Hamilton told not to pas Alonso

Originally Posted by Chrispy

The beauty of Monaco isn't about overtaking, although when there is a pass for position, it is often spectacular. It's about threading a missile between concrete walls and armco so fast it defies belief. It's one circuit a year where this is possible, and alot of people miss the point.

Yes, I remember the las time there was a pass for position at Monaco as you mention Chrispy - it was 1970 when Rindt skillfully negotiated the Brabham half way round the last lap to snatch victory. But I'm not sure that even the brilliant Jochen could have made it without Sir Jack burying his car in the barriers.

While I'm at it, I don't have a problem with team orders of ANY nature, providing they don't contravene the safety rules.

Looks like McLaren have been cleared of all charges... surprise, surprise?

Chrispy you no you stuff.

I could have gone to monaco. But turned the trip down.

Monaco team orders..........let's be honest, we would all want it to happen if we were Ron (Lewis did clip the barrier at least once, the paint was on his front wheel & shown on super-slo-mo yet Allen & Brundle didn't comment) or Fernando, but it IS against the spirit of SPORT.

There is plenty of overtaking in Monaco's history, mostly by Eddie Irvine, but a few other drivers have managed it - it seems to be about how big your balls are. I seem to remember a Williams (Webber? Rosberg? not 100% sure) within the last 2 years doing a bit as well.

Maybe the circuit is poorly designed now - the corners have been smoothed for better speed, extra kerb added to mark the edge of the track (and narrowing it at the same time) - and so getting a car alongside another similar one is more difficult than ever.
But this is a different argument for another day - on the other thread.

Chrispy your comments about everything being decided before the trip to the race is hardly a surprise. What is surprising is the lack of ability along the pitwall to think during the race.

A few times during the season a driver has gone over half way on the first set of tyres then puts the same type on for his second stint. WHY.
Why not fill with fuel & go to the end of the race on the alternate tyre?????

Seems to an observer that there is an unbelievable waste of money on getting the cars to go 0.1 second per lap quicker, then a team throws away 30 seconds on an unnecessary pit stop.

I give Honda in Monaco as an example, but I think Super Aguri has done it & a few others as well (not just this season, but in the past when only 1 type of tyre per race was used).

Just thoughts - maybe the ability to adapt is what served MS & Ferrari so well for so many years

Re overtaking, Fisi also suprised everyone with two great moves out of the tunnel last year.

Re the spirit of sport; the whole point of sport is for your team to win. McLaren used team strategy at Monaco, not Team orders. Subtle difference, but a massive difference too.

Re strategy: One of the problems with bing an outsider watching on TV I'm afraid, and the commentators do a rubbish job conveying any usefull information.
The teams, all of them, work out their laptimes taking into account tyre degration, fuel load, anticipated traffic, and other variables, including sub stategies for pace car deployment and they come up with the optimum strategy for their car in the race. It can look like they don't know what they're doing sometimes, and very rarely there is a total balls up, when the chips don't fall, but Honda thought that their strategy would yeild the quickest race for thim. In the event, tyre degridation and traffic flow didn't go as anticipated, for them, but no body has a crystal ball and sometimes you loose the wager.

BMW were shocking though. Those guys love to fuel a car heavy and run a long first stint, which is why they seem to appear in a good spot towards the ends of races, by playing the long game. But you can't do that at Monaco. You have to qualify as well as possible, even if that means a sub optimal pit stop strategy. It was never going to work for them last weekend. But they'll be back as a threat in Canada, as will Ferrari. Monaco is always an oddball, and the Ferrari didn't suit it this year, but they'll be back on form next week.

Thanks Chrispy - Fisi has -overall- a good Monaco record.

Spirit - Team strategy is good for the constructor championship, but not always the drivers champ. Given that Lewis & FA were on different fuel strategies, there is a possible argument that team orders were in use during qualifying, so it is probably a can of worms best kept sealed, until each driver has his own pit-crew entirely.

Strategy - Honda knew they were making 2 stops, so why would they not think to change the strategy at the pit stop to fill with enough fuel & the alt. tyres.
I thought it was blindingly obvious they should have gone for option tyres & enough fuel to the end - Heidfeld was on options for his first stint wasn't he??????


Re BMW - back to HHF's days, Sauber/BMW has always gone for a long first stint - have they got the same race strategist as back then?

Honda had terrible problems with the option tyre on thier car in practice, it was blistering and deterioration badly. So they decided for the race to spend as little time as possible on the tyre, which ment to long first stints and a short final stint. In the event, towards the end of the race with the track rubbered in, it wasn't such a big problem. Hindsight is wonderful, but they took the best strategy for them as they understood things and within reasonable projections.

With Heidfeld we think he was supposed to use the soft tyres to get a good start and maybe make a move at turn one, then rely on the nature of manaco to stay infront untill pitsops. If he didn't get infront, he was supposed to be easier on his tyres because he'd be in traffic. Interesting gamble, but again, it didn't work out.

All the teams still have a bit to learn about how to best use the tyres. no-one has it nailed yet.