It looks likely we may have wet race in Monaco this weekend. So it comes as no suprise that drivers are already expressing their opinions on Monaco race in the rain. There are not many on the grid that have wet race experience in Monaco (I believe the last time it rained during the race was in 1997). However many current drivers had a chance to give it a try last year during wet Saturday practice. Here are two opinions I found so far:

Lewis Hamilton:

“It will be especially difficult here in the wet, especially this year without traction control. Pedro de la Rosa (McLaren test driver) made a comment at the last test that it is incredibly difficult to get to full throttle here in the wet. And with this circuit being so tight, I think it’s going to be a disaster. But despite that, I’m still looking forward to it. It’s going to be a challenge.”

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F1Wolf

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After the letter from Max Mosley to all FIA Club Presidents and following reaction from Bernie Ecclestone, here comes the promised letter from Bernie Ecclestone to the FIA Club Presidents. Full text inside the post.

22 May 2008

To all FIA Club Presidents

Dear President

The FIA President wrote a letter to you on 16 May 2008 (the Letter) in connection with the FIA Extraordinary General Assembly called on 3 June to consider allegations published about his private life.

The Letter makes statements that could lead to misunderstandings and inaccurate conclusions being drawn. We, the Formula One commercial rights holder (the CRH), are writing to you to ensure that you understand our position on matters raised in the Letter insofar as they relate to Formula One.

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F1Wolf

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F1Wolf regular and F1Wolf Club member Kotenok posted some ineteresting Williams Monaco stats over at F1Wolf Club. I take the liberty to republish some of it here. For more go and visit Kotenok’s post over at F1WolfClub.

20
After two wins at Monaco in the 1980s (Carlos Reutemann in 1980 and Keke Rosberg in 1983), Williams had to wait 20 years before the team’s next victory was claimed, by Juan Pablo Montoya in 2003, a year in which he won two Grands Prix.

Fourteen
Williams averages a podium about every other year in Monte Carlo, recording 14 since the team was formed. The team’s most recent podium finish came in the 2005 race, which was also one of the team’s best results at the circuit. That day, Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber finished second and third, respectively.

More …

F1Wolf

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The F1 weekend of glamour has began in Monaco with free practice. Kimi Raikkonen was the quickest driver in practice one ahed of two McLarens and Felipe Massa. The session was stopped for about 15 minutes thanks to a loose drain. The honours for being the first driver to touch the barriers and break the car in Monaco this year go to Jarno Trulli. Technical problems stopped David Coulthard and Nick Heidfeld. Not sure what problems Nelson Piquet had, but being 1 and half second slower tahn his team mate is not going to help his case (unless he was on different test program than Alonso).

The order at the top changed in the second practice. Lewis Hamilton was the fastest driver ahead of Nico Rosberg in Williams, both Ferraris and Heikki Kovalainen. The rest of the field seems to be a bit off the pace so far.

Piquet, Alonso, Trulli (again) and Sutil had encounters with barriers in this session.

Toro Rosso drivers are clearly still learning what to do with the new STR03 …

Monaco Thursday Practice 1 Times:

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F1Wolf

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Max Mosley sent the letter to the FIA presidents and that letter was not exaclty Bernie Ecclestone friendly. So it is no surprise that Bernie Ecclestone is not too happy. His response did not take too long to come:

“I sincerely hope that it isn’t a declaration of war because, if that’s what the message should be, then we’ll have to defend ourselves. That is what anyone would do. I don’t believe that’s what Max wanted the letter to say. I don’t want to have a war with Max. I hope he doesn’t want one with me. This whole business is really about what was printed in the News of the World and whether this in any way damaged the FIA clubs or the FIA - that’s all. It’s nothing to do with anything else and I don’t quite know why he’s come out and said these things. I am sorry if the press have reported things which he doesn’t like, but we certainly don’t have any influence over the FIA We have decided we are going to contact all the clubs who Max wrote to, with a reply to the matters raised in his letter.

I think the General Assembly of the FIA was called for one reason only - to decide whether or not they think Max is the right person to be their president. The vote will be on that, not about the Concorde Agreement.”

Quite strong words here … Not really a sign of support from Ecclestone for Mosley’s cause…

Are these two guys seriously contemplating fighting each other or is this just a part of some bigger game ?

In any case, nice touch from the F1 bosses on the eve the Formula 1 showcase race in Monaco.

F1Wolf

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Formula One season continues with Monaco Grand Prix. Here is what we know:

- Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen sport helmets with diamonds
- Toro Rosso will run their new car - the STR03 – for the first time
- The new car needs new gearbox and Sebastien Vettel will drop 5 places on the grid.
- The other Toro Rosso driver, Sebastien Bourdais, will not get the penalty as he is free to change his gearbox following his DNF in Turkey.
- Bridgestone will bring soft and supersoft tyres to Monaco
- This will be 200th Formula 1 Grand Prix race for Giancarlo Fisichella

Last year McLaren dominated the race in Monaco. Fernando Alonso won ahead of not so happy Lewis Hamilton. Felipe Massa finished third. Kimi Raikkonen broke his car in qualifying but still managed 8th place finish. How valuable that point proved to be at the end of the season. Only the top three finished the race on the same lap. (You can see my photos from 2007 Monaco GP here.)

The 2007 Monaco GP weekend will also be remembered as the place where it all has started … Following Hamilton’s team orders remarks at the press conference McLaren were investigated and later cleared. The first cracks in the Hamilton Alonso relationship surfaced. Mysterious white powder was found around Ferrari fuel tanks, Nigel Stepney’s fall from grace has began.

Let’s hope that this year will be all about racing. Ferrari are the team to beat right now, but Monaco was not very Ferrari friendly lately. The last Ferrari win dates back to 2001 (Michael Schumacher). The past performances do not however guarantee future results, so I don’t think it would be wise to bet against Ferrari even in Monaco this year.

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F1Wolf

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Every year when Monaco GP comes people expect or hope for some surprise result. The track where overtaking is next to impossible (well Barrichello may not agree after his last lap in 2005), where there are no run off areas and the walls are unforgiving is the prime candidate for a messy result of the year. But how likely the surprise results in Monaco actually are ? This is what Fernando Alonso had to say a week ago:

“That’s what we always think when going to Monaco or at least we all think Monaco is so different that things will change, but in the end it’s always a McLaren or a Ferrari winning or Renault like in 2006. The cars that have been winning all season arrive at Monaco and win too so in the end we see less surprises than we initially expect.”

When was the last time we had a surprise winner in Monaco ? So let’s look back few years to see who were the winners:

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F1Wolf

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Formula 1 is about to begin its weekend of glamour in Monaco. Before getting into some serious Monaco related posts, let’s have a look where the teams and drivers stand after 5 races and compare it with where they were a year ago. Rememeber that last year the 5th race of the season was Monaco, this year it was Turkey. So 2007 point tally is after Monaco, 2008 is before Monaco.

First the drivers:

Drivers points - Comparison 2007 and 2008 after 5 races

Only drivers that took part in 2007 and are still involved in 2008 season are included in the table. For some the stats may be a bit misleading. It is hard to compare Fernando Alonso’s results in 2007 in top of the field McLaren with his 2008 midfield Renault run for example. But it is interesting to look at drivers like Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Mark Webber, Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld.

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F1Wolf

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Monaco Grand Prix is a special event. If I ever doubted it I do not any more after going to see the race last year (my pictures are here). The special GP needs some special treatment also here, so I beging the Monaco GP countdown with some videos. Here is one, Ayrton Senna’s pole position lap in 1991:

To see more Monaco F1 videos visit the F1Wolf Club and feel free to ad your favourite Monaco F1 videos.

F1Wolf

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Max Mosley is determined to stay on as FIA president until the end of his term in 2009. Even if that means leaving the public representation to two Deputy Presidents. This is one the things he states in his four page letter to all FIA club presidents. The more interesting however are the reasons why he wants to continue. One is Mosley’s concern about the election of his successor. And this question is directly connected with the next point. The negotiations… Mosley’s letter may be going on for four full pages but the points that will sure stir the biggest controversy and discussions are his revelations about the current negotiations between FIA and the Formula One Commercial Rights Holder.

“We are in the middle of a renegotiations of the 100 year commercial agreement between the FIA and the Formula One Commercial Rights Holder (CRH). In effect, this agreement governs Formula One. The CRH originally asked us to accept changes to the agreement in order to reduce the CRH’s liability to tax. These we can probably concede. But the CRH has also now asked for control over the F1 regulations and the right to sell the business to anyone - in effect to take over F1 completely. I do not believe the FIA should agree to this.
To do so would be to abandon core elements of the FIA’s patrimony including, for example, our ability to protect the traditional grands prix. We would also be weaker financially but, even more importantly, we would put at risk the viability of the FIA as the regulatory authority of international motor sport and lose a valuable communication platform for the wider interests of the organisation.”

So Max Mosley is basically saying, that if he is forced to resign, FIA is about to loose the control over Formula 1. In the part of his letter where he talks about the election of new president he openly expresses concern that a person may be elected that would actually support the interests of the Commercial Rights Holder in the current negotiations.

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F1Wolf

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