Poll: Monaco Grand Prix 2021, Monte Carlo - Race 5/23

[.:MBK:.]

With the cars being the size of vans it's a bad match nowadays it feels. FE and Historique were more interesting

 

[pastymuncher]

Well that was a borefest so get's a 1/10. Monaco should not be on the calendar. The only time it gets remotely interesting is if it rains. The only interesting thing about this weekend was McLarens new livery which looked fantastic, maybe they should make it their full time livery next season.

 

[El_Watcher]

I think the best bit of that race was when Serena Williams tried to stop waving the flag after the first four crossed the line and the FIA guy was like, "you signed up to wave the flag, so get back there and wave it until everyone has crossed the line".

 

[Feek]

I had a tenner on Seb getting on the podium and was really hoping for someone to try an overtake ahead of him and two cars to take each other out but no such luck.

It was a snoozefest, so much that I was snoozing during the only excitement, a thread getting stripped.

 

[Nasher]

Yea it was ok when the cars were compact, but they are huge now.

 

[MissChief]

Apparently Bottas’ wheel is STILL on the car and can’t be removed until they get back to the factory.

This also begs the question, why is it the ‘softer’ material is the hub, not the nut? Surely the nut is the easier item to replace so if there’s any cross threading the nut is the part that gets damaged so if it can be removed a new nut, perhaps integrated into the wheel, can be put back on?

 

[GravyMonster]

Even when the cars were smaller Monaco wasn't a good race. The only decent one I can remember was 96, and that was because of the rain. Most talking points of Monaco races are about one driver getting stuck behind another, Senna/Mansell 92, Bernoldi/Coulthard 2001, Ricciardo/Hamilton 2018, Hamilton/Verstappen 2019 and now Gasly/Hamilton 2021.

 

[Steampunk]

Good article here explaining why Mercedes is so poor at Monaco.

“If you were a proper anorak and you look at our team’s performance at this track over the last several seasons,” pointed out Merc’s tech director James Allison, “even in years we’ve won championships with some ease, we’ve nevertheless struggled here and although we have generally been on a path that has delivered a car that is really a sort of broad-sworded weapon that you can attack most tracks with, here has been a significant Achilles heel.

Mercedes doesn’t have a specific Monaco wing. At Barcelona it was already running its biggest wing – and that was the one on the car here. The Mercedes cannot be further ramped-up at the back for a slow circuit in the way the high-rake Red Bull (and Ferrari) can. That way, they can increase the downforce by the greater angle of attack. There’s a physical limitation preventing that with the Mercedes – and its aerodynamics are not appropriately configured for that anyway.

The longer wheelbase will not help on slow corners. The load transfer on the front tyres, other things being equal, will be slower to build. On a circuit which puts such low energy – both chemical and mechanical – into the tyres, that might give you trouble generating tyre temperatures. The corner can be essentially over by the time the temperatures are getting into their sweet spot. Especially on a cool day like Saturday. “It’s always about tyre temperature here for us,” said Hamilton. “The tyres were just not working the whole way through qualifying.”

I think any team would take the loss at Monaco if it means they can win at every other track.

 

[Mr Jack]

I think any team would take the loss at Monaco if it means they can win at every other track.

Let's not get carried away, if they hadn't botched strategy and had that weird problem with Bottas's right nut, then they would have come away with good points. Leclerc's accident and then dropping out hurt them too, stopping Lewis from setting a good lap (he was slow anyway, but he could have done better) and handing Max an extra 7 points on a plate.

 

[mmj_uk]

This also begs the question, why is it the ‘softer’ material is the hub, not the nut? Surely the nut is the easier item to replace so if there’s any cross threading the nut is the part that gets damaged so if it can be removed a new nut, perhaps integrated into the wheel, can be put back on?

Weight reduction? guessing that the hub is made out of the same material as the rest of the suspension to allow for flex?

 

[ZG002]

Merc will do better next race, it's similar in type to Monaco but not as extreme and then get back on form once the tracks start to favour their car. The only real concern is the team working under increased pressure and not over compensating.

They do often have issues around Monaco, but it all equals out once they hit the more typical tracks. Maybe they put too much pressure on themselves to perform at Monaco and mistakes start to creep in making it even worse the next season.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Merc will do better next race, it's similar in type to Monaco but not as extreme and then get back on form once the tracks start to favour their car. The only real concern is the team working under increased pressure and not over compensating.

They do often have issues around Monaco, but it all equals out once they hit the more typical tracks. Maybe they put too much pressure on themselves to perform at Monaco and mistakes start to creep in making it even worse the next season.

RB might decide to ditch their flexi rear wing too since toto has threatened to appeal. Whether they do or not or the impact it’ll have remains to be seen.

I’m sure RB will have their own share of bad luck at some point too.

 

[Mr Jack]

Since 2014, and prior to this race, Lewis has finished outside of the podium 18 times, of those he won the following race on 14 occasions.

 

[Feek]

Since 2014, and prior to this race, Lewis has finished outside of the podium 18 times, of those he won the following race on 14 occasions.

And?

 

[Yaayuh!]

I voted 3 but meant to vote 2

 

[CaptainRAVE]

I voted 3 but meant to vote 2

Generous

 

[Ree]

Voting format should've been 0.1 to 1

 

[Steampunk]

Let's not get carried away, if they hadn't botched strategy and had that weird problem with Bottas's right nut, then they would have come away with good points. Leclerc's accident and then dropping out hurt them too, stopping Lewis from setting a good lap (he was slow anyway, but he could have done better) and handing Max an extra 7 points on a plate.

Yes, they had a particularly bad day, but Monaco has always been a bogey track for Mercedes. The design choices made that give Mercedes good performance at most other tracks seems to work against it at Monaco. It's too easy on it's tyres so they don't get warm enough at a slow track, the low rake design means they can't get as much wing performance as the high rake cars, etc. Poor qualifying (aided by Leclerc's "accident") put them on the back foot, and mistakes and inability to pass due to track limitations compounded the poor weekend.

The Mercedes car is a good car, but it's not suited to Monaco, and it seems to lose a lot of its advantages to other cars on such a slow track with almost no overtaking opportunities.

 

[MrKnifey]

Apparently Bottas’ wheel is STILL on the car and can’t be removed until they get back to the factory.

This also begs the question, why is it the ‘softer’ material is the hub, not the nut? Surely the nut is the easier item to replace so if there’s any cross threading the nut is the part that gets damaged so if it can be removed a new nut, perhaps integrated into the wheel, can be put back on?

The nuts are alloy the hubs are titanium

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Voting format should've been 0.1 to 1

Generous