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The Monaco Grand Prix Thread


Arizona
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The first qualifying session will be very interesting. The slower teams should still fall out but the 7th driver to go could be anybody - Barrichello lost out last time. The tightness of Monaco means getting a clear lap will be almost impossible. Could see the fromt runners going out early in the session with plenty of fuel & staying out until they get a banker lap.

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Updates, updates, updates. We've been working so hard this year. Plus Rob loves Monaco, which helps a lot. Being a short and relatively slow track Monaco is a great equaliser but, nonetheless, there has been a hell of a lot of work, at the track and at the factory, put into the R30.

 

I just hope Rob gets a good, clean start and Webber doesn't do anything daft at turn one. I think he's probably responsible for more missing front wings than any other front-runner this year.

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Did anyone ever play Formula 1 98 on the Nintendo 64? In that on the Monaco track you could cause a mass pile up at the hairpin and wipe out half of the grid in one accident. Would be nice start to the race today as I cant see there being much going on otherwise, perhaps one of the tail enders might take a slide into the wall but not much else.

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Will be interesting to see if Schumacher's last corner overtake sticks. Seems like the FIA have constructed yet another get out of jail card for Ferrari though.

 

Na, Mosley's & the FIA's love affair with Ferrari ended a few years ago. Besides the personnel in the FIA hierachy has changed. The FIA are no longer "Ferrari's International Assistance"

 

If it had been Alonso passing Schuey a few years ago, of course the FIA would have invented a "No Ferrari is allowed to be passed in the Antony Noghes corner" rule and disqualified Alonso, but in these times I can't see anything happening.

 

There is a line just before the pitlane exit that I believe no overtake can be done by when the safety car is going in. Alonso was still ahead as they both went over the line so it appeared to be a perfectly legal move

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Here you go:

 

Article 40.13 of the Formula 1 sporting regulation states: "If the race ends while the safety car is deployed it will enter the pit lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking."

 

But what if the safety car is 'un-deployed" DURING the last lap?

 

To me, the above law is ambiguous. It is saying that if the safety car is still needed on the last lap it will still come in early (i.e. Before the finish line) which is exactly the same action that the safety car would take if it was called in before the end of the race (during the last lap.)

 

I think mercedes are right to appeal

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Had to leave early and missed the last 10 minutes, so didn't see the incident. From reading the reports it sounded like Alonso was caught napping, but if that is indeed the rule then Schumi deserved his penalty. Another driver who deserves a slap is Rubens for chucking his steering wheel out into the racing line after his shunt. Silly boy.

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No way Schumacher deserves a penalty.

 

The last time a race finished under SC was, I believe, Australia 2009. The SC pulled in but yellow flags were waved and the SC boards showed. Yesterday the green flags waved as the SC pulled in. I think he was entitled to go for it.

 

Stupid rule anyway, just have them finish properly behind the SC.

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Seems that if the safety car is out when the leader crosses the start/finish line on their final lap, then it's deemed that the race will finish under the safety car - it just has to pull into pit to allow the winner to take the chequered flag.

 

What they should've done is continued yellow flagging/SC boards even after the safety car pulled in, instead of green flagging, which would've made it perfectly clear to all that no overtaking was allowed - and obviously communicated properly to all teams that this was the case, if it turns out they didn't.

 

I just wish they'd have just taken each other out during the move, as I hate them both with a passion!!!

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Besides, more pressing is how come RB hasn't been penalised for throwing his steering wheel onto the racing line (to be scooped up by the Hispania) after he'd crashed. Surely that is absolutely dangerous and completely unambiguous.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmgDGDLVUqo

 

15 seconds in.

 

Rubens has tried to say he was attempting to get out of the car quickly, despite it being obvious to anybody watching that he was having a little bit of a hissy fit.

 

Still not sure I agree with you re Schumacher, none of the drivers looked to me like they were coasting to the line so clearly nobody knew what was going on. In fact, part of the reason Schumacher was able to pass Alonso was the wheelspin he seemed to pick up as he tried to put his foot down and get going.

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Rubens has tried to say he was attempting to get out of the car quickly, despite it being obvious to anybody watching that he was having a little bit of a hissy fit.

 

Still not sure I agree with you re Schumacher, none of the drivers looked to me like they were coasting to the line so clearly nobody knew what was going on. In fact, part of the reason Schumacher was able to pass Alonso was the wheelspin he seemed to pick up as he tried to put his foot down and get going.

 

In my opinion Alonso panicked when Schumacher came alonside him, booted it and lost the rear. It didn't look to be a case of Schumacher taking advantage of a miscontrolled Ferrari.

 

The rule is unambiguous though. It says to me that if the last lap starts under the safety car then it ends with no overtaking.

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Besides, more pressing is how come RB hasn't been penalised for throwing his steering wheel onto the racing line (to be scooped up by the Hispania) after he'd crashed. Surely that is absolutely dangerous and completely unambiguous.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmgDGDLVUqo

 

15 seconds in.

 

Totally agree. Absolutely stunned that nothing has been made of it - even more so as the next car to drive past drove over it!

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As an interesting aside, Karun dragged Barrichello's steering wheel all the way round into the tunnel where it popped out from under his car and was then run over and pinged out by Bruno Senna in the other HRTF1 car. The rumour is that it is still in working condition!

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There have been a few near misses with heads over the years. Anyone remember the Nurburgring in '97. It was Villeneurve's last ever win, anyway at the start the two Jordans collided and Ralf's car was lauched into the air by Fisi. Ralf's left rear came within inches of Michael's head.

 

Two years later at the same circuit, Diniz rolled over in a Sauber. I think his roll bar failed and the top of the airbox dug in to the soft, wet earth.

 

I guess it shows there will always be danger in F1, no matter how "safe" it gets.

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Its likely to be the only way an F1 driver is killed - witness Henry Surtees accident last year, and there have been a couple in lower formulae where cars have rolled on top of armco or concrete walls and killed the driver :(

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