It is a sad day indeed, but I knew it was coming. He hasnât been well for the last few months. He will be missed. He was such an enigmatic man with such character. I might not have agreed with all he has said, but I have so much respect for what he has done.
RIP Niki
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2019 Monaco Grand Prix Preview
Bienvenue au plus prestigieux Ă©vĂ©nement de Formule 1 - le Grand Prix de Monaco! Welcome to Formula 1âs most prestigious event - the Monaco Grand Prix!
As the motorsport world and Formula 1 family mourn the loss of one of the sportsâ true legends, Niki Lauda, the show must go on â itâs what Niki would have wanted. Expect several well-deserved tributes to, and memories of, the fearless Austrian throughout the weekend.
This weekend the tiny Principality of Monaco plays host to its 77th Grand Prix, and its 66th race to be classed as an official round of the Formula One World Championship. It will be Round #6 of the 2019 season, and F1 Grand Prix #1003.
Monaco is a sovereign city-state, country, and microstate on the French Riviera. France borders the country on three sides while the other side borders the Mediterranean Sea. Monaco is about 15 km from the state border with Italy.
The Principality has an area of just 2.020km2, making it the second-smallest country in the world after the Vatican. With a population of around 40,000 inhabitants it is the most densely populated sovereign state in the world. The length of the nationsâ combined land and coastline borders total less than 10km, and itâs just 350m wide at its narrowest point. Monaco is known to be one of the most expensive and the wealthiest places on Earth. In 2014 it was noted that about 30% of the population was made up of millionaires.
Monacoâs name comes from the nearby 6th century BC Phocaean Greek colony. Referred to by the Ligurians as Monoikos, which bears the sense of a people either settled in a âsingle habitationâ or of âliving apartâ from others. According to an ancient myth, Hercules passed through the Monaco area and turned away the previous gods. As a result, a temple was constructed there, the temple of Hercules Monoikos. Because the only temple of this area was the âHouseâ of Hercules, the city was called Monoikos.
It ended up in the hands of the Holy Roman Empire, which gave it to the Genoese. An ousted branch of a Genoese family, the Grimaldi, contested it for a hundred years before gaining control. Though the Republic of Genoa would last until the 19th century, they allowed the Grimaldi family to keep Monaco, and, likewise, both France and Spain left it alone for hundreds of years.
Monacoâs has been ruled by a member of the House of Grimaldi since 1297. In 2002, a new treaty between France and Monaco specified that, should there be no heirs to carry on the Grimaldi dynasty, the principality would still remain an independent nation rather than revert to France.
Itâs current ruler, Prince Albert II, is the only child of Prince Rainer III and American actress Grace Kelly. Albert married Charlene Wittstock, a Zimbabwean-South African former Olympic swimmer, in 2011. In December 2014, she gave birth to fraternal twins Princess Gabriella (officially, Princess Gabriella of Monaco, Countess of CarladĂšs [Gabriella ThĂ©rĂšse Marie Grimaldi]) and Prince Jacques (officially, Jacques, Hereditary Prince of Monaco, Marquis of Baux [Jacques HonorĂ© Rainier Grimaldi]). Jacques is the heir apparent to the Monegasque throne.
The Race
The official title of this weekendsâ race is âFormula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2019â making it one of the only F1 Grands Prix that does not have a named corporate sponsor.
Another unique aspect of the race is that the first two free practice sessions are traditionally run on Thursdays, and not the usual Fridays. The Monaco Grand Prix was originally held on the weekend of Ascension Day â a bank holiday in the province. For this reason, racing was paused on the Friday to observe the day and for regular traffic to flow through Monte Carlo. While the day itself has become less significant to the locals, the Friday break has remained a tradition to allow businesses and hotels to replenish stock and operate at maximum capacity over the hectic four-day spell.
One final distinction that the Monaco Grand Prix has over other races is that it is the only Grand Prix that does not adhere to the FIAâs mandated 305km minimum race distance for F1 races. The relatively low average speeds at the circuit, and the very high probability of Safety Car intervention result in the allowed total race time potentially being exceeded. Subsequently, in order to ensure that a full race can be completed in good time, the race length is just over 260km.
The race is run on the modified, narrow streets of the Principalityâs Monte Carlo neighbourhood. It takes race organisers an average of 6 weeks to build the circuit and another 3 weeks to dismantle it each year. Over the years the street circuit layout has been through a number of changes, with the current Grand Prix layout (in use since 2015) being the 7th variation.
Ayrton Senna holds the driver record for Most Wins with 6 Monaco titles, while McLaren are still the most successful constructor with 15 wins. Of the current drivers, only Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel with 2 wins each are repeat winners here. Win 9 F1 Championship wins, Ferrari are the constructor repeat winner closest to McLaren in record tables.
Last yearâs race was won from pole by Daniel Ricciardo for Red Bull Racing. But his victory wasnât as straightforward as it seems on paper now. In an epic effort, Ricciardo nursed his wounded car for the last 50 laps of the race with what was later revealed to be an MGU-K failure giving him 25% less horsepower than usual, and with only six out of eight gears functioning.
The Schedule
The Principality exists in the same time zone as us Extreme Southerners, so following the weekend action shouldnât be too much of a burden. Except for the Thursday practice thing of course.
The Circuit
It was 1929 when racing engines first reverberated around the Principality, after cigarette manufacturer Antony Noghes decided to organise a race with his pals from the Automobile Club de Monaco. The race was part of the calendar in the first year of the Formula 1 World Championship in 1950 and hasnât been off it since 1955.
The circuit is incredibly narrow and totally iconic. Nelson Piquet famously described driving around Monaco as âlike riding a bicycle around your living roomâ. Overtaking on the tight streets is hard, with the 2003 Grand Prix witnessing a grand total of zero passes! Overtakes, when (if?) they do occur happen most commonly after the exit from the tunnel section into the Nouvelle Chicane, into Turn 1 at Sainte Devote, and occasionally at the (Insert Hotel Name Here) Hairpin. Although the last is probably not possible anymore given how wide the modern era F1 cars are.
Official circuit length in the current configuration is 3.337km, with 19 turns, and just 1 DRS zone. The standing Race Lap Record is 1:14.260 set by Max Verstappen for Red Bull Racing during the 2018 race.
The Tyres
Due to the low speeds and lack of tyre stress and abrasion from the Monaco streets, the Pirelli tyre wizards will bring the three softest of the 2019 tyre compounds to the Principality again this year. For this year the C3 compound is designated as the White Hard tyre, the C4 will be the Yellow Medium, and the C5 is Red Soft. And as is plainly obvious from the Selected Sets graphic below, Red is by far the colour of choice again.
The Weather
My trusty Formula One Forecasts site hasnât figured out that they needed to check the weather on Thursday for FP1 and FP2. But theyâre meteorologists more than motorsport fans, so Iâm going to let it slide this time. Besides, Iâm pretty sure tomorrowâs weather on the French Rivera is going to look very much like Fridayâs forecast anyway.
Enjoy the weekendâs racing. Hopefully we get to spend more time watching race cars than we do celebrity spotting. Either way, profitez des amis de la course et des fans de F1!
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Not Monaco related:
One of the best tributes to Niki I have seen thus far. Maranello turned off all the lights except for Nikiâs car.
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Shouldnât it be the other way roundâŠ?
It was the first time that I saw a black flag in F1.
Wait now I am lost?
Both Ferrari drivers are sporting tribute helmets this weekend. While Vettelâs pays tributes to Niki Lauda, Leclerc is paying tribute to both his late father and his late friend Jules BianchiâŠ
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The times of the middle group are so close together.
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It is very rare, and even more so during practice. The last time I can find that it was shown in a race was back in 2005 in Canada - âA lapse in judgement caused Juan Pablo Montoya to exit the pitlane with the red light flashing. Immediately following the restart, the McLaren driver was under investigation and was later black-flagged by the stewards on lap 52.â
@ 11:18
Race control has black flagged both Haas drivers. That could be for a technical infringement - update to follow.
It sounds like Haas has a telemetry and radio issue, making it hard to communicate with the drivers. The FIA stepped in to get the cars back to the pits as âthe pit boards werenât doing the businessâ according to the teamâŠ
There was an issue communicating with the drivers over the radio and with the possibility for them to come around a corner and smash into a stationery car or marshals without any way for the team to warn them, Race Control decided to use the black flag to get them to the pit as quickly as possible.
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HmmmâŠthatâs what the Red flag is for âThe session has been stopped, usually due to an accident or poor track conditions.â
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True, but unlike the old days where the driver physically needed to see a marshal waving a red flag, these days they are informed by the team as soon as something happens on track. With no comms or telemetry to and from the car, it creates unnecessary risk of the driver missing a warning, especially on a track like Monaco with no run-off area.
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True, but the driver spotted and reacted on the black.
In this circumstance, they used the correct flag.
The Red flag is for stopping a session. If anything, they couldâve gone with the orange disc flag. But definitely not a red flag. In this scenario, to indicate the cars to immediately return to the pits, the black flag was the right flag to use
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In this case, I think the decision was simply this: You have a problem with two cars out of 20. If I can stop them via black flag, I only stop them. If I red-flag the session, everybody stops and youâre wasting practice time.
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Which would be more correct, IMHO.
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I agree. While technically âthe black flag may be used to call a driver to the pits when their radio is not workingâ which was the case here, it is more usually associated with a disqualification, which wasnât the case here.
The black with orange disk flag which means âpit immediately for serious mechanical reasonsâ would have been better suited as it would have got them into the pits just as quickly and would have avoided the drivers coming in thinking âWhyTF have I been disqualified?â.
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