Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Monaco, 2019

Mercedes must take lesson from “lucky” Monaco win – Wolff

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In the round-up: Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says the team would be published more severely for its Monaco Grand Prix tyre choice error at a track like the Circuity Gilles Villeneuve.

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What they say

Wolff said Mercedes were “lucky” to win in Monaco after putting Lewis Hamilton on the medium compound tyres:

I think going back to normal race tracks we need to accept that we, in terms of tyre life, need to learn from Monaco and understand why that was because this situation in Montreal, we lose the race.

I think from a mindset we must never be carried away by saying ‘we are flying at the moment and it’s going to continue like this’. Our mindset is that we were a bit lucky to actually win that race.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Social media

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Snapshot

F1 Pack Rivals
F1 Pack Rivals

Avid Games’ free mobile racing game F1 Pack Rivals has been updated for the 2019 season. It includes “an action-packed racing game and the official F1 trading card collection, which is full of exclusive F1 photography and trivia”. It’s available now on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

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Comment of the day

One of few to put a case for Ferrari keeping their veto was @Proesterchen:

The veto is a prerequisite for Ferrari’s continued participation.

Without Ferrari, Formula 1 is worth considerably less to its owners and would generate significantly lower revenues for everyone left.

And on the point of teams left in the sport, who among the current teams would commit to participation beyond their current contract period without Ferrari also signed up?

One might argue that by continuing to grant Ferrari their veto, Liberty are indeed ensuring the continued existence of Formula 1.
@Proesterchen

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On this day in F1

  • 30 years ago today Alain Prost won F1’s first race on the streets of Phoenix ahead of Ricciardo Patrese and Phoenix native Eddie Cheever

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28 comments on “Mercedes must take lesson from “lucky” Monaco win – Wolff”

  1. It is saddening to hear the news of the kid’s demise. The good thing is he got to see an F1 car in person. Now it’s time to hear some F1 tales from Niki.

    1. Certainly puts things in perspective. Vaya con dios, Harry…

  2. And to get my spirits lifted up again, I read the blurb about PMI and Mission Winsoon 😁

    1. @phylyp They’re certainly making their advertising mileage out of it.

      Pity the name doesn’t match their performance :(

  3. No sympathy for the CEO of the Marlboro cigarette making cancer causing enterprise PMI. The only people needing to “go to a doctor” will be consumers of their products.

    No sympathy for Team ferrari accepting tobacco advertising money to plaster 28 instances of the PMI Marlboro manufacturer’s logo/slogan all over their Formula 1 race car. Why are they removing the offending signage from their cars, drivers, pit crew, clothing and all other equipment, etc. if it is not tobacco advertising? What a farce.

    1. Matteo (@m-bagattini)
      4th June 2019, 8:17

      @bullmello gentle reminder that the sport is pretty also stuffed of alcohol ads

  4. This Monaco win was never lucky or difficult. All this crying over the radio was frankly pathetic especially considering what Danny Ric did last year… not even mentioning the massive cars that are almost impossible to get by. I’ve recently watched again the 1992 Monaco GP. No comparison…

    1. Toxic, the thing is, if you read what was said at the time, a lot of people actually thought that Mansell’s moves might have looked dramatic on TV, but that it actually made it extremely easy for Senna to defend.

      Senna himself seemed mystified as to what Mansell was doing, saying that he seemed to try to pass him in all the wrong spots, whilst failing to attack him at the right places, Autocourse described his passing attempts as “theatrical” and Motorsport Magazine quoted other drivers openly wondering what Mansell was doing, mocking him by saying that his moves looked dramatic, but just covered his tyres with the rubbish off the racing line.

      In fact, there were fans openly wondering at the time what on earth Mansell and Williams were doing at the time, especially given Williams’s confused explanation for what happened, to the point where conspiracy theories rose up that Mansell had been “encouraged” to pit to artificially liven up what had been, until then, a fairly dull race, followed by a rather over the top performance behind Senna that looked good on camera, but was no real threat to Senna. It might sound absurd now, but that is how some viewed what was happening at the time then, such was the sense of bemusement over what Mansell was doing.

    2. It was lucky because it was Monaco.

      What Toto said was if they’d made that mistake anywhere else they would have certainly lost. Trust Mercedes to make their only mistake where it didn’t matter :)

      1. exactly. if leclerc had been leading in monaco and suffered the same engine problem that he did in bahrain, he would have won.

  5. Neil (@neilosjames)
    4th June 2019, 1:29

    CoTD says:

    And on the point of teams left in the sport, who among the current teams would commit to participation beyond their current contract period without Ferrari also signed up?

    Assuming Renault/Mercedes/Red Bull/whoever else weren’t leaving anyway… all of them apart from Alfa, probably. As long as Haas could find a new technical partner.

    I imagine plenty of them would actually welcome the new level playing field.

    1. F1oSaurus (@)
      4th June 2019, 20:19

      @neilosjames If Renault merges with Fiat-Chrysler then even Alfa might be fine with it.

  6. Toto and Lou should get a room! They could cry into their own teacups while taking turns playing the world’s smallest violin!
    Both are lucky hucksters who wouldn’t stand a chance against F1s real greats!

    1. Dude, in close examination, this has been one of the closest season starts ever.

    2. In your humble opinion and if you are going to abbreviate his name try getting it right. You sound like just another sore loser.

    3. Paul Duggan
      4th June 2019, 7:34

      This! This is what the internet is for! Gulp, you just brightened my morning right up. Thanks.

    4. :D “Both are lucky hucksters who wouldn’t stand a chance against F1s real greats!”

      They sound really out of touch with the reality. They almost seem like fake kind of humble. But in reality they are greats. Toto Wolf is the only team principal who was a champion in nearly all his seasons?

      And Lewis Hamilton is currently second only to Michael Schumacher in point winning categories that matter.

      Certainly they are greats. Hard to say who is greater at their job Toto or Lewis.

      But when it comes to media releases… oh boy they suck.

    5. Who’s Lou?

      1. There seem to be more and more ignorant posters here looking to wind up more knowledgeable folks. Describing either Hamilton ( I presume that’s who you mean by ‘Lou’?) or Wolff as ‘lucky hucksters who wouldn’t stand a chance against F1s real greats’ is just an embarrassment to yourself.

    6. Toto and Lou should get a room!

      They’ve got a room. They are both living in your head.

      Rent free

  7. I wish Rob Smedley had gone into a little more detail of the R&D in which Williams haven’t been keen on investing. Their sister concern’s foray into Formula E’s under-the-hood technologies has shown they’re not shy about new and emerging technologies, which is what makes me curious.

    More tellingly, Claire has said earlier this year they’re not hurting for funds. But in light of Rob’s statement, I wonder if that fiscal comfort is partly driven by a long-term decision to focus on operational expenses and not capital expenditure. We know that teams like Williams are pinning big hopes on a favourable budget cap, so this might be a tactic to ensure they’re on the grid when (if?) that rolls around.

    Maybe Claire hopes that under a budget cap (and the 2021 regs) they can emerge in a better shape in the WCC, and use that added income for capex. Although, as a cautionary tale, I’d point to many other teams on the grid for whom money hasn’t automatically equalled success.

    1. @phylyp And the best example of money not automatically equalling success is perhaps the case of Toyota since the Japanese manufacturer never managed to even win a single race during its eight-season tenure in F1 as a full manufacturer-team despite the budget. Yes, there are other examples as well, but to me, this one comes out as the prime example of this kind.

      1. @jerejj – Very good example! Possibly the only silver lining is that everyone got a stonkingly good wind tunnel out of Toyota’s investment. :)

      2. I suspect Toyota lost out because their geographic location did not appeal to the best F1 engineers. I know engineers who turned down headhunters from Toyota because they did not want to move their families to Cologne, and who have gone on to great success with British teams.

    2. F1oSaurus (@)
      4th June 2019, 20:25

      @phylyp

      I’d point to many other teams on the grid for whom money hasn’t automatically equalled success.

      That’s not relevant. Poor performers can always exist.

      Sure, lots of money is no guarantee, but having no money is pretty much a guarantee that you won’t lift the title.

      The issue is how is a team with 150 million budget going to beat multiple (three) teams with 400 to 500 million budgets and some (two) with 200 to 300 million budgets. One of them might under perform really badly, but not all.

  8. Lucky or unlucky. Yes, maybe there was luck to some extent in it given that on a more overtaking-friendly venue such as the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve coming up next, for example, it’d be much harder to keep a driver with better-shaped tyres behind for long. Then again, track-position is king around Monaco, and Mercedes managed to put themselves into that position already by qualifying well.

  9. The COTD is a sensible view, if the sport and the transportation economy were not looking at fundamental changes. I was looking at the VW iD Nurburgring 6:05 lap yesterday, and I was thinking about the Ferrari veto. Electric car racing has a long way to go, but it’s going there quickly. And when it gets on par in power density and energy density for a race-length, if we are still talking about propping up a system of privilege in F1 that throttles competition without any technological strategy for the future, F1 is going to be dead anyway.

    I’m afraid F1 will have the same same reckoning CART had before the merger. At the time, CART had a variety of chassis constructors and engines, it was high-tech. It looked good, sounded good. By contrast, IndyCars had the 500, but they had spec cars and poorly regarded drivers. But CART’s supercilious attitude was punished in the end.

    On the business side, right now everyone from VAG to MB are putting luxury performance electric cars on the market in a hurry. But still in F1 people are concerned about the “noise” and dreaming of 2005. If F1 wants to put itself in a glass cabinet it could become a technological tchotchke quickly.

  10. pff, pure electric is good for a few laps an then … Batteries empty – long charging times- not the future – Hydrogen fuel cells will keep you going, maybe not for the record on the ‘Ring’. Green Hydrogen is the future of all transportation – and the ‘RICH’ had this technology for 30 years. It”s like putting solar panels on your roof. Who can afford it ? – Yeah the ‘Rich’. Hydrogen will be available for EVERYONE if the WILL is there. In the mean time F1 should keep us entertained and Ferrari are nowhere.

Comments are closed.