Monaco Grand Prix 2018 — Post-Race Analysis
Quite an interesting race this season and there’s quite a bit to go through. Here are some of the highlights of the race and I’ll add some of the interesting observations I made throughout the race.
- What a quite race! I cannot believe that we had only one retirement in Alonso early on and a late-late retirement towards the end when Charles Leclerc had a brake failure and collided into Brendan Hartley which brought the VSC (Virtual Safety Car) for a period of time. But besides that, this was pretty much an incident free race. All the drivers kept it clean throughout and surprisingly no safety car period.
2. What a drive by Daniel Ricciardo! Absolutely amazing. Still can’t believe how he was able to hold his position for more than 3/4th of the race with a wounded car. In lap 18, he apparently had a loss of power, later diagnosed that it was a MGU-K (Motor Generator Unit — Kinetic) failure.
— For the non-technical readers, the powertrain of a Formula 1 car is not just the engine, it is made up of six components ( IC Engine, MGU-H, MGU-K, Turbo, Energy Storage and Control Electronics). They all work together to produce over 1000+ HP. Failure in any one component can compromise the whole system and that’s what happened with Daniel. MGU-K essentially recovers energy from heat lost and so when that regenerative system is not active, you can see the red light blinking at the back of the car to caution the other drivers. He lost over 160–200 HP from this unit alone and how we was able to race with that loss of power is unbelievable. All credit to him for this performance. Redemption for what happened in 2016.
3. Ferrari and Mercedes had a relatively quite race. Tried their best to catch Daniel but with the amount of tire management that they had to do throughout the course of the race, it seemed unlikely. Vettel and Hamilton finish in respectful 2nd and 3rd place respectively while Raikkonen and Bottas complete the top 5.
4. Esteban Ocon was best of the rest with his best result of 6th place. Fantastic race by the young man and to keep pace with his parent team ( Ocon is a Mercedes Junior driver for those didn’t know) was great to see. Pierre Gasly also finished in a very respectable 7th place. He had great pace throughout the race and his ability to run close to 40 laps on the super sticky Hypersoft tires was credit to his tire manangement skills.
5. Max Verstappen starting from the back of the grid after he crashed in FP3 ( Free Practice 3) which cost his qualifying, but he showed his skill and class, kept it clean and earned valuable points for himself and the team. Lot of people in the paddock have been disappointed with his results so far. He has shown quite a bit of naivety and carelessness and it ended up costing the team dearly in races where they had a really good chance of finishing on top. Crashing out in FP3 is just unacceptable, he had no reason to push at all in that period and while every driver was keeping it nice and clean, feeling the car and gaining valuable data, he was pushing to try and finish on top in FP3 — the results of which are meaningless. He no doubt has the talent and the ability but just needs someone to reign him in.
4. Haas had a very disappointing race. Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finishing 13th and 15th respectively. It is strange to see how they aren’t able to convert their winter testing form into results. They will be looking to bounce back in Canada which will suit their package more.
5. Lance Stroll had to stop three times for tires and and it finished with both the Williams rounding out the grid. What is so frustrating to see from Lance and even from the likes of Romain Grosjean is the amount of complaining they do on the radio. When there is something wrong with the car or if the team is discussing strategy, the drivers need to keep it straight to the point. The constant bickering from Lance throughout the race about not having the pace in the car was frustrating to say the least. To race in the Monaco grand Prix is only for the privileged few, an exclusive club of drivers. One should feel honored about this and enjoy the occasion,to do the best you can with your package and to help the team get decent results is what is called for by the drivers. A young driver who has really shown class and composure has been Sergey Sirotkin. Always keeps his head down and races, and when there is a problem with the car, he is never vague. He gets straight to the point and if the problem can’t be fixed by the team, then he doesn’t even bother mentioning it. Lance could learn a thing or two from Sergey.
Overall, I feel it was bit of subdued race. I was really expecting fireworks from the start. But it seemed like the whole race became about tire management and no one seemed to have outright pace and barely anyone touched the wall. Very quite and one of the least interesting Monaco Grand Prix’s that we have had in a while. But standout performances by the likes of Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly and Max Verstappen were the main takeaways.
Canadian Grand Prix like Monza is a power circuit so cars with the best power units will have the upper-hand. The front three look likely to hold on to their three places, in the midfield it’s going to be interesting and many unanswered questions like say, Is the Renault PU good enough? Is the Honda PU good enough? Can Haas finally show up and deliver a strong performance? What’s going to happen to the likes of Williams and Sauber? All of these will be answered in two weeks time.
Let me know your thoughts on the Monaco Grand Prix in the comments below. Your favorite moments and overall opinions on the season so far. Would love to know what you guys have to say.
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