Poll: Monaco Grand Prix 2022, Circuit de Monaco - Race 7

[this_is_gav]

Circuit de Monaco

When was the track built?​

In 1215, sort of – that’s when Monaco was first established as a colony of Genoa.

When was its first Grand Prix?
It was 1929 when racing engines first reverberated around the Principality, after cigarette manufacturer Antony Noghes decided to organise a race with his pals from the Automobile Club de Monaco. The race was part of the calendar in the first year of the Formula 1 World Championship in 1950, and hasn’t been off it since 1955.

What’s the circuit like?
Incredibly narrow and totally iconic. Nelson Piquet memorably described driving around Monaco as “like riding a bicycle around your living room”… which is fair. Despite that, it’s a challenge that nearly all drivers love, forcing them to put their skills on the line and rewarding millimetric accuracy. Overtaking on the tight streets is harder, however, with the 2003 Grand Prix witnessing a grand total of zero passing moves!

Source: FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2022

TV Schedules

Practice 1: 13:00 (coverage starts 12:30) Practice 2: 16:00 (coverage starts 15:45) Practice 3: 12:00 (coverage starts 11:45) Qualifying: 15:00 (coverage starts 14:00) Race: 14:00 (coverage starts 12:30)

Channel 4 Highlights
Qualifying highlights: 22:00 Race highlights: 18:30

Selected other weekend action

Spoiler

Formula 2 practice: 16:05 Thursday Sky F1 Driver's press conference 1: 9:30 Friday Sky F1 Formula 2 qualifying: 10:35 Friday Sky F1 Driver's press conference 2: 11:35 Friday Sky F1 Indy 500 practice: 18:15 Friday Sky F1 Formula 2 Sprint Race: 16:35 Saturday Sky F1 Formula 2 Feature Race: 8:45 Sunday Sky F1 BTCC Thruxton race 1: 11:40 Sunday ITV4 BTCC Thruxton race 2: 14:40 Sunday ITV4 BTCC Thruxton race 3: 17:20 Sunday ITV4 Indianapolis 500: 17:45 Sunday Sky Action & Sky F1 (coverage starts 15:45 on Sky Action and continues from there. Coverage on Sky F1 starts at 17:30).

Track Diagram and Information


Weather Forecast

(Take with a pinch of salt as different forecasts are wildly different for the weekend)

Championship Standings

 

[this_is_gav]

Understandably at this point in the week some saying there could be showers (Weather.com, BBC, AccuWeather), some saying there's very little chance (Met Office, Meteo France) so like I said take with a pinch of salt until closer to the race.

I have to say it's one of my favourite weekends. Obviously the race will be boring (but at least the Indy 500 follows it), but as I've said before, qualifying is one of the best sessions of the year - or was with previous cars, it's not quite as a fun with the big heavy hybrids, and these 2022 cars still look quite ponderous in slow corners due to even more weight and less efficient aero compared to the 2021 cars (though most cars are a bit shorter, which might help).

 

[this_is_gav]

I agree the qualifying can be interesting, and I'll definitely watch that, but I'm not sure the qualifying is enough to offset just how bad the race is. In fact I'm sure it's not

Not really no, at least in most cases. Inclement weather usually spices it up a bit though, and I remember the 2011 race in the dry, where Vettel was on severely worn tyres holding off Alonso and Button and we were getting ready for a grandstand finish, until a crash involving Sutil, Hamilton, Alguersuari and Petrov brought out a red flag and he was able to change tyres.

I had the Monaco Grand Prix of 1996 on VHS for years and always enjoyed watching that, but off the top of my head even then the only driver to genuinely overtake another in equal conditions (eg same tyres) that race was the eventual winner Olivier Panis, who did it twice (once on Brundle coming out of La Rasscasse of all places! And then a robust move (which likely would have got him a penalty today) on Irvine into Station/Loews/Fairmont/Grand Hotel hairpin).

 

[this_is_gav]

No practice today? When did they move it to Friday? Monaco practice has always been on the Thursday.

This is the first year. It was announced sometime last summer or autumn.

The only session today is F2 practice, well the only televised one in the UK as far as I know. Formula Regional and Porsche Supercup practices have taken place already.

 

[this_is_gav]

Unless it rains

The forecast is still all over the place. I looked at Meteo France yesterday and it said sunny on Sunday afternoon, with a chance of lightning. Now there's no mention of lightning and just a fairly steady sunny day, though with a bit of a breeze.

Met Office gives a 40% chance of rain while BBC gives only a 13% chance of rain (nearly the exact opposite of Weather.com in your screenshot).

Obviously it's a tricky area to forecast for, with the sea being on one side and mountains on the other.

As is inevitable when looking at weather for F1 you know the weekend will be gorgeous and stable.

 

[this_is_gav]

Norris not up to giving the press conferences following his illness:

I hope he's up to taking part in the race. Who is the reserve driver if he can't make it? Is it Hülkenberg?

They added Piastri to their reserve list during testing, but already had an agreement with Mercedes where they could call on either Stoffel Vandoorne or Nyck de Vries.

What a baptism of fire that would be for Piastri - first F1 race and it's at Monaco in a car you've never driven.

On that basis, and assuming he isn't elsewhere, I'd assume they'd call on Vandoorne. He has experience with the team (albeit four years ago) and obviously has driven an F1 car around Monaco, though de Vries is the one with the most recent F1 experience, for Williams at Barcelona.

 

[this_is_gav]

Why is practice so late these days. Pretty sure it used to be around 10 or 11am for first practice, then second practice two hours after the first finished.

It's to try and compress the weekend a bit, so what was the usual Thursday media day is now moved to Friday mornings, with the running starting in the afternoons.

 

[this_is_gav]

Interesting what Ted just said RE mclaren taking some of the blame for Ricciardo's crash yday with setup

To be fair it was a very weird crash, the way it snapped. Slowing down the replay on Youtube shows just how much stress was on the rear tyres before he hit the wall - they were trying to fold in on themselves, coming away from the rim.

A bit like some of the old tyres at Indianapolis (hello Michelin). I used to have a close-up photo of a car (Barrichello on Bridgestones I think) showing it beautifully, but I can't seem to find it now.

 

[this_is_gav]

Just a note for anyone intending to watch F2 that I've edited the times of the F2 sprint race, which starts at 16:35 today, after F1 qualifying.

A bit of a brain fart on my part converting the times from 12 hour to 24 hour.

 

[this_is_gav]

BBC's radar has a direct hit at 2pm until 5pm but other reports were showing rain at that time and it's now showing later.

Yet their own forecast shows no more than a 5% chance of rain until 6pm, when it goes up to a whopping 6%.

 

[this_is_gav]

Whereas XCweather has light rain all day.

Probably only at the top of the mountain as there is cloud around the summit right now during the F2 (which is bone dry and sunny with an otherwise cloudless blue sky).

 

[this_is_gav]

Utter madness.

Even worse than the red flag during FP1 when the pit entrance was closed.

 

[this_is_gav]

Seb for podium, right?

Make up six places in that car? As brilliant as he was in qualifying, that thing is only going to go backward, barring some incredible safety car/red flag luck.

His race last year was a bit of a stunner as it was, albeit the best bit missed due to...

 

[this_is_gav]

Russell radio - So George, we think this is the worst the rain will be and will stop very soon.

Russell - Copy. Come to the car to talk pressures

I remember Williams gambled on slicks in 1997. Went backwards impressively quickly until being forced to admit defeat, although Frentzen had already crashed out with Hill I think it was. 1996 Verstappen gambled on slicks and crashed at turn 1, lap 1 (although forced off by a McLaren rather than crashed on his own).

 

[this_is_gav]

Utterly pathetic, F1 is turning into IndyCar

You do know they run in the wet in Indycar, right, often in far wetter conditions than F1? Just not on the ovals (of which there are only 4 races per year).

 

[this_is_gav]

If it does it in the right place it'll be fine. Will end up in the harbour. That'll put the flames out.

Or we have a much bigger, actual super yacht(s) fire.

 

[this_is_gav]

Quite, Lewis has done the exact same thing in the past as has all the drivers, hey guys it's called TACTICS, ever heard of that? I think people are crying because it happened to Lewis...

Indeed, Hamilton did this exact same thing in Abu Dhabi in 2016, trying to get the Ferraris past Rosberg. Schumacher produced a masterclass of it at Sepang in 1999, trying to help Irvine keep his championship hopes alive. I'm sure it's happened on numerous other occasions too which don't as readily come to mind.

I think the Alpine tactic was to ensure both Alonso and Ocon had enough tyres left at the end so they could both pump in big enough laps so that Ocon might stay in the points, but it didn't work out. No harm in trying though.

 

[this_is_gav]

Seems like a massively misguided attempt by Alpine then. Yes, Alonso might have been saving tyres, but it was clearly extreme to the point of being silly. Having him go that slowly only served to almost garauntee no points for Ocon.

In the end only because Hamilton couldn't keep up with Alonso when Alonso let it off the leash near the end. Ocon was right up with Hamilton at the finish, so that shows what the plan was.

It did seem a bit excessive for one or two points, but I suppose they had their fun and it would have made no difference to the finishing order anyway.

 

[this_is_gav]

I think Hamilton may have done that on purpose and played them at their own game. After all, Ocon wrecked his race.

I'm convinced it was all silly games. They will never admit it, but I think it's pretty obvious.

Either that or Hamilton just suffered much more wear trying to attack Alonso.

 

[this_is_gav]

Would be interesting to go back through forum reviews and see which tracks fair worse over the years.

Valencia (all bar one year), and probably Abu Dhabi and Barcelona most years. There was one year where there were more overtakes at Monaco than there were at Valencia (Edit: 2009 at Valencia there wasn't a single overtake, whereas there were 9 at Monaco. Indeed Monaco 2009 had more overtakes than Spain (3), Hungary (7), Valencia (0), Singapore (4) and Abu Dhabi (8) that year).

Tracks where in theory it is better for overtaking yet you get none are far worse than Monaco, where you know you're unlikely to get any overtaking but at least the drivers have a challenge and qualifying is a spectacle.