier in the race, there was a radio message to one of the drivers (can’t remember who) telling him that the yellowatked tires are switching on much better than originally thought. So even if they had fresh tires, he still had the upper hand, especially when we look at Kimi failing to get pass Kyvatt despite being on tires 9 laps fresher.
Against my better judgement, but anyway…
“Now even if he was concerned about Seb and Nico being on fresh options, the te still should’ve told him to stay out.” – Fortis
They did tell him to stay out, according to Lewis anyway, which you yourself quoted…
“When the team said to stay out I said that these tyres were going to drop in temperature and what I was assuming was these guys would be on options, and I was on the harder tyre, so they said to pit. So without thinking I came in with full confidence that the others had done the same.” – Lewis in post-race conference
It’s sounding like Lewis took his lead, and made assumptions, from a trackside screen, which I garnered from another quote attributed to Lewis in your comment.
It also sounding like the team did say “stay out” initially and that – based on the on track screen – Lewis convinced them to allow the pit, and he pulled in.
Not entirely sure this is the case. But it doesn’t seem black and white to me, even with the Mercedes apology on the calculation… Details continue to emerge. It may take a day or two.
One thing we can agree on, Lewis should not have come in.
I’m guessing where Mercedes are to blame is that their poor calculation allowed the option to pit safely to remain on the table, thus giving Lewis the ability to push for that option, instead of saying, it’s not an option.
Badly written comment. I blame that one on being too pissed off to think straight….
Dear Fortis, I´m totally confused! This new Fortis, so cautious and civil, are you channeling your hero? Where is the fire and damn the ack ack spitrit 😉
Agree with it all apart from how he acted, how we meet defeat defines us as a man and sadly he (lewis) has done himself no favours. From hitting the sign on parkup followed by a slow,teenager walk to the podium then walking away during the interviews and lastly refusing to attend the post race photo. All this could have been kept in check, he is a double (soon to be treble) world champion. Yes,you have had a really bad day but dont kick the dog
Emotions are a big part of F1. Its sterile enough as is man…
You’re joking right?
@fortis96..no joke, he had a really great race and controlled everything up to the forced pitstop. There have been reports of Lewis insisting on a pitstop but I don’t really hold to that thought, my guess was the team saw the gap, thought they had enough time to give him fresh boots without dropping a place. I did wonder if the sauber hampered him here but as a whole, a real cluster f#@k by Merc, a team missing Ross (to coin a phrase)for sure. Its just the way he dealt with the blow,yes,last yr there prob would have been tantrums at teatime so its an improved champion but the petulant kid attitude is still there. Again,how we deal with defeat marks who we are and a show of support to his team(who must be kicking themselves harder than he would) makes a difference.Like him or not he is still the champion and fought hard to be there but he is also an ambassador for the sport and many young drivers and fans look to the guy so he needs to put aside his personal feelings and be the professional,Lewis is a good champion but with some polish he could become a great one.imho he just needs to drop this attitude,it really doesnt suit him
Well, I did LOL when he hit the sign, then I was thinking of Fortis and LOL a lot more.
My driving hero got one in the a$$ as usual, but that was expected and of course the blind men saw nothing wrong, or maybe Monaco has adopted rallycross rules, what do I know.
Indeed. Even if hamilton looked pissed (with every right ofcourse) he did behave him self in a mature manner. Suits him much better and this doesn’t give the haters a chance to beat him when he’s down…
After the last race, I suggested maybe it was possible time for HAM to have an “engine malfunction” since he had unnecessarily push his and ROS’s engine in Spain. Some here got offended suggesting that HAM could get hurt or worse should this happen. Well,the Merc team seem to have agreed and delivered a “pit wall” ,malfunction instead. All is well that ends well 🙂
Now why would you wish for any driver to suffer an engine failure? If the team felt he was putting undo stress on the engine, they would’ve said so. And Rosberg didn’t put any stress on his engine.
HAM decided to ignore team orders in Spain, hence putting extra stress on both Mercedes engines as ROS had to push more. Not sure what else you need? Also, I never said that I wished him or anyone any physical harm, just got your panties out if whack here.
http://www.news.com.au/sport/motorsport/lewis-hamilton-bristles-over-team-orders-at-spanish-grand-prix/story-fnec578q-1227349955015
Nico had a 20+ seconds lead with 13 laps or so to go, Lewis would have needed to take 2 seconds a lap to take the win. With a couple laps to go, the gap was 13 seconds and that’s without Nico having to push. Lewis stressed his engine, Nico was cruising out in front.
What a disaster for LH. That was the grossest pit mistake I can ever remember. Haters must have loved it though and I expect plenty of mentions to ‘Hamfosi’ from the writers here.
Hard to classify this as the worst pit stop ever, since we don’t know if it will cost him a championship.
The two worst pit stops ever were Irvine’s 1999 European Grand Prix pit stop and Massa’s 2008 Singapore Grand Prix pit stop. If these two pit stops were normal pit stops, both of them would have been world champions.
Needless bullshit drama just had to happen, of course. I feel for Hamilton, he tries really hard for Monaco but it just won’t ever come together, stars won’t align and all that. If the decision to pit came from Paddy Lowe, then I guess we will see Hamilton go with his gut-feeling more next time, but that doesn’t really change the problem.
I hope Hamilton doesn’t dwell on this one and moves on. For the first time, he had Rosberg beaten in Monaco and I hope that him and his crew don’t lose sight of this. He got pole, he controlled the race and did what any driver would have done to win in Monaco but one idiotic driver ramming another is not something he can do anything about.
Unbe-fu*king-lievable, mercedes display a masterclass in how to make a dog’s arse of a 20 second lead by pitting under safety car when there’s nothing to be gained. Hamilton handled that botch up far better than i did at home.
Lewis’ pace was simply outstanding this weekend – could have been a bigger gap if he really had pushed. Potentially a second a lap faster… Rosberg should be spooked, the same car and to have that pace in hand is the stuff of legends.
“Unbe-fu*king-lievable, mercedes display a masterclass in how to make a dog’s arse of a 20 second lead by pitting under safety car when there’s nothing to be gained. ”
yup, they managed to win the 2015 mclaren trophy for most embarrassing way to shoot yourself in the food after only six races and with all the top brass of the company present. must be a new record. on rtl, lauda made this a clear leadership issue (he basically pointed the finger at paddy lowe). since leadership was the issue last season already, maybe this is finally a wake up call to sort these things out once and for all.
Trouble is, Paddy can’t lead. And unless Toto takes the reins, which nominally he should be as Paddy is merely responsible for the cars to paddle as they’re supposed to, there ain’t anyone left. Well, unless they put Niki in charge of all those snap decisions that need to be taken… 🙂
Could not agree with you more re Paddy..
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03316/hamiltondown1_3316403b.jpg
Definitely a toupee
Weren’t you, a 40 year long loyal F1 fan, gonna keep away from F1 after the race in Monza last year?
Or do you just enjoy looking up pics of Lewis?
Bit of an Elton John pubic hair wig maybe!
Come on that’s was such a joke with ham. Can’t believe that happened. Nico with his sh*t eaten grin.
Luck box. And don’t want to hear how verstapen was driving so well!! He didn’t he fkd the whole race. Only good thing was seb got 2nd.
Would love to see nico in an rb and see how that panned out. He is such a luck box.
Yes, he was lucky, and I love it!
While it was a bad call, it went worse that it could have. Lewis seemed to go just long on his marks in the pit box so the stop was longer than necessary and he then had to wait for another car coming down the pit lane. Without either of those he would have made P2 after the stop at least and I can’t see the team not asking Rosberg to make up for their mistake.