Monaco Grand Prix Preview

Wednesday 21st May 2008

The glamour, the girls, the gridlock. F1 returns for its annual visit to the grand prix circuit that's hardly bigger than a Scalextric track. Racing round Monaco has been likened to cycling round your bathroom such is the implausibility of the challenge.

Cycling round most bathrooms is impossible and similarly overtaking around Monaco is impossible without a great degree of cooperation from the car that's being passed. There's only one place, that's going down to the hairpin at the exit of the tunnel, and also on the opening lap the traffic jam of cars going down to the Lowe's/Station/Grand Hotel hairpin makes it possible to pick up a place or two if you don't mind a 50% chance of losing your front wing.

Other than that it's plan your strategy, don't touch the barriers and hope that there's not a Safety Car that concertinas the field just before your pit-stop. Such is the nadginess of the track that sooner or later somebody will bend it against the Armco, and with the absence of traction control there's a higher probability this year.

Monaco is the best place to watch an F1 race because it allows the fans to get super-close to the cars. There is no finer exposition of speed and control than a driver gunning his car round the harbour front by Tabac and through the Swimming Pool complex. If you only see one F1 race as a spectator, you have to see this one.

Such is the specialist nature of the high downforce, low-grip track that some drivers love it while others are very wary. Lewis Hamilton, Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella are Monaco specialists. Fernando Alonso is good on the streets of the principality also.

The fact that Lewis Hamilton will be driving what could be the fastest car on the streets of Monaco makes him the clear favourite... for this race at least. Hamilton has won here in F3 and GP2 and could even have won here last year if his team hadn't pitted him earlier than necessary to allow Alonso the win.

It was at this point in 2007 that the McLaren Happy Family started to fall apart as Alonso began to realise that Hamilton wasn't content in playing the puppy-eyed rookie team-mate with big adorable eyes only for his team leader - Hamilton sniffed blood.

This year Heikki Kovalainen could help make it another McLaren 1-2 as the Finn is due some good luck after his exit in Spain and his puncture in Turkey. Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa should make it 3 and 4 for Ferrari, but you never can tell. Such is the unforgiving nature of the barriers and the Monaco system, that one small mistake in qualifying can leave you in a position it's impossible to recover from. Unlike anywhere else, if you get behind a slower car, the only place to overtake is during the pit-stops. Last year Raikkonen made an error at the swimming pool and suffered the consequences.

With Jarno Trulli, Robert Kubica and a few others like Mark Webber able to qualify ahead of their natural race pace that could make for a frustrating afternoon for whichever faster car gets stuck behind them.

So behind the front runners it could be a bit of lottery, one that's further mixed up by random Safety Cars appearing when they're least expected. It may well be that the leading cars take their pit-stops with at least two laps of fuel on board, just in case they get caught short on track with the pitlane closed.

Alonso should do well, but his team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr will be hoping not to make the kind of serious mistake that attracts more criticism from the Renault team. Qualifying in 17th for the Turkish GP finally sparked the team to comment on his performance (or lack of it) publicly. Nelson and fellow rookies Nakajima and Glock will be doing well to qualify within a couple of places of their team-mates. If they do more, we'll be surprised.

The strategists will be crunching the numbers well into Saturday morning to get the perfect strategy for the race that is the most prestigious on the F1 calendar. If you're only going to win one race, win in Monaco. Because at least you'll know your sponsors will be there to witness the event.

It's the race that makes MotoGP look very third division and one where the slightest bit of rain can cause mayhem. In those circumstances the drivers will earn their salary three or four times over. Should it rain heavily mid-race we might even see a repeat of 1996 where only three cars took the chequered flag and Heinz-Harald Frentzen got a fourth place with his car stuck in the pits.

There may not be much overtaking action in Monaco, but the drama is guaranteed. And with the great and the good looking over their shoulder to dodge any approaching Mosley - that action will be on and off the track.

Andrew Davies

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