Friday 17 May 2013

Monaco has the potential to be magically boring.

I'm not going to hide the fact that I hate the Monaco GP. Unless you're there it's not interesting to watch, it's a dull procession of cars with hardly any overtaking action, or any action for that matter. In my opinion the Monaco race is worse that Valencia and a Migraine combined.

Pirelli are running the show and have been ordered to spice up the racing, however this may have a disastrous consequence.

Now in the good old days Monaco was an incredible venue, the danger involved was absurd and therein lied the magic. Yes we might be lapping faster now but the excitement has gone, there is still danger but they do so much work.

I think my point can be summed up by this video here, yes it's faster but look at how much more work Senna is putting in just to stay on the road!

But all this is just part of my annual hating on Monaco. The real gripe I have this year is, surprise surprise, tyres.

Even the biggest fan of Monaco can't argue that the race isn't processional, one car following another struggling to get past, even with DRS.

Remember last year when Button was held up by a Caterham for about ten laps after leaving the pits; which prompted Caterham to tweet "Great race, even battling with the McLarens at one point" which was rather funny, as being stuck behind and battling are two very different things.

Monaco is the motorway at rush hour of Motorsports
This year the problems will be exaggerated. The tyre situation is too dire, prompting Pirelli to change compound mid-season. If the Mercs lock out the front row again on their blinding laps, but then their tyres fall off the cliff, then there are 22 cars all stuck behind, not being able to pass but easily keeping up. This might make for some odd finishes where a Williams could be on the podium, simply because the mid-field are so closed up and pit stops will literally win or loose a race here.

The processional theme of this race will be worsened by drivers not being able to drive flat out, like they did in the early 90's full stop, they'll have to conserve tyres to ensure that their not holding up enough people,
because the crux of the matter is, if you're in front of someone, it's unlikely they'll pass, so you can go as slow as you like to look after the tyres.

2013 Monaco will be a procession of cars, close together but not lapping fast at all, everyone will be on tyre management because pitting will loose races because you simply cannot pass.

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