F1 2012 — A Retrospective Part 7: Monaco
Qualifying
It is the sport’s prestige event. Monaco is the top hat and monocle of the Formula One calendar. It would look fine without it, but having it adds an extra element of fancy.
It has the richest audience, on the docks by the most expensive yachts the average person could only ever dream of stepping onto and a picturesque backdrop that only the extremely wealthy could ever hope to afford to live in.
It is the home race for many F1 drivers. It may not be where they were born and raised, but for a number of drivers it is where they live. Namely, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg both lived there at the time of the 2012 edition.
It is the shortest race of the year, but by no means does that make it easy. The streets of Monte Carlo have often been described as the toughest race on the calendar by those who have driven it.
The track is a narrow maze of winding corners driven at ludicrous speeds where even the slightest drop in focus and concentration could ruin everything.
It is also extremely difficult to overtake as a consequence of this. At times, the track can seem like a pointless relic of a long gone past. On no other F1 weekend is Saturday as important as here. Securing pole position vastly increases your odds of winning than at any other track.
It was Michael Schumacher who set the fastest lap in Q3 at this Monaco weekend. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough for pole position. This would have been his first one since his return to the sport in 2010, but he picked up a five place grid penalty for his involvement in the collision with Bruno Senna last time out.
That promoted Mark Webber to his first pole position of the season. However, there was still a Mercedes on the front row as Nico Rosberg took second at his unofficial home race. Unlike Hamilton, who was also living in Monaco, Rosberg was actually raised in the principality, but drove under a German licence.
Hamilton and Romain Grosjean locked out the second row. Grosjean maintained his good form on Saturdays, he had out-qualified his teammate at all but one race up to this point in the season, which was no easy feat considering he was racing alongside the 2007 World Champion. It was his pace on Sundays that was letting him down, but this was a great chance to turn that around.
Remarkably, this was actually Hamilton’s worst showing in Q3 so far in the season. He was disqualified from first place in Spain, but otherwise he had always managed a top three spot. He finished fourth, but was moved up to third when factoring in Schumacher’s grid penalty.
His teammate Jenson Button’s qualifying woes continued. For the first time since Brazil 2008, he failed to reach Q3 for consecutive races. Button started the race in 12th. The difference in qualifying pace between the two Britons was becoming quite stark.
Ferrari had their best overall qualifying of the season to date. Fernando Alonso was still ahead of Felipe Massa, but this time they qualified within one tenth of each other and started this race in fifth and seventh, with Schumacher slotting in ahead of his old teammate at the Scuderia in sixth.
“I am very happy with how things have gone in this Grand Prix so far. Finally, I am having fun at the wheel of the F2012,” was Massa’s reaction to his best Saturday performance of the season so far. A sign that Ferrari’s development upgrades were working as planned.
Speaking of former Ferrari drivers, Kimi Raikkonen was in eighth. He finished second and third in the last two races from 11th and fourth, however repeating another podium finish from there was going to be a difficult task in Monaco.
Sebastian Vettel didn’t set a time in Q3 for tactical reasons, the choice of which tyre to start the race was too valuable for the German even at a track with such difficulty in overtaking . He used this tactic in Spain and moved a grand total of one position, from seventh to sixth, on race day.
The German was moved up to ninth due to a 15-place grid penalty for Pastor Maldonado. He accumulated this from five and 10-place penalties for a change of gearbox and causing a collision with Sergio Perez during Practice. Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10 in the Force India.
Pre-Race
There were five different winners at the last five races in Monaco too, adding another layer of unpredictability to this race. The tyre situation was expected to wreak havoc going into this one. Vettel and Button started on the Soft tyres, with the front runners all on the Super Softs.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a traditional ‘pole man leads into the first corner and then dominates easily,’ this race,” said Martin Brundle.
He believed that, because the pack was so tight this season, finding a gap to come out from the pits will be extremely difficult. For this reason, he thought that could potentially shake up the order. This would potentially play into the hands of Button and Vettel if they were able to stay out much longer on the Soft tyres.
Paul di Resta, Vitaly Petrov and Pedro de la Rosa were the only other three cars to start on the Soft compound. If the three backmarker teams were to pick up any points this season, then a chaotic Monaco Grand Prix would be their best bet.
This strategy also meant that they had the potential to play a role in this race. Covering the gap to those three cars before the first pit phase was looking like it would be crucial for a successful race.
Race
Webber safely got through the first corner unscathed and led the pack up Beau Rivage (Turn Two). However, Grosjean was sent backwards after a spin at Saint Devote (Turn One)!
Vettel narrowly avoided the Lotus by cutting across the corner, which moved him up to sixth. Maldonado was also limping behind, he had a broken suspension and his race was over before it could even start. Winner in Spain, last in Monaco.
“Maldonado’s awful weekend continues,” remarked Brundle. This was the ups and downs of an F1 season perfectly summarised. Hero to zero in breakneck speeds.
The Safety Car (SC) came out during the opening lap. Broadcasters used this time to show the replays.
They revealed that Grosjean cut across the front of Schumacher, who got off the line quite well, with his rear tyre. This caused them to touch, damaging the Frenchman’s suspension and ending his race. This also moved Schumacher down to eighth, behind Raikkonen in the other Lotus.
They were three abreast, and the maths simply showed that there was not enough room for that many drivers and it was Grosjean who missed out. The Ferraris and Schumacher swarmed either side of him, and he did not expect Schumacher on his left, which caused them to touch. No one particularly at fault, an unfortunate racing incident.
The replays also showed Kamui Kobayashi going airborne as he tried to avoid Grosjean but they banged wheels instead. That was a bumpy trip, from which he tried to continue but he ultimately retired from the race on lap 11 due to the damage.
Meanwhile, Maldonado simply ran into the back of de la Rosa, taking out his rear wing in the process. A classic opening lap incident in Monaco. De la Rosa’s rear wing was damaged beyond repair as a result.
However, the big loser of Grosjean’s accident was undoubtedly Button. He took avoiding action around the outside of Saint Devote, which sent him backwards into 14th place.
Back to the action, Hamilton characteristically complained about the SC going too slowly. He also feared he touched a piece of debris and asked his team to check his tyre pressures, but everything seemed to be fine. The SC was in at the end of lap three.
Hamilton was most caught out by the restart, but he retained third place. There were no changes in position once the race got going again.
The next 10 laps showed that not even the 2012 season could draw out some overtaking action out of this Monaco track.
By lap 13, Ted Kravitz was explaining that everyone was conserving tyres. Ensuring a one-stop was becoming the essential strategy.
Raikkonen was warned of rain in 15 laps. This prompted David Croft to suggest finding a field of cows and “see what they’re doing.” Do we think there’s a single field of cows in all of Monte Carlo?
At lap 14, it was becoming clear that the front three were breaking away from the two Ferraris behind them. The gap was 3s between first and third. Alonso was a further 3s back and Massa .5s behind in fifth.
The gap increased to 4s between Hamilton and Alonso over the next few laps, but on lap 18 Alonso started reeling in the McLaren by going .8s faster.
The only overtakes by lap 19 were both from Perez in the Sauber. He missed the 2011 edition of this race due to a concussion sustained in a crash during the qualifying session.
But here, he managed to force both Jean-Eric Vergne and Timo Glock off the track at the Nouvelle Chicane (Turn 10) by diving down the inside. This meant they had to give the place to the Mexican for gaining an unfair advantage.
Vergne was the first to come in for a change of tyres following the overtake, he moved onto a set of Soft tyres on lap 18.
Kravitz returned on lap 20 to inform commentary that the teams he had spoken to all suggested potential rainfall on lap 34.
“Possible light rain in four minutes,” was the message over the radio to Rosberg on lap 26. “Oh yes,” responded Brundle, clearly hoping rain would liven up the action.
Front-runners were starting to warn that their tyres were “going off,” according to Kravtiz. With impending rainfall, they were trying to stay out as long as they could to avoid losing out to the drivers on Soft tyres. Meanwhile, Vergne was setting fastest laps.
Raikkonen had a massive queue of cars behind him from seventh. He was now losing 2s a lap to the cars in front. But he was told to stay out because they were expecting rain in five minutes.
On lap 28, Rosberg was the first of the leading pack to go into the pits. He took advantage of Raikkonen’s lack of pace to slot in ahead of the Finn and come out in sixth with some free air.
Schumacher had a look at passing Raikkonen at the Nouvelle Chicane, but wasn’t able to make it work.
On lap 29, Alonso caught up to Hamilton, but then the Briton came into the pits. He was following the race leader who also came in for his first time. Alonso opted to stay out.
Webber held onto his position ahead of Rosberg. Alonso came in at the end of that next lap and he was ahead of Hamilton! The Spaniard moved into third place thanks to a very good stop from the Ferrari pit crew, as well as a quick in-lap in the clean air.
Vettel inherited the lead, he was yet to stop on the Soft tyres, and wasn’t expected in for potentially another 20 laps. “Rain could be as soon as five minutes away,” he was informed, that would certainly bring him in sooner.
“Vettel is just so much faster, and they’re all on the same tyre now except Vettel’s are 33 laps old. He’s really flying now, why? I’m confused now as to why Webber and Rosberg are so slow having put those tyres on,” bemused Brundle, to which Croft wondered what effect the clean air was having on both cars, but Webber had a 13s gap in front of him.
Rosberg’s race engineer informed him of the situation, but his theory was that Webber was intentionally slowing up the pack to help out his teammate. Meanwhile, they were readying Schumacher for his first stop. He managed to jump ahead of Raikkonen, and was now in 10th ahead of Vergne, but behind some drivers who were yet to stop.
Alonso was now right behind Rosberg, Ferrari’s strategy was working out nicely.
By lap 38, it was finally beginning to spit with rain, but it was far from enough to bring out the Intermediate tyres.
One lap later, Button finally arrived for his first stop. He came out in 15th, behind Heikki Kovalainen, what a disaster.
On lap 40, Webber was told he was now allowed to go quicker again, an obvious sign that Mercedes’ hunch was correct.
On lap 44, strangely, Hamilton complained that something on the pit board hit him on the head. This is the board the teams hold out on the pit straight to communicate with their drivers. It was very unusual for one to hit a driver on the head, that must have hurt.
On lap 46, Vettel finally came in for his stop. He was now ahead of Hamilton and into fourth place.
Hamilton moved down two places in the pit lane, an area McLaren have struggled with in the opening six races. Hamilton complained over the radio that they failed to update him on Vettel’s lap times, which allowed the German to jump ahead.
“Ok, Kimi, the rain has disappeared, we expect no rain, so we need to go to the end,” said Raikkonen’s race engineer.
The following 10 laps passed without much to note, as the cars all seemed set in their position. They were all easing their way around, managing their tyres to the end.
“Seeing a few tweets saying ‘oh it’s a little bit of a procession,’ but that’s Monaco. It’s always been like this. At least it’s reasonably tense,” said Brundle. He made the point that at least we were seeing the likes of Vergne, di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg in the points in eighth, ninth and tenth.
Meanwhile, Button was still stuck behind Kovalainen in 15th. There were only 19 cars left in this race.
On lap 61, Croft pointed out that Damon Hill predicted Hamilton to get pole position and race win, otherwise he would eat his microphone. It was not looking good for Hill’s microphone with 17 laps remaining.
On lap 62, Schumacher was passed by Vergne for seventh. He was suffering from a mechanical issue! He was slowly moving around the track, his race was over. Yet another DNF for Schumacher in the points position.
On lap 63, a few drops of rain were spotted at the exit of Casino (Turn Four), but nothing too serious.
By lap 65, Rosberg was into Webber’s DRS range, but unable to make any attempt at an overtake.
On lap 71, Vergne came into the pits for a set of Intermediate tyres. What? That was an utterly bizarre decision. “That’s a wild gamble on the weather,” claimed Brundle. The Toro Rosso driver was now down in 11th.
Button attempted a move on Kovalainen, but they crashed! Button had a look down the inside at the Swimming Pool Chicane (Turn 15), and he clipped Kovalainen at the rear which caused him to spin. That was the end of his race, a horrible weekend for the 2009 World Champion.
“The weather radar says no more rain,” said Kravitz, which was not what Vergne was hoping to hear. He was somehow still 11th. He only fell as far as 12th for a finish, but he did end up getting lapped. They threw away a potential seventh place result here, a completely ridiculous decision.
On the penultimate lap, the top five were all separated by tiny margins, they each had DRS on the car in front — except for, of course, Webber. But no overtaking was accomplished, not even in this chaotic 2012 season could they make Monaco a race-y circuit.
With that, Webber took home the chequered flag to become the sixth winner in as many races! Rosberg and Alonso completed the podium, followed by Vettel, Hamilton and Massa, who was 6s behind the leading pack.
The final standings were as follows
Championship Standings Top Five (Round 6)
Alonso now led the championship by three points over Vettel and Webber. The strategy by Red Bull paid off in the end, but it would’ve been interesting to see the German set a lap in Q3.
Qualifying is so important in Monaco, as seen by Webber holding the victory from lap one, that if Vettel had put the car on pole then he could’ve just as easily taken the full 25 points.
Ferrari finally started showing better qualifying pace in the last couple races, and Massa’s performance was the best of his season so far which was a boost for the whole team. Considering their pre-season woes, they deserved credit for upgrading the car swiftly enough to now be in a championship battle with Red Bull.
It was a disappointing weekend for McLaren. Hamilton fell from third to fifth in the race and fell from third to fourth in the Driver’s Standings. Factoring in Hamilton’s exceptionally consistent qualifying pace, to see him be fourth at this point was truly baffling. It was a mixture of poor pit stops and bad luck.
With 14 races still to go it was all very much to play for still, with even Rosberg and Raikkonen 27 and 35 points behind. It was anyone’s championship to win at this point.
Post-Race
The Red Bull garage celebrated wildly as Webber crossed the line and they had every reason to. They became the first team to win a second Grand Prix in 2012, following Vettel’s win in Bahrain.
They nailed this race from start to finish, Webber was in total control and managed his tyres well enough that it allowed Vettel to jump into fourth place. A great points haul for them in the constructors.
“It was all about tyre preservation. Everybody knew it was going to be right on the edge of, could be one-stop or two-stop, so it was about trying to make that one-stop work. If the field didn’t spread out a two-stop would’ve been a disaster,” said Adrien Newey on the way to the podium.
Alonso was first to congratulate Webber with a respectful hug between the pair. Croft mentioned that they could be doing this together next year for the same team “if the rumours are to be believed.”
Driver in Focus
He didn’t finish the race in the end, but Michael Schumacher deserves the spotlight. The F1 community celebrated his 52nd birthday at the turn of the year, but when we remember Schumacher’s career it can be very easy to gloss over his time with Mercedes, yet his efforts in the 2012 season deserve some recognition.
He was at fault for the crash with Senna that cost him pole position in Monaco, but for a man who was 43 at the time to set the quickest lap on this circuit specifically was an incredible feat.
The amount of focus and attention required really separates the best from the rest, to go quickest in Monaco is really a test of a person’s speed. This was Schumacher showing the world he still had it.
Unfortunately, he didn’t get to compete for the race win and even if he did he likely would’ve still retired from first or second place anyway. This was his fourth DNF from six races, the most of anyone in the season up to this point.
Those DNFs came from valuable point scoring positions too. If he had better luck then perhaps he could have even been in the conversation for the Driver’s Championship after this race.
Race Verdict
As far as Grands Prix go, this was certainly one that happened. There was very little on-track action and the majority of overtakes were from the pit lane. But, this is simply how Monaco goes in modern F1. It has always been a difficult place to go racing, and has always felt most like a procession.
There was still intrigue, the tyre management and the threat of rain always meant that something could happen at any moment, but everyone remained calm and the clouds held out on any precipitation until after the chequered flag.
However, in the end, none of that stuff really came to pass. The action in the pit lane salvaged this race from being totally devoid of anything happening. It wasn’t a total procession, and by the standards of Monaco it wasn’t the worst race I’ve ever watched, but it was by far the least interesting of the six so far in this season.
Result: 2/5
Next up: CANADA
