Monaco GP 2013 - QF

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The feeling in the paddock is that all the elements are in place for a Silver Arrow victory.  There are not long fast corners in Monaco, therefore no high temperatures and degradation to deal with, the weakness of the W04.  The challenge around here is the repeated low-gear acceleration that can easily produce high wear, but as everybody noticed on Thursday both Mercs spend most of P2 testing long runs on the option-super soft tyre, and they were fast and consistent with both drivers completing 20 laps stints (double what almost everyone else tried) which opens the possibility to do the ideal one-stop strategy on Sunday. To do that the opening stint has to be around 28 laps on ‘options’ and 50 laps en the ‘prime’ soft compound.  

This is the one race where long run pace may turn out to be not so important negating the strength of Lotus and Ferrari, although these two are very close to Mercedes in QF speed. The ideal scenario is to secure the front row with both team cars, allowing the fastest driver (or the best off the line depending on team orders) to escape as the sister car holds the pack allowing the team tactical flexibility. And we know Ross Brown’s boys there are under team orders.

It all points out to a very exciting Q3 shoot out tomorrow. It will be the most important QF session of the year.

Last year Webber won from the pole, Red Bull has won the last 3 Monaco GPs. Alonso will try to be the first driver ever to win the race with 3 different cars; the last victory by a Ferrari was back in 2001 (Schumacher). The poleman has won 8 of the last 12; only 3 times since 1950 the race has been won by a driver starting outside the top 3 on the grid. Ferrari has 8 victories in Monaco, compare that to McLaren with 15 in 29 appearances. This could be the 4th pole for Mercedes this season, the 3rd straight by Rosberg.

By the way, the CFA web is up and running, we should not have any problems posting our picks, Manbos has found a solution. (Thanks man!)

Uwe was the CFA winner in 2012, with four -3pointers (same as Fernando) and a total of 13 points.

Let me refresh your memory-  Thursday’s results:

P1- ROS (1.16.195) ALO GRO MAS HAM MAL WEB BUT PER VET

P2 – ROS (1.14.759) HAM ALO MAS WEB RAI GRO BUT VET DIR

My turn:  Cato – ROS ALO HAM

Enjoy QF tomorrow, it’s going to be hairy!

Cheers

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