In the round-up: Formula One will honour the victims of Monday’s terrorist attack in Manchester during this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.
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F1 plans Monaco tribute to Manchester victims (Reuters)
"The sport's organisers are also planning a minute's silence before the showcase race, a source told Reuters, with the ten teams putting the #Manchester hashtag on their cars."
Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari's consistency main 2017 plus (Sky)
"We were there (at the front) in all the five races and we could have won all five if things were turning out a bit differently, but they didn't."
Toro Rosso chassis not as strong as last year, admits Key (Motorsport)
"I don't think we're as strong chassis wise as we have been for the past two years. We're certainly some way off our maximum downforce at the moment."
Vandoorne hopes talks lead to breakthrough (Autosport)
"The lack of winter testing definitely hasn't helped to go through that process, but I think it's normal - when you get to a competitive world like Formula 1, it needs a little bit of time to get to grips with the people around you."
Lewis Hamilton: I want to beat Sebastian Vettel at his best (The Telegraph)
"When he was in the Red Bull, of course I wished that mine had been a little quicker so I could have given him a battle. He could say the same thing for the last few years."
Lewis Hamilton Q&A: Matching Senna in Monaco would be ‘unreal’ (F1)
"I love to watch the old onboard footage of Senna racing in Monaco - seeing him coming out of the tunnel and thinking ‘Hey, that’s what I do every year now!’ And matching his qualifying record? That somehow feels very unreal and I am very honoured being up to him."
Lance Stroll thinks criticism of rookie Formula One season is 'funny' (ESPN)
"I come from a background where when I win, people try and put me down and when I lose, people try and put me down. I accept that and I actually kind of find it funny but whatever, it's out of my control."
Bernie Ecclestone interview (Swiat Wyscigow)
"He is not a crook, he is not a bandit, he is like many many many others. He has done a few things a little bit wrong."
Ron Dennis thinks McLaren Indy 500 bid is ‘pretty cool’ (Crash)
"I do chat with Ron from time to time. I think his feedback on this was pretty cool."
Monaco GP preview: Kimi Raikkonen's odds rise as his losing streak goes on (Unibet)
Read my Monaco Grand Prix preview for Unibet.
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Ricciardo jokes "old-school spanking techniques" were employed to prevent a repeat of last year's pit stop gaffe. #F1 #MonacoGP #Spankgate2
— F1 Fanatic (@f1fanatic_co_uk) May 24, 2017
This is Cedric. And the coolest guitar. Hand made from an old ProstGP bargeboard and apparently sounds glorious pic.twitter.com/jIrvKBNGpY
— Will Buxton (@thebuxtonblog) May 24, 2017
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Comment of the day
@StefMeister doesn’t think creating a special tyre just for Monaco would be worthwhile:
You could take the softest tyre ever created and I don’t think it would make much difference because Monaco has never been that hard on tyres. It always used to be one of the non-stop races in the pre-refueling days and even in the refueling era more often than not I recall that it tended to be a one-stop race for most of the field.
As to making more mandatory stops to force two stops, I’d rather they not do that. As I’ve said many times in the past I don’t think they should have any mandatory stops at all. If somebody (Or everybody) wants to run non-stop like in the past I honestly have no issue at all with that.
@StefMeister
From the forum
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Mel
25th May 2017, 0:25
Vettel is just crediting the team for the Ferrari success this year…(so far)😀
F1Junky
25th May 2017, 1:35
So is Hamilton in a matter of speaking. It kinda sounds like an overtaking contest. ‘I was behind you and overtook you for the win’. I don’t get the feeling that either driver wants pole and racing off to the sunset for the win. ‘I slowed down to let him pass, then a few laps later overtook him with a “Back at cha” LED display on my rear wing for the win. I was sideways at the time, took a selfie of my smile and his frown’. That is the feeling I am getting with the friendly rivalry. Alas when we get to race 15 it will probably be quite different. But at the moment it is fun.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
25th May 2017, 2:15
Vettel is pointing out that bar Australia Ferrari lost themselves all other races, they even managed to almost lose Bahrain even after HAm’s penalty.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
25th May 2017, 6:18
@peartree Though to be fair VET was saying that the racesthey’ve lost were chances of winning they didn’t make good on as opposed to coming to the track with a car too slow to really have a chance to begin with like they did for most of last year (though perhaps not necessarily its early stages)
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
27th May 2017, 2:08
@davidnotcoulthard I just wanted to make the point that Ferrari strategists are still far below their rivals.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
25th May 2017, 0:37
I like the look of the 2018 Indycar A lot….. However I’d still like to see proper chassis competition come back. Although I get that with everyone so focused on keeping cost’s down I get why that won’t be happening anytime soon.
I also hope that dropping the rear pod’s doesn’t come back to bite them in some way, either with a big airborn crash on an oval or with the new lower drag cars not producing as good racing on the big ovals like Indy.
While the rear pod’s don’t look great, They have at least on ovals done what they were designed to from a safety standpoint (Help prevent wheel to wheel contact between cars running at similar speed side-by-side launching cars) & the extra drag they generated has helped produce some fantastic racing on the speedways via the big hole they punch in the air.
Kalun
25th May 2017, 0:53
I like the design of the new indycar. Maybe F1 can borrow the front wing (full downforce wing) from indycar in the future. It’s simple and functional.
For an engineer perspective, indycar front wing works by diverting the air using a big endplate as compare to F1 who use Vortex generator.
Ps. Vortex generator do not work under turbulent wake/dirty air.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
25th May 2017, 2:17
I think their current chassis is unique yet still ugly, it has been improving. I think they should just try to improve the safety.
Kalun
25th May 2017, 0:57
Manchester bombing is not the only bombing happens within this month. Yesterday was in Indonesia, 3 days ago was in Bangkok. More than 100 of people die from bombing in May.
It is more appropriate for F1 to do a tribute to all the bombing incident around the world instead of concentrating on Manchester.
Ruben
25th May 2017, 9:32
Bombings nowadays are as frequent as you going to a grocery store.
If we have to hold a minute silence for every separate incident that happened the races would only be the formation lap due to time constraints.
Sad world we live in today.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
25th May 2017, 13:11
There could be a minute’s silence to commenorate every victim of bombings and related violence everywhere, just as there was a minute’s silence to commemorate every road traffic accident victim everywhere on the weekend of the Paris 2015 attacks. (And knowing the FIA’s sense of timing, it’ll probably be on a weekend when the main thing people want a minute’s silence for is something else entirely!)
Gyro
25th May 2017, 15:21
Point well made.
Evil Homer (@)
25th May 2017, 15:42
@Gyro
Thanks Gyro- these things make my blood boil!!!!!
Ricky Johnson (@bamboo)
25th May 2017, 1:17
I think the best thing Williams can do is keep Stroll out away from the media for a while.
It may not necessarily be that he doesn’t possess the skills to be in F1, its just not yet. Yes, he won the F3 championship, and regardless of financial or technical backing that is no easy feat, but he has entered the sport way too soon.
His presence gives the middle finger at what F1 should be about, and although that is not something new to the sport, combining that with his arrogance it just rubs people up the wrong way. As opposed to banzai Japanese or heavily back Venezuelans who have been in this situation in the past nothing is lost in translation through being from a different culture or not being from a western society. Hes Canadian. He is very hard to like based on his driving alone, and he is very hard to like based on his interviews alone. Combine the two and I understand why people hold the views they do.
The other aspect of this that infuriates people is this is Williams – one of the historical powerhouses of the sport, and one that a lot of people have a soft spot for. Up until a few years ago I used to call them “everyones second favorite team”. Over recent years however they have sold their soul for the sake of a dollar, with one of their cars this year pretty much being used as a testing bed for a kid with a lot of cash. Claire Williams comments about him make Claire Williams look stupid, with the only thing stopping people from not taking the team seriously are the comments of Paddy Lowe.
I don’t like kicking someone when they are down, but hes here too soon. A year in F2 and running in FP1 would of addressed all of this.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
25th May 2017, 2:24
@bamboo I don’t see what’s changed in Williams, regardless of the financial circumstances Stroll looks like your typical Williams bet. Most have turned out bad drivers, some eventually become good and just a couple became great bets. Zanardi didn’t work out, Button was eventually good and Montoya was great, you also have Rosberg, Pizzonia and Villeneuve, there have been many Williams bets.
Ricky Johnson (@bamboo)
25th May 2017, 2:39
Agreed @peartree. I must add “up until a few years ago” probably could of been worded a bit better. Being a tragic since 1984, so “in the last decade” is probably more accurate. The difference between being a works team and not being one I suppose.
Nick (@npf1)
25th May 2017, 9:53
Villeneuve had a winning season of Indycar behind him, where Williams knew Mansell was also successful. Zanardi similarly had success in CART and had some minor F1 experience from the early 90s. Button was a gamble that didn’t always pay off (scoring half of Ralf’s points wasn’t bad, shunts like during the Italian GP were), Montoya again came from American single seaters and was a Williams tester in 1998.
Rosberg won the GP2 championship and had tested with Williams before. Pizzonia was a different story altogether, he was a Williams tester before joining Jaguar where he was fired, rejoined Williams where he only entered races in 2004 because Marc Gene did too poor a job replacing Ralf, in 2005 Williams didn’t have anyone else to replace an injured Heidfeld.
Nakajima came with the Toyota engine, Hulkenberg again was a GP2 champion, even Maldonado was. Then already they were prepping Bottas with Friday and test running. Bruno Senna had a season of F1 under his belt but was hired anyway. Perhaps not as much a bet as blind faith.
I’d argue none of the above drivers came in as underprepared as Stroll has. Driving around old F1 cars at tracks would mean Williams might as well have hired a BOSS GP or a Historic F1 driver. Stroll doesn’t have to be bad, but if you consistently screw up and lag behind your ancient team mate, either the preparations were insufficient, or the talent is…
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
25th May 2017, 13:17
If nothing else, I think Lance could benefit from some media training. Granted, his background and (lack of) experience means he was always going to face a tougher category of question than, say, Verstappen or Ricciardo, but that just makes it all the more glaring when he consistently gives poor answers to such questions.
Lance probably thinks he comes across as strong, but he doesn’t. Mostly, he comes across as a sort of Piquet Jr – an outward layer of apparent strength cloaking an internal weakness that may only be remedied through experience, and possibly harsh experience at that. I’d also add that Nelson turned out to be highly talented in a variety of cars – but that internal weakness only got remedied after he lost his chance to show how well (rather than how badly) he could race F1 cars.
Todfod (@todfod)
25th May 2017, 6:43
Interesting article on the odds on Kimi at Monaco. I think Ferrari should be the quickest car there, so technically, Kimi should stand a good chance for pole.
The problem is that he’s been absolute rubbish all season long and has turned in to a classic qualifying choker and race slacker. I’m a fan of Kimi, but his start to 2017 is probably the poorest start to a season he’s had yet. I would be appalled with Ferrari’s ‘new’ management if they still retain him like they did Massa from 2011 to 2013.
anon
25th May 2017, 7:41
@todfod, not to mention that Monaco has tended to be one of Kimi’s weaker tracks – whilst he has won the race once and picked up a few podiums, there have been a lot of races where he’s finished lower down the order than you would expect, been beaten by his team mates or crashed out altogether.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
25th May 2017, 13:22
One day I might forgive Kimi for his 2008 performance…
Puffy (@puffy)
25th May 2017, 9:02
Ah, well that explains why I saw Max Mosley slipping into the Redbull garage.
Fukobayashi (@)
25th May 2017, 10:23
Hahahaha
Louie
25th May 2017, 18:01
I love the look of the new Indy kits, but wasn’t the whole point of the DW12 safety? If there’s another Franchitti-esque crash, how will they explain that?