Carlos Sainz Jnr, McLaren, Monaco, 2019

Sainz Jnr: Dad always told me to be quick in Monaco

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In the round-up: Carlos Sainz Jnr says his points scoring streak in the Monaco Grand Prix is down to his father’s advice.

What they say

Sainz has scored points in all five Monaco Grands Prix he has entered:

I remember my dad telling me when I was kid that you need to be quick at Monaco. That’s where good talents shine. It stayed in my mind.

I did the Monaco Grand Prix in go-karting and I won it so we started off well when I was 13. And then when I arrived to Formula 1 I’ve always put a special effort into preparing for this grand prix and focusing a bit more and it looks like it pays off every year.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Snapshot

Andrea Dovizioso DTM Audi livery, 2019
Andrea Dovizioso DTM Audi livery, 2019

This is the livery Moto GP star Andrea Dovizioso will use for his one-off appearance in the DTM next week at Misano.

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Comment of the day

Does Monaco’s unusual circuit configuration mean it should be run to a different set of rules?

I’d support Monaco being run to a different set of rules. It’s still a decent race track for some of the support categories but for F1 cars it’s generally only good for creating a spectacle during qualifying.

Thinking outside the box; how about something along the lines of a Wimbledon style tournament? Perhaps qualifying could still exist to establish where each car is seeded, and then cars face off two-versus-two on Sunday for a series of short sprint races (10 laps), starting half a lap apart, with the fastest average lap time determining who progresses through to the next round. Ultimately the final could be between the fastest two to four cars.
@Sparkyamg

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21 comments on “Sainz Jnr: Dad always told me to be quick in Monaco”

  1. COTD.
    We’re always trying to come up with ideas to make racing better in Monaco. From making it a non championship race to using a whole different system.

    But, the beauty of Monaco is the challenge of the track, of staying off the walls for 2 hours. Overtaking isn’t easy, but when it happens, it is a thing of beauty.

    I believe we’re approaching the problem of Monaco the wrong way. As an F1 championship race, the format should stay the same as any other race (I even think they should run the full 305km). We should only slightly tweak the track so overtaking isn’t impossible (wider start finish straight, reprofile Portier, and move the chicane further into Tabac and make it wider while we’re at it so people can go side by side).

    1. Easiest improvement would be to go back to narrower cars !

      1. Yes, indeed, @hohum. Narrower cars with engines in the front and gear levers on the side. Just for Monaco, tweak the specs to 1955 standards.

      2. @hohum I love the wider cars. I love the looks compared to the narrower ones, and I love that they’re significantly faster. It’s always been hard to pass at Monaco, the wider cars haven’t made that much difference here or anywhere for the matter

      3. @hohum Except that overtaking in Monaco wasn’t any easier then than it is now, though.

    2. It’s not really the width of the track necessarily that’s the major problem both at Monaco and other tracks.

      It’s the marbles that get thrown off the damn tyres because they’re built to degrade in such a way that crap gets thrown off line at every corner which makes overtaking anywhere other than straights almost impossible. As soon as a driver goes slightly off line to try and set up a pass their speed and braking is so badly disrupted, they can’t realistically attack.

      Fix that and then we have a chance at watching some real dicing instead of relying on DRS.

      1. @dbradock, bear in mind that some of the suggestions being thrown around now were being thrown about decades ago – for example, there was a formal proposal to try and spice the Monaco GP up by splitting it into two shorter races (a qualifying race and a longer feature race) back in 1970.

        You might cite the tyres, but nearly 50 years ago we had people making the same complaints about the Monaco GP being bad for racing and proposals being put forward to artificially spice up the event by introducing special rules or other random elements into the event – suggesting that the tyres aren’t really the issue here.

  2. Why not just leave it as it is? We have all these tracks that are basically the same. Honestly I found Monaco kind of refreshing the last few years. A break from a long straight with DRS into a hairpin.

    1. This. Too much moaning going on, Monaco is fine for what it is. If you don’t like it, let us have our cake and you have yours at other races.

    2. Exactly @darryn. For all the screaming fans do about all the tracks becoming more and more homogenous, it is ridiculous that people want to bin off one of the last truly unique circuits on the calendar.

      1. José Lopes da Silva
        31st May 2019, 10:30

        Agreed. If there’s something to change in Monaco, is extending to the 300 km of the rules. It might not even get to the 2 hours limit.

        1. Leave Monaco alone. It works as designed. A difficult track that usually only the very best win at. Look at the past winners for proof.

  3. Panagiotis Papatheodorou (@panagiotism-papatheodorou)
    31st May 2019, 6:37

    We don’t need to change a thing about Monaco. This is how it has always been since the early 90s I have been watching. Only rain and a potential SC makes it dramatic. Other than that, few overtakes and the polesitter wins.

    The beauty of the track lies in its tradition and importance to F1. It is the cars being so close to the barriers, passing those historic buildings in Massenet. The track is fine as it is, we shouldn’t broaden it or something.

    Racing isn’t just about overtakes. For an overtake to be memorable you need also build up and tension. Hamilton and Vettel have done hundreds of them in their careers yet we remember those that took supreme effort, not the easy ones.

    1. It is the cars being so close to the barriers

      Have to say that I loved the slow motion shots of when drivers kissed the barriers, making the barrier distort ever so slightly as the tyre pressed against it. The epitome of being on the limit in those shots, any further over and it’s suspension failure like Verstappen had in 2017 and 2018. @panagiotism-papatheodorou

  4. Something tells me that they came up with the name for the Stradale after pre-season testing. The color grading and transitions might not have been so heavy back then…

  5. My dad always told me to be quick in the shower

    1. Tank water ?

  6. tony mansell
    31st May 2019, 11:18

    I think id like Berger to run F1

  7. Paul (@frankjaeger)
    31st May 2019, 11:28

    Did he also tell you to breathe air and drink water, Carlos?

  8. This year, the US GP takes place in November, though.
    – I disagree with the COTD. Yes, Monaco is somewhat unique from the rest, but for the sake of fairness and consistency, the same rules have to be applied everywhere.

  9. I did the Monaco Grand Prix in go-karting and I won it so we started off well when I was 13. And then when I arrived to Formula 1 I’ve always put a special effort into preparing for this grand prix and focusing a bit more and it looks like it pays off every year.

    Something he should do at every grand prix no? Because at times there is the risk or looking average at best

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