[Mark]

2008 - Monaco Grand Prix Preview








Race Track Diagram:





Location: Monaco, Monte Carlo

Race Date: 25 May 2008

Number of Laps: 78

Circuit Length: 3.340 km

Race Distance: 260.520 km

Lap Record: 1:14.439 - M Schumacher (2004)


Last Year Table:

f1.com text preview:

A year ago, after finishing second to McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso at the Monaco Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton subtly let it be known that he was angry not to have won. It was the first manifestation of the underlying tensions that would later create problems within the team and result in Alonso going back to Renault.


Hamilton narrowly missed out on pole position to the Spaniard, but later it transpired that he had up to six laps’ more fuel onboard. He hounded Alonso throughout the race, and was staggered when he was called in to refuel three laps sooner than he had expected, thus nullifying the advantage he believed would win him the race. He made sure everybody at the post-race conference knew about it with a seemingly benign comment registering his surprise at McLaren’s tactics.

“Monaco is my favourite race,” Hamilton says this time around, and he is dead set on winning it. “You have the history all around, you can just feel it, and the atmosphere is fantastic. It is the Grand Prix that every driver wants to win. Being a street circuit it is very exciting to drive, there is no room for any error all weekend. To be quick you need to use every centimetre of the circuit, this even includes touching the barriers at some points.


“Unpredictable is the word that sums up Monaco from a performance perspective. It was a great race in Turkey, we know the performance is there, but at Monaco literally anything can happen. The set-up is quite a lot different, the primary requirement is fantastic traction, to ensure you can get out of the corners well. Because there are no straights, we put as much downforce as we can on the car as we don’t need to, and aren’t able, to reach the speeds of any other track.


“It is so tight, and very difficult to describe how it feels in the car because you are so low. You are hitting some corners at 180 mph, as you are braking down you know there is no run-off area, you can’t see the exit. All you can see is directly what is in front of you, probably about 50 metres. In some corners it is almost a guess, you are guessing where the car should be, hoping that you are in the right place, relying on your instinct and memory.”


Monaco is also about glitter and glamour, but he says he keeps himself as clear of that as possible: “It’s not a distraction in any way. As with any race I am just fully focused on getting the job done. Monaco weekend more than any other is about being 100 percent in the zone and so I just keep myself to myself.”


Hamilton wants to even the score to two wins apiece with the Ferrari teamsters Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. But it will be tough. All of the teams ran at Paul Ricard last week, on the shorter circuit made up to simulate the corners of Monaco, and the two top teams were only a tenth of a second apart. McLaren had an advantage last year, but Ferrari believe they will have the upper hand this time in the tight corners that abound in the Principality.


“For sure last year was okay,” says Turkish Grand Prix winner Massa. “I finished third but McLaren were very strong there. We have been working a lot on the set-up for Monte Carlo for this year, so hopefully we will have good chance to win there as well.


“Even being on the podium would be good as you always want to score as many points as possible. We know Monte Carlo is a track which can be very tricky, especially without traction control. But I am looking forward to being very strong there as well.”


Raikkonen says he has already moved on from a disappointing race in Istanbul. “Afterwards it's always easy to say what we could have done. But I never do that and this case is closed. We'll have two days of tests in France to test the solutions for the Monaco GP, and are very motivated to try to be strong on a track where we were not competitive last year.”


BMW Sauber chief Dr Mario Theissen strongly believes that his drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica will be in the hunt in Monaco too, but McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh said Hamilton’s fighting second place in Turkey had boosted his team’s confidence at a time when they desperately need another win.


“Lewis had an extraordinary sprinting race in Turkey. He's going to Monaco now, where I think we'll have a competitive car...we've worked pretty hard on that and it's a circuit that both of our drivers like. Lewis has won in F3 and GP2 there and clearly feels he could have had a crack at winning last year, and will be very keen to do that this year.”


Other points of interest are Giancarlo Fisichella’s 200th race, and the arrival of Toro Rosso’s new STR3 chassis in the hands of Sebastian Vettel and crowd favourite Sebastien Bourdais.

Paddok Pics





Weekend weather update - rain on the cards in Monte Carlo?





Welcome to the sixth round of the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship, the Monaco Grand Prix on the streets of Monte Carlo.


On the weather front there is good news and bad; it will be cloudy again for Thursday’s opening practice sessions, but with an ambient temperature high of 21 rather than the previously forecast 16 degrees Celsius. Likewise, it will be cloudy but warmer, at 20 and 21 degrees respectively, on Saturday and Sunday. On Friday, however, Monaco’s so-called ‘day of rest’, there may be thunderstorms in both morning and afternoon, as the temperature drops between 17 and 19 degrees.


The race runs over 78 laps or 260.520 kilometres (161.887 miles) and will start at 1400 hours local time, which is 1200 hrs GMT.







Monaco Grand Prix - facts and figures






Round six of the 2008 season takes the teams to Monte Carlo for the most prestigious motor race in the world. The annual dash through the Principality's tortuous streets is a unique test of man and machine performed in front of the glamorous backdrop of the Monaco harbour.

Ahead of this weekend’s race, often referred to as the jewel in the crown of Formula One, we take a look back at its history and cherry pick some fascinating facts about the Grand Prix every driver dreams of winning…


- The Monaco Grand Prix is not only one of the most glamorous races on the Formula One racing calendar, it is also one of the oldest. Run on the tight and twisting streets of Monte Carlo, the event was first held back in 1929 and won by British driver W Williams for Bugatti.


- Since 1950, Monaco has hosted 54 Grands Prix but it is only since 2004 that there have been garages for the cars along the pit lane. Prior to that, teams had to push the cars back and forth between makeshift garages in the paddock or an underground garage for each practice and qualifying session and the race.


- Graham Hill, who was nicknamed the ‘King of Monaco', won the celebrated race on five occasions including three successive victories from 1963 to 1965, all for BRM. He returned to the top step of the podium again for Lotus in 1968 and 1969.


- Michael Schumacher also clinched victory in Monte Carlo five times, while Alain Prost took four victories and Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart each won on three occasions. But the record of wins in the Principality resides with the legendary Ayrton Senna, who won six times.


- Of the current crop of drivers, Red Bull’s David Coulthard and Renault’s Fernando Alonso have been the most successful, each clinching victory on two occasions.


- The Monaco circuit is the shortest Grand Prix track on the calendar at 3.340 kilometres. The race distance of 260.520 kilometres is the shortest of the season and nowhere else does a race cover more laps (78).


- Monaco is the world's second smallest independent state (after the Vatican). Its 1.97 square kilometres comprise the districts of Monte Carlo, La Condamine, Fontvieille, Le Larvotto, Les Moneghetti and Monaco Ville. The total population of the state is 33,300, which means Monaco boasts the highest population density of any state in the world.


- McLaren have scored the most victories at the Monaco race (14) and in 2007 recorded their 150th win at the race courtesy of Fernando Alonso. The second most successful team at the track is Ferrari with eight, while Lotus clinched seven, including their maiden victory in 1960.


- the Monte Carlo event is renowned for throwing up surprise results. In 1972 Jean-Pierre Beltoise took a storming win in the wet - it would remain his only victory in the sport, while in 1996, fellow Frenchman Olivier Panis took his first, and Ligier's last Formula One victory at the race.


- Aside from Beltoise and Panis, Juan Manuel Fangio (1950), Maurice Trintignant (1955), Jack Brabham (1959), Denny Hulme, Patrick Depailler (1978), Riccardo Patrese (1982), and Jarno Trulli (2004) all recorded their first Formula One victories at the Monte Carlo race.


- With the Monaco Grand Prix a must-see event, plenty of famous faces flock to the circuit. Last year movie mogul George Lucas, actors Jude Law and Jean Reno, and chef Gordon Ramsey were all spotted in the Monte Carlo paddock, while in the past Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Hugh Grant and Roman Abramovich have attended.


- drivers must change gear a staggering 54 times per lap at Monaco, meaning more than 4,200 changes over the course of the race. Just 42 percent of the lap is spent at full throttle, with the longest period of full-throttle running a mere eight seconds.


- such is the Monaco Grand Prix's profile and history that it retains many of the traditions from the inaugural race staged in 1929. The most idiosyncratic of these customs is the expansion of the race weekend to four days, with the on-track action starting a day earlier than usual, on Thursday.