The 2018 Season

[Penfold]

Renault to introduce its new MGU-K at some point in the future (yes, that really is the gist of this story): https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/reliability-concern-delaying-key-renault-update-1038774

Renault will, however, be bringing an engine upgrade for Montreal (as will Honda and presumably Ferrari & Merc) and Cyril Abiteboul reckons they can find half a second with its engine this year.  Which would be good.

[Penfold]

No actual need to pit in Monaco as even the hyper-softs could do all 78 laps: https://www.racefans.net/2018/05/22/hyper-soft-wont-make-monaco-a-two-stop-race-pirelli/

Time for a special Monaco tyre?

[Matt]

The excitement in Monaco comes from the venue and any potential safety cars anyway, not normal passing. Not sure if the tire matters.

[Chrill]

We could do with a "Monaco soft" in gold colours, eh. It will automatically puncture after covering 45% of the race distance. This requires two stops.

[Penfold]

The excitement in Monaco comes from the venue and any potential safety cars anyway, not normal passing. Not sure if the tire matters.

Back in the olden days (i.e. before mandatory tyre stops and when mid-race refuelling was illegal - so pre-1994) cars only pitted for new wings or in case of punctures, so 78 laps with zero tyre stops (and zero passes) wouldn't seem strange to me.  Of course, back then the cars were nowhere near as reliable and a certain Ayrton Senna was racing, and Senna at Monaco was quite something....

Safety cars at Monaco only add excitement because drivers have to pit and so grab that opportunity to dive in.  Remove mandatory stops and everyone would simply line up behind the safety car and then carry on as before, albeit closer together.  Fortunately, I am perfectly happy to watch F1 cars dart round Monaco in a procession.  It's one race where I truly don't care whether or not there is any overtaking - not to say that it couldn't perhaps be improved with different tyres.

Now personally I'd love to scrap mandatory stops, bring back qualifying tyres, and have two compounds for race day: one that can do the full distance with ease, and one that can do somewhere over half the race but averages out at a few tenths quicker per lap than the harder tyre.  No doubt incredibly difficult to get the compounds bang on in that way but my God I'd like them to try.  Also requires no DRS so those running the softer compound have to actually fight the no-stoppers for position.  And yes, I realise all this would mean zero stops for Monaco, but I suppose the approach could be tweaked so that no tyre lasted the full race.

[Chrill]

One tyre does 40%, one does 70-90%. Boom, you'll either have to pit once and run hard+softs, or pit twice and run soft+soft+soft.

[Penfold]

That would suit me for Monaco.  Also happy to have drivers trying to make it round without stopping and coming under heavy attack.

[Penfold]

Hyper-softs not as durable as that Pirelli chap reckoned - or at least they'll likely lose tons of performance rather quickly: https://www.racefans.net/2018/05/25/2018-monaco-grand-prix-friday-practice-analysis/

So usual thing really, plenty of tyre management as the front runners wait on the safety car.  Stroll or Hartley, I think one of them may be first to hit a barrier.

[Chrill]

Stroll or Hartley, I think one of them may be first to hit a barrier.

It was obviously going to be Verstappen. And so it was.

[Chrill]

That was a typical Monaco GP, really. Ricciardo broke down but kept on going with 6 gears, and well that's all he needed. The top 6 finished where they started. Verstappen made P9 or P8, something like that, decent drive.

Only 3 retirements, and only 2 of those from an actual crash which was caused by Leclerc. Might be faulty brakes, I don't think it was a driver error.

Ericsson P11, half a second behind Sainz in P10. That is more than just OK considering he started P16.

[Chrill]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/vandoorne-alonso-monaco-gp-sacrificed-strategy-1042439/

Stoffel is openly unhappy with his tactics, claiming his race was ruined for Alonso's sake. Uh-oh, trouble in paradise?

With Alonso potentially on the way out, and Vandoorne not setting the world on fire this year, who will be driving that orange car next year? Norris + someone outside the team?

[Chrill]

https://streamable.com/0vyq7

What actually happened here? Stroll bottoms out like crazy and Ericsson overtakes him around the outside. This was not in relation to one of Stroll's two punctures, as far as I recall.

[Matt]

It was his first puncture.

[Penfold]

Renault bringing an upgraded power unit for Montreal, it's said to be worth 20 bhp and has shed a few kilos - not sure if available for all Renault-powered cars; Toro Rosso getting Honda's latest spec unit, its boost may also be around the 20 bhp mark; Ferrari has an engine upgrade but it may be used only by Vettel: Kimi's been running PU no. 2 for a while and Haas & Sauber went to their second units in Monaco; Mercedes delays new power unit until France over reliability concerns.

[Chrill]

Haas and Sauber both introduced the new engine in Monaco. That seemed all very planned, although Ferrari has been open for a while that Canada is their target. So that means the customer teams are not expecting a massive enough boost in Canada, or they would have run Monaco with the old engine.

Ricciardo is going to be starting far back in Canada. Remember that broken engine he nursed home at Monaco? Yeah, it's broken. Needs replacing.