F1 Monaco 2011

Without exception, the drivers enjoy Monaco because it is such a dangerous and difficult circuit, which requires precision to achieve a good lap time. Mistakes, even small ones, are punished with a quick trip to the scene of the accident.

Both McLaren and Redbull had made huge errors in the race. When Glock retired with a suspension failure, McLaren somehow misunderstood where he had stopped on track and assumed that it was a safety car situation. It was not, but McLaren immediately brought in Button, which cost him the race lead and the chance for an easier win. Button fought back into second place but still needed a third stop to satisfy the "use both tire compounds rule". Button rejoined in third place and demonstrated the benefit of fresh tires as he rapidly caught Alonso. It was some impressive driving.

Due a miscommunication, the Redbull mechanics mounted hard prime tires instead of soft option tires on Vettel's car in his first stop. Since the tire compound rule was satisfied, Redbull boldly switched to a one stop strategy, but it would require Vettel to eke out 61 laps from the prime tire which was only expected to last 45 laps! This set up a fantastic three way fight for the win between Vettel on old tires, Alonso on slightly fresher tires, and Button with the newest tires.

The race's final major incident, involving Alguersuari and Petrov, red flagged the race which allowed everyone to change tires under the suspended conditions. The equal tires nullified Button's advantage and deprived us of an epic finish.

Hamilton had a torrid weekend. When Perez crashed in the third qualifying session, it was red flagged while the track crew reposition the barrier he had displaced. At this point Hamilton had not set a competitive time yet. When the session restarted, he managed to qualify seventh, only to have the time deleted because he cut the chicane. Using his Q2 time, he qualified ninth.

Hamilton's frustration showed on Sunday as he barged around the track, incurring two penalties for causing avoidable accidents. The saddest one involved Maldonado, who was having an excellent race and looked set to score good points for Williams.

Barrichello scored Williams' first points of the season which demonstrates how a good driver can carry a car around this track, and why the drivers love the circuit so much. I doubt that the Williams improved that much since the previous race.

Tires, KERS, and DRS all contributed in some way to more passing than is usually seen in Monaco, a notoriously difficult track on which to pass. And yet the passing still required obvious skill and daring. The new rules worked very well in Monaco.

F1 2010 Monaco

Another dominating display by Redbull and Mark Webber who had back to back polls and wins. Webber's qualifying lap was a massive .3 seconds faster than Kubica, who beat Vettel into the second grid slot. Kubica and Renault's performance was quite surprising as they beat all the main contenders, except Redbull. The other teams should be a getting a little worried. Redbull's car is good on any kind of circuit and they have two drivers who are capable of winning the championship.

Webber lead the race from start to finish despite four safety cars wiping out the gap he had built up. Vettel passed Kubica in the first corner to take second, place but was never able to close on Webber. In fact, Vettel came under pressure from Kubica later in the race. Vettel must be wondering what went wrong while Webber now has a psychological advantage of his team mate. Should be interesting to see how Vettel fights back in the next race.

Alonso destroyed his car in Saturday morning practice and it could not be rebuilt in time for qualifying. As a result Alonso started form the pit lane and had to duel with all the drivers from the slower teams as he charged through the field. Alonso quickly found out that most of them were not going to jump out the way. It was reasonable as they were fighting for position, but Alonso was definitely losing his cool. Watching Di Grassi throw his Virgin Racing car around in front of Alonso was both scary and impressive.

Schumacher got a six place penalty for passing Alonso while under the safety car on last lap. The wording of that rule is very bad which is likely what caused the different interpretation between the teams.

F1 Monaco

Qualifying was so very close once again. Kimi Räikkönen almost had pole position but once again Button managed another heroic last lap to grab the pole. Ferrrari has improved significantly and their drivers are also starting to deliver. I predict that a Ferrari will be on poll very soon. Barrichello needs to up his game if he wants ensure the equal treatment continues. This was the second time that Button apparently struggled in the early practice sessions but still out qualified Barrichello.

The race was a little boring. Most of the field was spread out after the first round of pit stops. Brawn completely dominated the race. Bernie Ecclestone made a somewhat cheeky remark that the racing has become predictable again. As much as I respect what Brawn has accomplished, I sincerely hope someone will be able to challenge them soon. Ferrari's race pace was good but their strategy wasn't flexible enough to capitalize on having the better tire early in race. However, third and fourth is very respectable considering how badly their season started.

It is easy to see why Ferrari are so opposed to a budget cap. I'm sure that they spent ridiculous amounts this year already in order to move up almost 15 places on the starting grid. Under a budget cap, if you've blown it on a poor design, you would never be able to recover during the season as Ferrari are doing now.

Anyhow, it looks like the budget kerfuffle will be over before the May 29 deadline for the 2010 registration. A breakaway series would have harked back to the pre-WWII days when there was only a constructors’ championship but what chance would it have under current economic conditions?