Monaco may not play to our strengths – Lotus

F1 Fanatic round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: Lotus technical director James Allison says that, on paper, the E20 is not well-suited to the streets of Monaco.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

James Allison: "I’m really very happy that our drivers are breathing right down one another’s necks!" (Lotus)

“If you take Barcelona, we were really very strong in the first two sectors; which are more of the sweeping parts of the track, and less good relatively in the third sector, which is the slower, twister part. Perhaps if we look back, of the five races we’ve done so far, the race where we were least impressive was China and that’s a track with relatively few sweeping corners and lots of lower speed traction events. So there is a train of thought that Monaco might not play to the strengths of our car.”

HRT plays down leapfrogging Marussia (Autosport)

Luiz Perez-Sala: “They are more competitive than us. They have done a good job and I think short term we have many things to focus on in the building of the team.”

Formula One must get to grips with the tyre issue (The Guardian)

“F1 does not appear to need this artificiality to bring the teams closer together. There is real evidence to suggest that the cars are genuinely close, especially with the loss of exhaust-related downforce, a feature around which Red Bull built their championship-winning car in 2010 and 2011.”

Conor Daly via Twitter

“Watching 1982 Monaco GP. What a crazy race! My Dad did the last two laps with no rear wing I had no idea. He came within half lap of winning.”

Angry Birds Heikki release to build on brand’s F1 sponsorship (T3)

“Formula 1 racing driver Heikki Kovalainen is to be immortalised in Angry Birds lore with a new Angry Birds Heikki release set for June 18th.”

Jacques Villeneuve drives Ferrari 312T4 at Fiorano (F1 Fanatic via YouTube)

Comment of the day

A late addition to Stats and Facts from Andrew81:

I’ve just unearthed another stat from this unusual Grand Prix. Maldonado ended another victory drought, that of the number 18, which hadn’t won since Peter Gethin triumphed in the the fantastic Italian Grand Prix of 1971. This was actually the longest victory drought of any number used in F1 today. That record now lies with the number 21, which has only Jackie Stewart’s victory in Argentina 1972 to its name (back when drivers changed numbers during the year).
Andrew81

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to GV27, Kanyima and Thersqaured!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

The non-championship Syracuse Grand Prix was run as an F1 race for the last time 45 years ago today.

Just 12 cars were entered for the race and four of these were withdrawn. The finish was declared a dead heat by Ferrari drivers Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti.

They shared first place with Jo Siffert third in a Rob Walker-run Cooper, two laps down.

Image © Lotus F1 Team/LAT

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

38 comments on “Monaco may not play to our strengths – Lotus”

  1. What are the chances we will have 6 different winners in 6 races? I guess Hamilton is in with a good chance if he can get a stable set up. We be unreal if Kobayashi or Perez win!

    1. Webber, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Hamilton, Schumacher — they all have potentially race winning cars — and then we have the possibility of another surprise from Sauber or Williams. We could seriously have 10 winners by the end of the year!

      1. Out of all of those drivers you have to say that Hamilton has the best chance to win in Monaco. With Lotus’ downplaying their chances for Monaco I doubt they will be anywhere near as fast as they have been recently :)

        1. Hamilton or webber is the safest bet in my books. Webber has always done well at Monaco and Hamilton is well overdue for a win.
          The Renaults will be the dark horses.

        2. Out of all the DRIVERS you would say Hamilton has the best chance, but lets not forget he has his McLaren team on hand to mess it up for him :]

          1. Agreed, at this point I wount be suprised if the mechanics where to stab Lewis in the face at his next race pitstop; you know, just for the sake of consistancy and relentless progress.

    2. Drop Valencia!
      21st May 2012, 11:26

      We’ve already had 7 from 7 if you count last year!

  2. Woah, @Andrew81 ! Nice stat… !

    I’d love to see how many wins each number has… I think I read somewhere that number 5 is the one with most wins, behind, obviously, number 1.

    1. Great stat Andrew81, thanks

    2. Here’s a link for you, I use this site all the time for digging up stats like these. The stats are clickable so you can see which races each number has won. Oh, and thanks for the COTD Keith :D

      http://statsf1.com/en/statistiques/numero/victoire/nombre.aspx

  3. Happy birthday to GV27, Kanyima and Thersqaured!

  4. I thought the Guardian was a pretty decent newspaper, but I wasn’t too impressed with what I saw skimming the article.

    What is more, if Lewis Hamilton repeats his Monaco success of 2009 next Sunday it will be the first time F1 has had six different winners in as many races.

    Well, I hope Lewis doesn’t get lapped next Sunday by Jenson Button…

    Take a pack of playing cards, throw them up in the air and make a note of those that land on top. Pick up the cards, shuffle vigorously, and repeat the exercise. Then do it again, and again, and again. That’s five. Enthralled? Perhaps you should get out more. Try it 20 times – the number of races this year – and you run the risk of terminal boredom.

    What utter rubbish. I don’t see how having different winners will become boring, but perhaps it is just me.

    1. What is more, if Lewis Hamilton repeats his Monaco success of 2009 next Sunday it will be the first time F1 has had six different winners in as many races.

      I’d say a typo.

      Take a pack of playing cards, throw them up in the air and make a note of those that land on top. Pick up the cards, shuffle vigorously, and repeat the exercise. Then do it again, and again, and again. That’s five. Enthralled? Perhaps you should get out more. Try it 20 times – the number of races this year – and you run the risk of terminal boredom.

      I don’t see how it’s a lottery either. We had extraordinary circumstances in Malaysia and it was a race largely won/loss on strategy alone, so that’s the only real “inconclusive” result we’ve had all year. Williams were actually fast in Spain. It’s nothing to do with tyres or luck, otherwise Maldonado would have won from 15th. He won from pole — so it’s completely understandable.

    2. @adrianmorse, the only people for whom it gets annoying are betters, bookmaker (unpredictable) and people who look only at the result of a race. But its great to see an interesting race where you really do not know exactly what to expect.

      1. This is true for me. I regularly have a bet on F1 and this year is proving difficult to reap any rewards. Even with the top drivers, who are always odds-on and very low prices, picking a winner or even a podium place (each way) is tricky.

        There is some value in picking pole and picking the midfield drivers for a points finish but it’s a real lottery this season.

      2. @bascb

        But aren’t you looking only at the results either? At least partly. I mean the results don’t really tell anything. My problem this season so far is, that we don’t have exciting races between 4 or 5 drivers fighting for the win, but some cars that randomly jump out of the pack once (Maldonado in Spain, Perez in Malaysia, Vettel in Bahrain, Rosberg in China) but are almost lightyears away from victory in the other races.

        Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the races a lot so far. But I do have the feeling we’re being robbed of much closer races due to the tyre problematic.

        1. that we don’t have exciting races between 4 or 5 drivers fighting for the win, but some cars that randomly jump out of the pack once, but are almost lightyears away from victory in the other races

          No @dennis, I did not see anything like that. I see a very tight field where only the team/driver getting everything right, and with a bit of luck wins it.

          Hamilton has been quick everywhere but Bahrain, but could not make the most of it, Vettel has been pretty good on race pace overall, save Spain, Sauber has been on the podium in Malaysia, but have been solid points scorers in a lot of other races, last with Kobayashi in Spain.
          I admit, that Mercedes, with Rosberg have got it exactly right only once, but if you look at how fast they had been in qualifying at 3 other races, they are not far away.

          Williams had top 6 speed in the race in AUS, only to throw it away. After that they have been getting closer and closer, with their high point so far the win last week. And what a win it was, a tight battle between Alonso and Maldonado for the best part of the race, with Kimi being not too far off at the end.

          How close do you want to get, when each pitstop drops a car back some 4-10 places at most races? And in qualifying the spread between the first 16-18 cars has not been much over 1.5 seconds. Its just so close, that relatively small issues, problems, a tad of luck and a small edge on speed can make the difference this year.

          1. Fair point.
            As I said, I did enjoy the races a lot, but the 3-way battle in Spain was the best we got so far and that was spoiled by a Lotus themselves.

            I’d just love to see all the front runner teams this year to fight for the victory in the races. Imagine Spain with Hamilton and Vettel in the mix. And perhaps Kobayashi or Perez pushing from behind. I mean the potential is there. But I think it’s being spoiled by the lack of understanding for the tyres. Some interviews that Rosberg gave on german television were really hilarious about that topic. He was asking the interviewer what tyre strategy to take.

            I said it before, I don’t know if I’m right with this, but the results seem to be randomized a bit. The cars are close enough even without ‘strange’ tyres.

  5. I disagree with the tyre article. The tyres last year were more fragile than this year. The loss of EBD has made the brought the field closer, but saying that the tyres are adding to artificial racing seems unfair. If anything DRS should be criticized before the Pirelli’s. And also it is not like 5 drivers winning from 5 teams has not happened before. And there is a definite pattern to the wins. Teams that consider tyre management seriously are doing better than those who are continuously cribbing about it.

    I think the tyres have become an easy target for anyone to avoid facing the fact that tyres and tyre management are integral to racing skill. The biggest issue with the article is that the author offers no solution as to what must be done. It just feels like everyone wants to put their 2 cents in and then leave it at that.

    1. I don’t think Rosberg winning in China was a pattern. Seeing how especially the Mercedes was the car that murdererd the rubber in the races before and after like no other car. And the Williams did not win because ut was so great an managing the tyres, but because for some reason they nailed the setup. Like Rosberg, Vettel and Button before. 3 winners which in the other races were nowhere near victory.

      I don’t want to defend the english media in any way, but asking for a solution from a journalist on a topic as in-depth as tyre-mixtures, degredation etc. is a bit much and doesn’t bring anything to new to the table.

  6. Glad F1F is back online! Been checking all day with no luck.

    Great footage of Jacques in the Ferrari. GoPro cameras capture decent pictures apart from the rippling effect from the vibrations, but people really need to put a microphone or some other recording device in the cockpit and out of the wind if they want to capture decent sound to accompany the video when working with these cameras! GoPros record sound terribly and it ruins what would have been quite acoustically pleasing.

    1. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
      21st May 2012, 8:45

      Same, I thought it must have just been me with nothing being reported on twitter or facebook, guess it must have just been an australisian problem

      1. No, I had the same problem earlier today.

      2. I had the same issue in the UAE…so it may have been more general.

        1. Just thought I’d throw in, I had the same issues. I thought Keith might of taken the website to bed with him :)

  7. seanrichardson
    21st May 2012, 8:29

    Has any team came out and said they are confident for Monaco yet? So far, the two teams with arguably the best cars this year have played down their chances due to monaco not suiting their cars that well.
    I understand that cars suited to slower speed corners will be favoured but especially the way the season has went so far I would have thought the majority of teams would be feeling confident.

    1. Williams are confident. They have good traction.

    2. I thought Bahrain pace-setters (Reanult engines) would be more confident because of their good traction…but now Lotus says they might struggle!

  8. Lotus technical director James Allison says that, on paper, the E20 is not well-suited to the streets of Monaco.

    Methinks Lotus are downplaying expectations after Barcelona. A lot of people anticipated Lotus winning – Martin Brundle openly said that he thought they would take it easily – but I don’t think the team want to have to address the same old “Why haven’t you won yet?” question at every turn.

    1. I agree, I’m predicting a Lotus powered podium this weekend. Hopefully with Kimi on top.

      1. That was meant to say Renault powered podium.

        1. Funny you say that, cause the first time I read it, I read “Renault powered” :)

    2. @Prisoner-Monkeys, I think you may be right. I replayed the second half of the Spain in high speed on the timing app watching the sector 3 times in particular to see who was fast there & who may be competitive in Monaco. Maldonado was reasonably quick in the sector, Vettel was consistently at least a tenth or two faster than most of the field, but by far the two quickest cars in that sector were the two Loti. So I’m not quite sure what Allison is talking about when he says they were uncompetitive in sector 3.

      1. Thanks for insight, even more pumped now!!!

    3. @prisoner-monkeys I think there may be an element of truth to it. The E20 is incredibly fast in a straight-line. Unfortunately there aren’t many of them in Monaco.

  9. Good to hear that the Ferrari factory was not damaged in that earthquake with epicenter only 50 km away from them. Good luck to the rest of the area, and sorry to hear about the dead and wounded.

    1. Fires, EarthQuakes, Williams winning a race, and all this in 2012. SIGNS OF THE APOCOLYPSE.

  10. So what do the Guardian propose F1 does exactly? Change it’s tyre spec mid-season?

    Clearly that would be a rather moronic move. I am becoming increasingly baffled with this tyre argument. We are 5 races into the season. Perhaps if Pirelli don’t change their philosophy for 5 seasons that’s a different matter but let us not forget that the teams asked for this high. Reap what you sow and all that.

Comments are closed.