The season has finally arrived at the playground of the rich. Monaco is the crown jewel of Formula One, much like the Indianapolis 500 is to IndyCar or the Daytona 500 to NASCAR. Monaco is a track like no other. Unlike most of the tracks on the 2015 calendar, speed is not a requirement. The tight, twisting streets of Monaco are often unforgiving and present a challenge to drivers. Monaco is a pure track; meaning that overtaking is difficult and the DRS is not as important. It takes pure driving talent to navigate through the streets of the small country and into the lead of the race. Although the weather was a bit mixed up in the other sessions this weekend, there is not rain forecast for the race.
Last year’s winner was Nico Rosberg. The German will surely be trying to make it three victories in a row for Monaco and looks to have the edge over his teammate. Lewis Hamilton managed to beat Rosberg in Q3, but in the previous two rounds, Rosberg was in the lead. It will surely be a close battle between the two Mercedes drivers, as Monaco leaves little opportunities to make a sizable gap. However, Rosberg has proven his ability in Monaco and should be able to take the victory for the third year in a row.
Ferrari has shown that their car is the closest rival to Mercedes. For the most part, this seems to remain true in Monaco. It’s difficult to tell from practice sessions because some were in the rain and some of the teams are sand bagging around the track. However, the prancing horse looks to have the advantage. Sebastian Vettel will be starting from third on the grid and Kimi Räikkönen from sixth. Vettel should have the skill and car required to take the third step on the podium. Some may find it irrational to predict a fourth place finish for Räikkönen, seeing as Monaco offers little chances for overtaking, but call me crazy. Räikkönen is a great driver and, despite the lower lap times in the previous sessions, should be able to overtake the two Red Bulls blocking his path.
The difference between Monaco – and the reason that many love this circuit – is that the cars are all closer together in regards to performance. Speed plays little factor in Monaco, so having an underperforming engine doesn’t handicap a team quite as much. This gives us some chances to see some of the lower ranking teams up near the front of the field. This was the case for Marussia last year. Red Bull has been struggling with the Renault power unit this season, but their lap times show that they can perform better in a street circuit setting. Some would say that Daniel Ricciardo will wrap up the fifth position of the top five, but I believe that Daniil Kvyat has a better chance. Starting just behind his teammate on the grid, Kvyat was able to set lap times that were more consistent than his teammate’s. The gap between the pair’s times is not too large, so it would not be as difficult for them to swap places, especially with the Ferrari of Räikkönen overtaking them and potentially slowing them up in the process.
Of course there are many factors that we can’t predict, like driver error causing collisions and retirements. Monaco is one of the greatest races of the season and is held at one of the most famous tracks in the world of motorsport. We will surely not be disappointed. Best of luck to all of the drivers.
