FORMULA 1 - 2012

[MIKA27]

Sauber preview the Monaco GP

Kamui Kobayashi may have "good memories" of Monaco, however, the same cannot be said of Sergio Perez despite him saying it's a "special" place...

Kamui Kobayashi: "I have good memories of Monaco. I finished fifth there last year, which was really great. Monaco is a very special track for the drivers. Our car seems to be strong on most of the tracks. Now it will be interesting to see how competitive it will be on a street circuit, but I'm quite confident it will be strong there as well. In Monaco a lot of things can happen, therefore it's important to stay out of trouble and make it to the end. If we do that then I'm sure we will be able to fight for points."

Sergio Perez: "This Grand Prix is the most special one for me. I have been waiting to race in the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix all my life and, of course, after what happened last year I am looking forward to it even more. I strongly believe on this track the driver can make more of a difference than on any other track. As a team we are in good shape and I want to keep that momentum for Monaco. I also think our car can perform quite well on that unique city circuit. Of course I also think back to the accident I had in Q3 last year. To me it is like a watershed event in my career. There is a time before and a time after the accident. I learnt a lot from what I had to go through and I think it made me stronger. I really want to show what I can do in Monte Carlo."

Matt Morris, Chief Designer:"The Monaco track is probably the one where the driver has the most influence on the overall performance. Last year both our drivers were competitive - Sergio until his accident in Q3, and Kamui finished a strong fifth in the race. The main challenge for setting up the car will be to optimise the mechanical grip. I'm confident we will be able to handle this. The development package that we ran for the first time in Barcelona will also be used again in Monaco, so we will be able to carry over its performance gain. Pirelli will provide us with the soft and the super soft tyres. This is actually the first time this year that we will be using the super soft compound during a race weekend. We tested it briefly during winter testing in Barcelona, which is a track that's not exactly suited to this tyre, but I don't see us having any problems in managing this tyre compound. The track has been resurfaced in some areas, for example in the braking zone after the tunnel, so we have got rid of the bump there. That's something the drivers have to get used to, but, if anything, it should be easier. One of the design considerations of the C31 was to improve it over the kerbs, so we should be stronger at kerbing compared to last year. We have been competitive so far this season, and I'm confident we can be very strong in Monaco as well."

[MIKA27]

Caterham preview the Monaco GP

Caterham are looking to "to keep progressing and keep fighting" as they gear up for the "unique challenge" of the Monte Carlo street race...

Heikki Kovalainen: "Monaco's the race everyone in F1 wants to win, and it's not just a famous F1 race, it's one of the biggest annual events in the world. For drivers it's a pretty hardcore race, in and out of the cars, but it's a challenge I really enjoy and racing around the streets is one of the real highlights of being an F1 driver. On track it's one of the races where the pack bunches up a bit and that might give us a chance to do something special. Last year I finished 14th, one of our higher finishes of the season, so hopefully we can improve on that this year. We have KERS this year and a car that has good race pace, and as our car is slightly easier on the tyres than some of the teams ahead, maybe that will help us achieve a high race finish."

Vitaly Petrov: "I've raced a lot in Monaco, not just in Formula One. I had a podium there in GP2 when I finished second in 2009, which was good. In F1 I've raced there twice. The first time wasn't so great but last year was pretty good, right up until the point I crashed! That was so disappointing, but I couldn't avoid it. We had a good strategy and I'd had a good race up to that point, but that's how racing goes sometimes. Monaco is an unbelievable place though. Normally, between Barcelona and Monaco we have just one week and I'd leave Barcelona on Sunday night and drive to Monaco, because on the Tuesday of the race week we have the football match for the F1 drivers, which is always great. The track itself is always a little bit dirty at the start of the weekend and it's quite difficult to get tyre temperatures up during the lap. It's tricky because the walls are so close. If you make one mistake or have a little bit of oversteer, you don't even get a chance to correct it - you're in the wall. It takes quite a bit of mental preparation and you need to be totally focused for every single lap of every session. The race itself? The atmosphere in the race is incredible. It's just an amazing place to drive a racing car and I really love it."

Mark Smith, Technical Director: "Monaco is a unique challenge, for the drivers and the teams. The fact we are in very different garage conditions to normal, and in a cramped paddock, makes it a tough race for the truckies, the mechanics and the engineers, but it is a race we all look forward to and one that everyone wants to do well at. The short length of the lap and the limited high-speed sections means there is much less difference in lap times than at somewhere like Barcelona. We all use high downforce settings, and we have a specific aero configuration we will use in Monaco and probably Hungary, but the days of cars sprouting all sorts of special wings just for Monaco are behind us. The cars may not look hugely different to how they appeared in Spain, but we do have as much downforce as we can find for the whole weekend in Monte Carlo. The other challenges are managing the brake cooling and tyre wear. Even though it's a stop - start lap, the brakes are not put under huge strain as the speeds never get as high as a normal track, but there is a real emphasis on making sure we cool the brakes as efficiently as possible, and that is something we worked on at the Mugello test, so we are happy we have a good solution for that. For the tyre wear we have planned as well as we can, but we have seen so far this season that until we are actually out on track it's almost impossible to know which teams will be hard on the tyres and which teams will be able to manage the degradation levels well. We have the soft and the supersoft compounds in Monaco, and if the wear rates on the softs are anything like we saw in Spain, strategy will be critical."

Tony Fernandes, team owner: "Before looking ahead to Monaco I want to talk about what happened after the race in Spain. We performed well in the race itself - both cars ran faultlessly and Heikki and Vitaly put in strong drives, managing their tyres well and getting as much performance as they could from the cars that afternoon. After the race I was absolutely delighted for Sir Frank and the whole Williams F1 Team that they won their first race in eight years. Williams is one of the cornerstones of F1 today and Sir Frank and Patrick have served as mentors for me in F1 so I owe them a great deal. When I saw what then happened in their garage I was obviously concerned for the safety of my team and all the people from teams up and down the grid who showed incredible bravery, putting themselves in the middle of a very dangerous situation to help a fellow team. Since the team returned to base I have received a very gracious communication from Jean Todt, thanking our boys for helping put the fire out on Sunday. The actions of the Williams team, people from our team and everyone else who helped out, stopped the situation escalating and it makes me incredibly proud to be part of a sport that shows such bravery and spirit. For us, teams like Williams set the standards we must reach on track, but we showed on Sunday that when faced we adversity we behave like a championship winning team. That spirit is at the heart of our team and it is what we will call on to keep progressing and keep fighting to emulate the teams ahead."

[mikec]

Why post-Spain criticism of Schumacher is wrong

Michael Schumacher has come under fire following a poor Spanish GP, but it's dreadful luck rather than poor pace that has been his main issue so far in 2012.

Much has been made of the fact that statistically Schumacher has made his worse ever start to a season with only two points to his name so far. However when you look beyond the maths, it's clear to see that his results don't reflect his actual form.

It would also be a bit rich to criticise Schumacher, when apart from his Chinese GP win, team mate Nico Rosberg isn't actually having that great a season either.

Looking at the season so far the seven time world champion's raw pace has been by far the best it has been since his comeback. In Australia he qualified fourth behind the two McLarens and Romain Grosjean.

In Malaysia he qualified a brilliant third and was only 0.172 seconds away from pole position. He then managed third on the grid again in China, which turned into a front row start after Lewis Hamilton's five place grid penalty.

Despite this good pace a number of misfortunes have prevented Schumacher from getting the results he deserves. Certainly a couple of podiums have been lost.

In Melbourne he was running third keeping Sebastian Vettel behind him until he suffered a gearbox failure. In Malaysia Romain Grosjean touched him on the first lap which resulted in a spin, which put him right down the order.

In China he was running in second place but after his first pit stop his right wheel nut became loose due to a mistake in the pit stop. We will never know what he could have achieved in that race. Chances are Rosberg may not have had things quite so easy.

Bahrain was yet another missed opportunity. Due to an issue with DRS Schumacher failed to make it past Q1. On most tracks DRS can be worth over a second on a qualifying lap and more so for Mercedes with their super-DRS, so had it been working normally there is no doubt Schumacher would have easily made the cut.

This was a shame as Mercedes had a car capable of challenging for pole position, and Schumacher had an opportunity for a great result from the front end of the grid.

From the back (after a gearbox penalty) he could only climb up to tenth. However this is more due to the nature of the tyres. It's extremely difficult to race through the field and nurse these difficult Pirelli tyres at the same time.

In Spain this weekend from a similar position Lewis Hamilton only managed two places better in what was a very quick car. It's now very hard to drive from the back to the front due to the delicate nature of the Pirelli tyres. In the circumstances these were both brilliant comeback drives from Hamilton and Schumacher respectively.

Ultimately in Spain this weekend Schumacher does have to take a fair amount of blame for his race ending incident with Bruno Senna. However throughout his career he has had racing incidents. It's always been a bit of a weakness. It should also be said it's the first real error he has made this year.

Unfortunately the subsequent five place penalty at the next race at Monaco couldn't possibly come at a worse track. Therefore Monaco is likely to prove another race where a great result won't come even if Michael is quick.

Whilst Schumacher's season might be under the microscope after a lack of results, you have to question Rosberg's performances so far this year.

He may have finally won a race in China and in fairness to him he did drive brilliantly throughout that weekend. However that breakthrough race merely acts as a cover-up for what has otherwise been a series of average race weekends. The victory has helped him escape the criticism, that his team-mate has started facing in the aftermath of the Spanish GP.

Rosberg also had a chance to challenge for pole position in Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain. It was certainly within the car's capabilities on those weekends. However in each of those qualifying sessions he made costly errors on the decisive lap.

In Sepang he locked up going into the first corner, and went a little bit wide heading onto the long back straight. In Bahrain he tried to take too much speed into the final corner and lost a chunk of time putting him down in fifth place.

In terms of the actual races both Australia and Malaysia proved a nightmare for Nico. His races in Bahrain and Spain were solid but you certainly couldn't call them particularly spectacular.

To win the championship you need to perform brilliantly consistently throughout the year, not just at one single event. Plus Rosberg hasn't suffered the miserable luck that Michael has endured so far.

It's certainly fair to say that Schumacher isn't the same driver as he was at Benetton and Ferrari. The fact that there is far less testing, and the tyres are no longer tailor made for him, have taken away a couple of the factors that made him so successful. Plus there is of course much stronger opposition than he had back in his Ferrari championship winning days.

However he is still a decent driver. On a weekend where the car is working really well (such as it did in China) and everything goes smoothly, there is no doubt Schumacher can get podiums and win a race or two. He has already proved this year that in a decent car he does still have good speed.

He is unlikely to win in Monaco (due to the five place grid drop) but he has every chance in Canada and Valencia. Montreal is effectively a series of long straights connected by chicanes. With Mercedes' super DRS and Michael's previous in Montreal this writer is predicting Schumacher to win that race. You read it here first!

Valencia is another track that features long straights where there will be plenty of DRS usage and where Mercedes can potentially be very strong.

Ultimately Mercedes have to ask themselves if Schumacher can win them a championship as that is what the team is striving for. In a great car it's certainly still very feasible.

However he doesn't seem to be able to transcend a car that is off the pace like he could do in his peak, in the same way we are seeing Fernando Alonso currently achieving at Ferrari.

However in fairness looking at the current evidence Mercedes should be asking the same questions of Rosberg too.

With every mistake McLaren make the prospects of tempting Lewis Hamilton to Mercedes will increase. There are also the likes of Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg at Force India who have the potential to do very well in a top team, and would be good long term options for the team.

However if Schumacher's luck improves and he can get the results his pace has been promising, there won't be any reason why he won't deserve to stay on the grid with Mercedes in 2013.

Although you sense that Mercedes are going to have to try to get one of the current proven top drivers like Hamilton if they are to have a better chance at winning the title. Incidentally Lewis has not yet renewed his McLaren contract. If Mercedes want him, now has to be the time to act. A bold and difficult decision may need to be made this year even, if it has to come at the expense of a capable driver.

Both Schumacher and Rosberg may need to be looking over their shoulders in equal measure.

I'm with you Mika on the prediction of a Schumacher win in Montreal. If all goes well I'll be at the race with some Mercedes Canada VIP passes (hoping and fingers crossed). I also think it might be a breakout weekend for Kimi and he also has a shot here (dogfight for victory between these two).

[MIKA27]

LOTUS F1 TEAM "ANGRY" AHEAD OF MONACO GRAND PRIX:

Commercial partnerships and collaborations in F1 are commonplace, with most teams having “technology partners”, “performance partners”, “logistics partners and so on.

Now the Lotus F1 team has gone one step further and found an “angry partner”; Rovio, the Finnish company behind the popular Angry Birds game. It’s a tongue in cheek story, but designed to draw attention to a couple of significant milestones for both companies.

“While Lotus F1 Team will contest its 500th Grand Prix in Monaco, the No.1 digital game in the world – Angry Birds – has just reached 1 billion downloads. As a result, both brands have decided to join forces to celebrate these respective milestones,” said the Lotus statement.

Angry Birds has become the number one paid app of all time and its branding will appear on the Lotus cars at this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix. This recalls the Williams tie-up with Sega and Sonic the Hedgehog back in 1993.

It’s interesting to note that the Enstone-based team is now leaning on Lotus’s Formula 1 history, having finally aligned the Lotus road car brand with the Team Lotus F1 brand, following the settlement of the case with Tony Fernandes.

[MIKA27]

'Massa in line for 2013 Ferrari drive'

Despite rumours that he could be axed this season, Ferrari insist they could yet retain Felipe Massa for next year's Championship.

Massa, who last won a grand prix back in 2008 at his home race in Brazil, has struggled in recent seasons.

After a massively disappointing campaign in 2011, in which he failed to reach the podium, even the Brazilian acknowledged he needed a flying start to this season.

However, the opposite has happened.

Massa has bagged just two points in five grands prix compared to the 61 - and one race victory - that his team-mate Fernando Alonso has achieved.

This has led to rumours that he could be replaced some time this season.

Massa, though, recently came out claiming that he has the full support of all at Ferrari and it looks as if that is the case as spokesman Luca Colajanni says the 31-year-old could even stick around next season.

"Felipe has the full confidence of the team, starting with our president," Colajanni toldBrazil's O Estado newspaper.

"We have not decided who will be our driver in 2013 but Felipe has not been discarded."

As for speculation that the injury Massa suffered during qualifying for the 2009 Hungarian GP has slowed him down, Colajanni says there is no proof of this.

"We have no evidence that makes up think that Felipe has slowed down because of the accident. Zero," he said.

This was a sentiment backed up by F1 doctor Gary Hartstein who acknowledges that while "such an experience changes you, you can't say that it is why Felipe has not won."

[MIKA27]

Perez: Monaco shunt a watershed event

Sergio Perez says he is a "stronger" driver after his horrific accident in last year's Monaco Grand Prix.

Last year, which was his first season in Formula One, Perez crashed in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Mexican racer lost control of his Sauber exiting the tunnel section, swung right and crashed into the barrier before sliding across the chicane and slamming side-on into the TecPro barrier.

Perez suffered a sprained thigh and concussion, which kept him out of the Sunday race and also sidelined him two weeks later in Canada.

The 22-year-old, though, is eager to return to Monaco, hoping this time round for a very different result.

"This grand prix is the most special one for me," Perez said.

"I have been waiting to race in the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix all my life and, of course, after what happened last year I am looking forward to it even more.

"I strongly believe on this track the driver can make more of a difference than on any other track.

"As a team we are in good shape and I want to keep that momentum for Monaco. I also think our car can perform quite well on that unique city circuit."

He added: "Of course I also think back to the accident I had in Q3 last year. To me it is like a watershed event in my career," he said.

"There is a time before and a time after the accident.

"I learnt a lot from what I had to go through and I think it made me stronger. I really want to show what I can do in Monte Carlo."

[MIKA27]

Haug: Qualy all important in Monaco

Norbert Haug reckons the only thing this season that's even vaguely clear is that the best chance of winning a race is by starting on pole..

In a season that has seen five winners from five different teams there isn't much one can count on expect that securing pole position still gives a driver a better than average chance of winning a grand prix.

"It has been an exciting and unexpected first quarter of the 2012 season," said Haug. "Now Formula One visits the most atypical circuit of all, Monaco.

"It makes unusual, one-off demands of the cars: there are fast and narrow sections, but also eight corners taken at under 100kph and over 4,500 gear changes during the race. It is also incredibly challenging and rewarding for the drivers.

"In Monaco, more than any other circuit, the driver can really make the difference, especially on a single qualifying lap. Both Nico and Michael have shown a great feeling for the circuit and the ability to master it in recent seasons.

"After all the talk of unpredictability of the teams' performance levels this year, there are also clear facts: three of five races have been won from pole position, including Nico's victory in China.

"What's more, the five drivers who have completed every race lap are all in the top seven in the current Championship standings. Strong qualifying speed has been rewarded at every race, and consistently finishing races appears to be even more important in 2012.

"In the last three races, Nico has scored a total of 41 points, the second highest total in the field after Sebastian Vettel with 43."

Looking ahead to next weekend's grand prix in Monte Carlo, the Mercedes motorsport boss reckons his outfit can provide Nico Rosberg and his team-mate Michael Schumacher with a car capable of fighting at the front.

"Our focus in Monaco will be to extract the maximum from our further developed technical package. Giving the drivers a car they can trust and feel confident in is worth more here than at any other circuit on the calendar."

[MIKA27]

Tunnel DRS ban to remain in place for Monaco

The ban on using DRS in the Monaco tunnel will remain in place for this years event, the FIA confirmed on Friday.

Drivers and team members called for a ban on using the system through the tight right-hand bend tunnel last year after concerns that it may result in a serious accident.

With lower grip and barriers in close proximity to the racing line, it leaves very little to no run-off in the event a driver loses control of his car through the tunnel which is taken flat-out.

The governing body also confirmed the detection and activation zones would remain the same as 2011. Detection between turns 18 and 19, with activation on the main start/finish straight.

[MIKA27]

On the front line: Goings on behind the scenes

What you see on track is just half the story. Engineers and mechanics spend hundreds of hours each race weekend finding the perfect set-up behind the scenes.

In his exclusive column, former McLaren team member Marc Priestley takes a look at exactly what happens in the garage during a racing week.

When Lewis, Sebastian and Kimi etc, return to the pits during practice or qualifying and the car disappears amidst a whirlwind of mechanics, engineers, tyre blankets and cooling fans, just what are they up to? We've all heard commentators talking about the team 'working on set up', but what exactly does that mean?

Here I'll try to explain from the team's point of view what's going on.

Long before the light goes green at the end of pitlane, signifying the beginning of a session, F1 teams have put a plan together in an attempt to choreograph proceedings. Upon arrival at each Grand Prix, drivers meet with their respective engineers, who've already discussed potential options with strategists, aerodynamacists and management, and will go through what's been learnt since the last event. Countless people in various departments will have been trawling through gigabytes of data, simulation results, wind tunnel results, findings from the cars themselves as well as evaluating any potential upgrades that might be available. The race engineers will be armed with a summary of this information, how it may be applied over the race weekend and it's potential advantages in various situations, ie. qualifying, race, different weather conditions.

On Thursday afternoon each driver, together with their engineering teams, will normally walk the track. The purpose of which is not to learn which way it goes, but to study in close detail each lump and bump in braking zones, any aggressive curbs to stay away from and the ones which can be used to gain advantage, surface changes, positions of grid slots, safety car control lines, pit entry and exit, pitstop box position, DRS trigger and activation zones, overtaking opportunities, optimum KERS deployment zones as well as a myriad of other circuit specific details. Driving for hours in an F1 simulator is one thing, and they are incredibly accurate, but there's no substitute for seeing the track in it's current state with your own eyes!

With the walk complete and notes taken, an engineering meeting will normally take place with all necessary parties. That includes the drivers, race engineers and assistants, control systems engineers, team management, chief mechanic, Pirelli engineers, engine system engineers, aero engineers, strategists and anyone else considered relevant. The purpose is to discuss what options in each area of the car and team are available for each driver over the weekend.

Following this and after more detailed discussion between driver and engineer, a run plan is produced outlining the proposed course of events during FP1 and FP2, this will then be communicated to each set of mechanics. It will set out initial timings for each run, how many laps each run will consist of and the envisaged changes to the car in between those runs.

Run plans vary, but may consist of an installation lap early in FP1, followed by two runs later on different tyre options. Simulation work and previous data will have given engineers a good idea of the required changes to the car to adapt to the different tyre compounds. If a driver has a good balance between understeer and oversteer on the soft tyre there may be a change to aero levels, roll stiffness or differential locking etc. to achieve that same balance when switching to a harder tyre compound. The same may apply when running different fuel levels.

Any run plan has to be adaptable of course, if a driver comes in after his first run reporting that things are definitely not as they'd expected, set up changes and an extra run may be required to find the right car balance before meaningful tyre evaluation can be carried out.

So on Friday morning, with driver strapped in, radio checks complete and a sea of people surrounding the car, the race engineer monitors track activity using the GPS tracking system available to all teams. Even though the pit lane may be open and it's only an install lap, if it's possible to find a decent gap on the circuit, that's always preferable.

With the car sat just off the floor on short stands and tyres wrapped in heated blankets, the number one mechanic in charge of the car awaits a signal from his race engineer to send it out of the garage. He, in turn signals to the rest of his team that it's time to go, blankets are removed, the car's lowered to the ground and the driver's waved out into the pit lane.

Whenever a car returns to the pits in the session, the team's ready to meet it, with brake fans if necessary, and reverse it into the garage.

From there mechanics carry out their standard procedures: car back on stands, tyre blankets back on, any cooling fans as required, refuel and have a good look over the car whilst driver and engineer discuss the run on the radio.

As the driver describes the car's handling characteristics, the race engineer will hopefully be able to suggest options for improvement in certain areas. This can include mechanical changes, things like anti roll bar stiffness, torsion bar or spring stiffness, revised damper settings or adjustments to the car's ride height. It's not unheard of to adjust ride heights by as little as half a millimeter as part of a set up change. Aero levels can be trimmed, mostly with front and rear wing settings, tyre pressure adjustments too can have a profound effect on their performance over a run and are constantly being monitored and corrected.

As well as the mechanical changes carried out by the technicians, data sent back from the car to the pits is studied and analysed to look for improvements in each area. This can include giving feedback directly to the driver on his technique. Data is compared with that driver's quickest laps, but also with data from the other car to find areas where each can improve. It may be that one driver carries more speed into a particular corner, but his exit suffers as a result and the data may be able to show that the quicker way is a slower, more controlled entry, allowing a slightly different line and earlier onto the power at exit. We might be talking 3 or 4 kph difference or less than half a meter of track position at turn in or braking points, but that's how closely it's all studied.

The car's electronic systems controlling things like gearbox, engine, KERS, DRS and differential operation are also constantly tweaked as part of set up changes. Things like the amount of diff locking or engine braking can be optimised at different levels for each corner and even parts of each corner. These changes are performed by systems engineers, usually stood at the side of the garage, with computers connected to the car via the 'umbilical', a large cable plugged in every time the car's in the garage. This allows fast, secure download of onboard data from the car, and digital code to be uploaded and embedded into the onboard management control systems when changes are required.

All of these changes happen simultaneously and can take no more than a couple of minutes to complete. Mechanics and systems guys inform the race engineer when the car's ready and once again everyone waits, poised for the next run.

Gains in laptime are all about finding tiny increments all around the lap and most set up changes end up with a compromise, or trade off, against another part of the car's characteristics. Often, the car will come back after it's run, having made all of the changes, only for mechanics and so on to be asked to go back on everything they've done in order to run another comparison with the original set up, sounds frustrating to undo all of that work, but that's the job and if it means a quick car at the end of the session, nobody minds.

[MIKA27]

NEW F1 BOOKS: THE ART OF RACING:

Readers of this site will be more than familiar with the work of leading F1 photographer Darren Heath. Last week he launched a stunning new book called "The Art of Racing" in conjunction with McLaren.

The 304 page book is a collection of images from the past two seasons, with captions from Maurice Hamilton.

Darren is a master not only at capturing speed, but also poignant personality images, as readers of this site will know. His behind the scenes work is very strong and there's plenty of that on show in this book, which is produced in stunning reproduction, featuring a printing technique on the cover which has never been done before in publishing.

The images also reflect the technological process in F1, with behind the scenes images from the factory of the development of a new F1 car.

The Art of Racing retails for £99.95 in large format hardback and can be bought from the McLaren eshop following this link McLaren eshop

[MIKA27]

Kimi: We will get to the top

Kimi Raikkonen is confident that Lotus will win a grand prix but has downplayed the chances of that happening in Monaco.

The Lotus driver heads to Monte Carlo on the back of two successive podium finishes, having claimed second in Bahrain and third in Spain.

But whether the top step beckons on the challenging street circuit that is the Monaco Grand Prix he isn't saying.

"Monaco is a little bit different and it's hard to say how it will go there," he said.

"The team has done a good job so far and we still have work to do and things to improve. So far it's going well and I'm happy with it.

"OK, we're not 100 percent satisfied with it because we are not winning but that's a very normal thing and I'm pleased for the team."

He added: "It's useless to put races in different categories, because all of them are as important to me.

"However, as a special race there is nothing like Monaco. There is no better feeling than to get things going well in there.

"To race in the streets of Monte Carlo is really different from everywhere else; a challenge I look forward to every year. It is very, very difficult, almost impossible, to have a clean weekend there."

Pressed as to whether a race win is on the cards for his team this season, the 2007 World Champ said: "To be on the podium twice already is good. Unfortunately you're not always going to get there.

"If you get the chance, you should take it because it's not every race that you will be able to fight for that position.

"Hopefully we can keep doing what we're doing now and at a certain point I'm sure that things will go exactly right and we'll get there.

"So far we've made good steps forward and the car has been strong everywhere."

[MIKA27]

To tame the Bull or ride the Horse?

You do not have to be a genius to realise that Felipe Massa is in trouble. He is. Since his horrific crash at the Hungaroring in 2009, he has not shown the form that almost gave him the world championship in 2008. The margins on that occasion were heartbreakingly slim, losing the championship by only one point to Lewis Hamilton. Felipe's post Interlagos '08 career has however seen margins of the gigantic sort. Since his life threatening crash in Hungary he has not won a single race and has only achieved five podiums, all of which were in 2010.

Just how he has kept his seat at Ferrari is the question on most people's mind. Surely a world famous team such as they, cannot be happy with such frequent lacklustre performances. That's especially when you compare it to the results that his double world champion team mate, Fernando Alonso, is achieving.

With Alonso arguably in the form of his life, and Felipe, arguably in the worst of his, it is inevitable that rumours have begun to surface, that the Brazilian will effectively be usurped. The first man to be touted as a potential in season replacement for Massa was Italian Jarno Trulli, the next was the affable, former Ferrari driver, Rubens Barrichello. Then, after Sergio Perez' amazing performance at Malaysia, finishing in second just behind Fernando Alonso, rumour abounded that Perez could get Massa's seat at any time.

However, with the rather unconvincing assertion from Maranello that Massa will remain at Ferrari until the end of the season; thoughts have turned to who may replace him should the likely scenario of his Italian departure bear fruition. Aussie driver Mark Webber, no stranger to being linked with Ferrari, is favourite to take up the position at the prestigious Scuderia Ferrari should it become available. Although this may seem a tempting prospect to many, as a keen follower of Mark's career, I sincerely hope he does not do this. I strongly believe that Red Bull are happy with their current driver line up, especially seen as this year, Webber seems to have reigned in the chasm that stood between him and Sebastian Vettel in 2011. He deserves huge credit for this; credit that should be acknowledged by Red Bull by showing a persistence to retain him for 2013.

This is only my view, and quite rightly you would think of what Mark's views would be. Moving to Ferrari may seem a no brainer for some, but it should evoke more thought than some would perceive. First off, you have to look at Ferrari's principles. Ferrari has a habit of picking a favourite driver and throwing their other driver to the lions. For example, look at what happened with Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello in the early 2000′s; their worship of Schumacher, although yielding staggering result, made F1 somewhat stale at times.

However, those occurrences are not a thing of the past, you only have to look back to 2010 and the infamous "Fernando is faster than you" message that Massa was given whilst leading the German Grand Prix. Of course, Felipe obeyed the direct order and moved over for his team-mate to pass him and allowing him to win the race.

As someone who loves to see Mark Webber do well, I would hate to see him restricted in such a manner. Now, before you begin to question my argument, I have not forgotten about Silverstone 2011 during which Webber was told to "maintain the gap" between he and second placed Vettel. However, true to his character, he did not pay attention and tried to pass Vettel, albeit unsuccessfully. Red Bull did not punish Mark for his refusal to obey the order, but surely, if he directly defied the Ferrari pit wall, they would not take it lightly.

One of the many quirks of Mark Webber is that people love his willingness to speak his mind. If he is performing badly, he will tell you. If the car is bad, he will tell you. If he is angry with the team, again, he will tell you. Red Bull seem pretty flexible on the subject however I have my doubts as to whether Ferrari would be similarly acceptant. You can go back to the days of Alain Prost's stint at the Ferrari between 1990 and 1991 for evidence to support this; he took the bold step of criticising his car. The result? Well let's just say it was sabbatical time for the Frenchmen. Even a driver as talented, as technically efficient could not withstand the wrath of Ferrari, so why should Webber fair any different? Ferrari do not differentiate between young upstart and seasoned world champion; disunity in the ranks is simply not tolerated, they are an institution and boy do they act like it.

I would be disappointed to see Mark Webber swap the blue of Red Bull for the red of Ferrari in 2013. I think it could well be a disastrous end to a successful Formula 1 career. Any lingering hopes of crowning a last hurrah with a world championship would be pretty much nil, with Alonso as his team-mate. Whenever Mark's time is up at Red Bull, which I for one hope will be a long time yet, I think it would be time to hang up his racing gloves. Nevertheless, let's see.

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F1 head protection 'inevitable'

Formula 1 will introduce some form of additional driver head protection in the not-too-distant future, race director Charlie Whiting says.

Governing body the FIA is conducting research on methods of head protection and Whiting believes F1 must adopt one.

"There has to be something to try to prevent a wheel hitting a driver's head," Whiting told BBC Sport.

He added that roll-over protection in front of the driver "is the most likely option in my opinion".

"We must do everything we can to protect the sport and its business model"

But he emphasised that "the research should be done first, so we are able to come up with something that works".

Researchers at the FIA Institute have so far tried two types of jet canopy and a forward roll-hoop.

The roll-hoop, made of titanium, was the most effective. It deflected the wheel, as well as puncturing the tyre, which makes it stop much more quickly than if it stays inflated.

The jet-style canopies were both flawed to varying degrees.

A 30mm polycarbonate windshield deflected the wheel but shattered, while a canopy from a jet fighter worked effectively but would cause other problems, including distorted vision.

Whiting said: "The canopy has potential problems, particularly in that there were very likely to be visibility issues as it may create a distorted image for the driver.

"There are also the issues of weight, driver egress and driver extraction."

F1 cars already include wheel tethers, which have drastically reduced the likelihood of wheels becoming detached from cars in the event of an accident, but they are unlikely ever to be foolproof.

"We have done our best to stop a wheel coming off and we are constantly working hard to come up with better ways of making sure wheels stay attached to cars," Whiting said.

Another concern is a similar type of accident to that which left Ferrari's Felipe Massa with a fractured skull and a brain injury when he was hit by an errant suspension part at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix.

A roll-hoop in front of the driver would not totally defend against that, but would offer partial protection.

A week before Massa's accident, Formula Two driver Henry Surtees, the son of 1964 F1 world champion John Surtees, was killed when a wheel hit his head.

There has been opposition to the idea of additional head protection, especially if it takes the form of a canopy, on the basis that F1 has always been for open-top cars.

But former grand prix driver Alexander Wurz, who is working closely with the FIA and F1 drivers on the subject, said that was an outdated argument.

Wurz said: "I've heard comments of 'it's against tradition'. Should we all drive with engines at the front and with leather hats and no seatbelts and parts not in quality control?

"We must do everything we can to protect the sport and its business model.

"You see how (in) our society, corporate social responsibility is moving nowadays, it's becoming so important. I just simply don't accept stopping looking into safer solutions just because they break tradition.

"If you are travelling at speed and pushing things to the limit, there will always be a risk, it's just I am against the categorical phrase 'It will never happen - my car will never have a roof.'

"That doesn't mean the canopy or forward roll-hoops which are coming and potentially around the corner needs to happen.

"But we can't stop the research because you learn so much from focusing on one area, like protecting the driver's head.

"Maybe we (will) learn something along the way which is a very simple solution."

Wurz said that adding some form of head protection, whether it be a canopy, roof or forward roll-hoop of one kind, would have no effect whatsoever on F1's position as the pinnacle of motorsport or on the challenge of driving the cars.

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James Allison: “I’m really very happy that our drivers are breathing right down one another’s necks!”

After another positive weekend in Barcelona, Lotus F1 Team Technical Director James Allison reflects on the team’s performance at the Spanish Grand Prix and looks ahead to the jewel in the Formula 1 crown; the Monaco Grand Prix

How good is it to have a strong points haul from the last two races?

I think we can be very happy with the number of points we’ve accumulated in the last couple of races and I’m delighted with the consolidation that’s given us in the Constructors’ Championship. I’m also quite optimistic for the rest of the season as the Circuit de Catalunya was another location where the car has been good and both our drivers have been strong. I’m happy that we haven’t suffered - so far at least - the fluctuation in form that has hit many teams this year. Given the excellent results both in Barcelona and Bahrain it seems churlish, to say the least, to express disappointment at not yet having sneaked a win! But we’re hopeful that will come in time.

Why weren’t we so quick in the beginning of the race?

It is genuinely hard to tell. Perhaps we had overestimated our relative pace on Friday. Perhaps the lower track temperatures on Sunday had a small effect. Perhaps our car did not react so well to the green track that resulted from overnight rain on Saturday evening. These are impossible questions to answer. All we can say for certain is that while we were pretty quick in Barcelona, we were not good enough to win the race. It is worth mentioning in addition that Romain’s wing was really quite substantially damaged after the first corner. We were not able to recover the lost downforce that comes with losing bits of your car, but we were able to re-balance the car by cranking the front flap angle up in the first pit stop. So although he was fighting with one hand behind his back, he was able to make progress from that point forward.

Looking ahead to Monaco, what’s in store for the car?

We’ve got a bigger rear wing as you need more downforce at Monaco than you need anywhere else. If you look closer, or if you are a very keen fan of bodywork changes then you’ll see that the area around the side pods and the rear drums will be different too.

Other than how the car looks, what about the changes under the skin?

We have to make modifications to the suspension to enable the necessary lock to get around Loews Hairpin and Rascasse. We have also made some changes, for Kimi in particular, to make the steering a little more reactive for Monaco.

Last year’s car didn’t excel in slow corners – what’s our evaluation of the E20 in this regard?

If you take Barcelona, we were really very strong in the first two sectors; which are more of the sweeping parts of the track, and less good relatively in the third sector, which is the slower, twister part. Perhaps if we look back, of the five races we’ve done so far, the race where we were least impressive was China and that’s a track with relatively few sweeping corners and lots of lower speed traction events. So there is a train of thought that Monaco might not play to the strengths of our car.

However there are other things about Monaco that are different entirely, which are much harder to gauge. For starters the corners are so slow that the strength we’ve seen in very fast corners compared with moderate corners is not really any sort of form guide for competitiveness around Monaco’s twists and turns. Secondly, driver skill plays a relatively bigger part at Monaco than at most tracks, and we are fortunate to have a pair of decent peddlers. Finally, a large part of Monaco is confidence from the driver. Confidence that they can lean on the car and know that it’s not going to misbehave. So far, the E20 has proved to be a very predictable, straight-forward car to drive – a quality it shares with the R30. So hopefully they will be able to lean on it to good effect. We’ll have to see.

How happy are you with the performance of Kimi and Romain – both five races into their returns after two years away?

Well I’m really very happy that our drivers are breathing right down one another’s necks! It makes a very welcome change to the last couple of seasons, or more, where we’ve only really had one car challenging. Having both of them able to score big points in every race is very valuable to us. The fact they are so close to one another will also mean they both have to keep right at the top of their game all year, which can only be good for the team.

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ITALIAN EARTHQUAKE LESS THAN 50KM FROM FERRARI BASE:

A powerful earthquake, which struck in the early hours of Sunday morning, killing seven people and destroying many historic buildings, was centred less than 50 kilometres from Maranello, the home of Ferrari.

The magnitude six quake, had its epicentre between the towns of Finale Emilia, San Felice sul Panaro and Sermide, about 35km north of the city of Bologna, close to Modena, but it was felt as far afield as Milan.

A Ferrari spokesman said this morning that the shock had been clearly felt in Maranello, but there is no damage to Ferrari’s road car factory or to the Gestione Sportiva, the F1 base.

The quake was the worst to hit Italy since the L’Aquila quake in 2009, although there are far fewer fatalities in this instance. Over 50 people have been injured and many buildings and monuments dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries have been destroyed. Over 100 aftershocks have led to further destruction. Experts say that Italy is prone to earthquakes with up to 2,000 small shocks every year and the occasional big one.

It is not yet decided what Ferrari will do to mark the event around this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix or to raise money for victims, families or for the rebuilding effort. The responsibility for rebuilding falls to the region of Emilia Romagna, rather than the state government and with money in short supply in Italy due to the Euro crisis, it’s a difficult situation. Ferrari is one of the most successful businesses in the region.

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WHATS THE SECRET TO WINNING THE MONACO GRAND PRIX?

This weekend Formula 1 races on the streets of Monaco, the race that all the teams and drivers most want to win. So what's the secret to getting a good race result in Monaco? We saw that the Spanish Grand Prix was won with thorough planning, saving new sets of hard tyres for the race day and an inspired strategy call by the Williams team. So how should teams approach the strategy for Monaco?

Traditionally Monaco is the hardest circuit on which to overtake. The track is narrow and lined with barriers and there are few opportunities for a car to get alongside another. The only possible overtaking place is the exit of the tunnel into the chicane, but drivers must be careful as it is very dirty off line in the tunnel and they can lose grip by picking up dust and discarded rubber from the tyres, which is a particular feature of the Pirelli tyres used in F1 today.

From a strategy point of view it's a very tricky race as running in slow traffic is always a problem and there is a very high (71%) chance of a safety car, which can turn strategies on their heads.

Track Characteristics

Monte Carlo – 3.34 kilometres;

Race distance – 78 laps = 260.52 kilometres. 19 corners in total. The slowest lap of the season at an average lap speed of 160km/h.

Aerodynamic setup – High downforce;

Top speed 295km/h (with Drag Reduction System active on rear wing) – 285km/h without.

Full throttle – 45% of the lap (lowest of year);

Total fuel needed for race distance – 120kg (very low);

Fuel consumption – 1.55 kg per lap (very low)

Time spent braking: 12% of the lap (high); 13 braking zones; Brake wear – Medium; 48 gear changes per lap.

Loss time for a Pit stop = 20 seconds

Total time needed for pit stop: 25 seconds.

Fuel effect (cost in lap time per 10kg of fuel carried): 0.28 seconds (very low)

Monaco is a unique street circuit, which offers no real reflection on the way cars will perform at other venues. It is a one-off.

The track layout is tight, with no high speed corners, two short straights and the lowest average lap speed of the season at 160 km/h (100mph).

Form Guide

The Monaco Grand Prix is the sixth round of the 2012 FIA F1 World Championship.

Qualifying well is critically important at Monaco and it is also true in general of this F1 season, despite the shake up in the form book imposed by the way the Pirelli tyres degrade. This season we have had five different winners in five different teams (the first time it's happened since 1983) but four of the five winners have come from the front row of the grid and on three of five occasions the leader on the opening lap has gone on to win the race.

Cars that tend to go well in Monaco have plenty of downforce and good traction in slow corners. The Williams was the fastest in the slow Sector 3 in Barcelona, which is usually a good indicator of pace for Monaco, the Lotus also has good low speed traction, which is a weakness of the Ferrari. The McLaren is the best qualifying car at the moment with 3 pole positions out of 5 (albeit one was later rescinded) but its race pace doesn't match it.

Monaco requires a particular technique of driving close to the barriers and this is a venue where a driver can make a real difference.

As far as drivers' form is concerned at Monaco, Sebastian Vettel won the race last year, while other previous Monaco winners in the field are Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber.

Weather Forecast

The forecast for Sunday looks good with temperatures around 21 degrees and a low chance of rain. Showers are forecast for Saturday. Being coastal however rain can arrive quite suddenly.

Likely tyre performance and other considerations

Pirelli tyre choice for Monaco: Supersoft and Soft.

Monaco is generally quite gentle on tyres, the track surface is smooth and there are no high energy corners.

This race sees the first appearance in 2012 of the supersoft tyre, which is largely unchanged from 2011; the compound is the same, but the profile is slightly different with a wider shoulder to reduce blistering. Last year the tyre lasted around 15-16 laps in the first stint before requiring a change.

The teams have done little testing on it this year.

The soft tyre is the same one that has appeared at every race so far in 2012. It is slightly softer than the 2011 soft compound. The difference in performance between the two tyre compounds is expected to be around 0.6 seconds per lap in qualifying and slightly less in the race.

Last year the winner Sebastian Vettel managed to make a set of softs last 56 laps, so there will be some teams thinking about doing only one stop in the race.

Number and likely timing of pit stops

Last year saw three different strategies in the top three finishers; Vettel stopped once, Alonso twice and Button three times,

They had all started the race on the same tyre (supersoft) and all ended up on the same tyre (soft) but in between had done three completely different strategies.

This year it's likely that the contenders will be more aligned, mostly doing two stops, with three stops and one stop both a bit of a risk.

The pit lane at Monaco is long and slow so the time needed to make a stop is quite long at around 25/26 seconds. This encourages teams to make less rather than more stops.

With the performance gap between the soft and super soft tyre it is likely that everyone will qualify on the super soft and then two stoppers will mostly run on the soft, while three stoppers will take an extra run on supersofts.

The top ten will start on the super softs they qualified on. Depending on how long they can keep the first set of tyres going will determine whether they make one, two or – if they have to – three stops.

The first lap is always very costly for the midfield and back of the field. With having to follow through the tight corners, it's common for the cars in the bottom third of the grid to do a first lap which is 20 seconds slower than the leader, who is running in free air.

Chance of a safety car

There is a 71% chance of a safety car and and if it falls at the right time it can make your race. But if it falls at the wrong time, your victory plans fall apart – as they did for Jenson Button last year, who was trying to drive flat out uninterrupted on three stops, a risky plan given the likelihood of the safety car.

Recent start performance

The run from the start to the first corner at Monaco is very short and always chaotic. The first turn, St Devote, is tight and slow and cars go through it in single file.

Last year there were six changes of position in the top ten cars.

Although he's having a poor run of results, Felipe Massa is the outstanding starter of 2012, having made up and average of over 4 places at every race start. Ferrari team mate Fernando Alonso is also making good use of the starts with an average gain of 2.6 places off the line.

As far as 2012 start performance is concerned drivers have gained (+) or lost (-) places off the start line this season, on aggregate, as follows –

Gained:


+21 Massa

+15 Kovalainen

+13 Alonso, Glock

+11 Raikkonen

+8 Maldonado

+8 Perez ***

+7 Schumacher*

+6 Kobayashi, Senna, Vergne

+5 Hamilton

+3 Button

+2 Pic


+2, Karthikeyan

+1 Rosberg, Di Resta, Petrov

Held position: None

Lost:

-1 Grosjean**, Vettel,

-3 De la Rosa

- 5 Hulkenberg

- 7 Webber

-13 Ricciardo

* Senna, Ricciardo and Hulkenberg were all involved in accidents on 1st lap in Australia

** Schumacher and Grosjean collided on Lap 1 in Malaysia, Senna and Perez pitted for wet tyres on opening lap

***Perez punctured on lap 1 in Spain and went to back of field

Pit Stop League Table

Of course good strategy planning also requires good pit stop execution by the mechanics and we have seen tyre stops carried out in less than two and a half seconds by F1 teams. Here again Ferrari leads the way consistently this year.

It is also clear that the field has significantly closed up in pit stops. The top four teams fastest stops were within 4/10ths of a second of each other in Spain. It shows how much work has gone on in this area.

The league table below shows the order of the pit crews based on their fastest time in the Spanish Grand Prix, from the car entering the pit lane to leaving it. The positions from previous race are in brackets.

Worth noting is that Force India continues to perform well above its championship table position and Lotus has seen a massive improvement from 8th in the league to 3rd. Also worth noting is that Marussia did a faster stop than Caterham.

1. Ferrari 19.456 (3)

2. Red Bull 19.624 (1)

3. Lotus 19.777 (8)

4. Force India 19.867 (4)

5. McLaren 19.888 (5)

6 = Mercedes 20.059 (1), Toro Rosso (6)

8. Williams 20.218 (7)

9. Sauber 20.381 (9)

10. Marussia 20.669 (12)

11. Caterham 21.275 (10)

12. HRT 21.471 (11)

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Hulkenberg expects Monaco progress

Nico Hulkenberg is confident Force India will see further improvements in Monaco after introducing new developments at the previous race in Spain.

Force India headed to Barcelona with updates which helped Hulkenberg claim his second top-ten result of the season when he brought his VJM05 home in tenth place.

The German, though, reckons the updates are worth more than that and expects Force India will be more competitive in Monaco.

"I think we have taken a good step forward with the developments we made for Spain and they will continue to help us in Monaco," said Hulkenberg.

"We still have work to do to understand and fine-tune them along with the set-up, so that is something the team is working on.

"When you see how close the teams around us are it can really make a difference to find even the smallest gain."

As for Sunday's grand prix, Hulkenberg says he is eagerly anticipating the challenge of racing around the tight, twisty street circuit.

"I enjoy the challenge of Monaco. There's no part of the lap where you can relax for a second - even the main straight is not really a straight.

"I do like street racing in general because you need to grow with the car over the sessions to find the limits. If you get it right you're only a few centimetres from the barrier so there's no margin for error."

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Williams ready after 'Herculean effort'

Williams are good to go racing in Monaco this weekend despite their preparations being "somewhat hampered" by the blaze that gutted their garage in Spain.

Just hours after Pastor Maldonado claimed victory at the Circuit de Catalunya last weekend, a fire broke out and destroyed large amounts of equipment and data.

Bruno Senna's chassis was also in the garage at the time, but the team have confirmed that it escaped relatively undamaged and they will be able to use it in Monaco.

Chief Operations Engineer Mark Gillan says they are ready for the race in Monte Carlo thanks to the hard work by everyone involved.

"The team's preparations for Monaco have been somewhat hampered by last Sunday's garage fire, but the impact of the fire has been mitigated by what can only be described as a Herculean effort by the factory and our suppliers to restock both the damaged equipment and car parts," he said.

"We would also like to thank the generous offers of help from the other teams, highlighting once more the excellent sportsmanship that exists in Formula One and high levels of comradery throughout the pit lane."

Spanish GP winner Maldonado admits his confidence is high following his success in Barcelona.

"Monaco is a very challenging circuit for the drivers both physically and mentality because you have to concentrate fully at all times, but I really enjoy this challenge and I have traditionally done well here in the past," the Venezuelan said.

"I am full of confidence after my win at the last race so I go to Monaco with high hopes of getting another strong result for the team."

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Fry happy with upgrades, plenty more to come

Ferrari technical director Pat Fry says he was happy with the upgrades the Italian outfit introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix, which allowed Fernando Alonso to challenge for the win.

Fry, who moved to the team from McLaren in late 2010, reports that almost all of the upgrades delivered the expected benefit, but admitted that further developments were needed if they're to continue their championship hunt.

"It was a good effort all around to get the parts delivered to Barcelona and I think most of them worked as expected," he said on Monday.

"There were a few things we are still looking at now trying to understand if they are working to the right level, but all the bits added performance – some just a little bit less than we were expecting.

"So, all in all, everyone was reasonably happy with the updates we made. But obviously we still have a long way to go, and we have to keep working at a similar rate."

The team will introduce further significant upgrades at the next few races, before trialling new exhaust layouts after running a conservative layout in Spain, explained Fry.

"It is going to be a constant drive for updating, like everyone does these days. We have a different rear wing and front wing package for Canada, which is a slightly different downforce level," he continued.

"And then we are working on the exhaust system. There will be versions of that that we will test. We learned a lot at the start of the year in understanding the problems we had from that, and we had another go at Mugello.

"We have a good understanding, but the performance... we are just trying to put it on the car as quickly as we can. It will be a constant drive all the way through the season."

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F1 innovations rule out reprise of Nigel Mansell's Monaco thriller

British driver's joust with Ayrton Senna in 1992 was a classic that Kers and DRS have consigned to Formula One history

Nigel Mansell's Williams-Renault was uncatchable at Monaco in 1992 until a puncture gave Ayrton Senna his chance.

After seeing five different drivers in five different makes of car win the first five races of the new season Formula One is patting itself on the back. For the men who run the sport, all that tinkering with the rules seems finally to have eradicated the kind of situation in which they found themselves exactly 20 years ago, when the grand prix circus pitched up in Monaco, as it will do again this weekend, with one man and one car celebrating a royal flush of five straight victories.

In a sense they may be right. Superficially, at least, the sport is more exciting and the primary criticism – concerning the chronic inability of modern Formula One cars to pass each other – has been answered. Cars now overtake each other all over the place. But if the current rules had applied in 1992, Formula One would have been denied one of its most memorable races, a contest in which the inability to overtake created the spectacle.

On that particular May weekend Nigel Mansell arrived in the principality having forced his opponents to taste the exhaust fumes from his Williams-Renault in South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Spain and San Marino. Ayrton Senna, the reigning champion, could hardly contain his frustration but in Monaco he would be given an unexpected chance to strike back.

Senna had won the race three years in a row and knew that this was the one place where the skills of a driver could overcome the handicap of an inferior car. Stirling Moss had proved as much in 1961, when his underpowered Lotus-Climax successfully held off a squadron of much faster Ferraris to claim one of the great victories of grand prix history.

True to form, Mansell claimed pole position, with his team-mate, Riccardo Patrese, next to him on the front row. Behind them came Senna's McLaren-Honda, just over a second slower than Mansell – an eternity in Formula One terms. "We can't do anything," the Brazilian lamented. Given the speed and reliability of the Williams, his chance of extending his Monaco streak appeared to be over.

Senna made a good start and was ahead of Patrese as they came out of the first corner but Mansell was already vanishing up the road at the rate of a second a lap. After 20 laps the lead was a comfortable 20 seconds and he maintained the gap until, on the 71st lap of 78, his car suddenly slewed sideways on the exit from the tunnel halfway round the circuit. Quickly radioing his crew to tell them he thought he had a puncture, he limped into the pits for a change of tyres. Senna, alerted by his team to the changed situation, pressed harder and managed to leapfrog the stationary Williams into the lead.

By the time Mansell regained the track Senna had opened a five-second lead. The infuriated Englishman started breaking the lap record and with three laps to go he was back on the tail of a rival who was having to cope with badly worn tyres that were no longer giving the McLaren very much in the way of grip.

At that point Mansell's car was, as Senna said later, not just one but several seconds a lap faster than his own. But Monaco is Monaco and overtaking is never easy. Senna made it as hard as possible, holding his line and occupying the maximum amount of space on the road as Mansell hectically weaved and feinted behind him, locking his wheels while trying to force his rival into an error and bringing the crowd to their feet and Murray Walker to a frenzy.

The mistake never came and Mansell had to settle for second place in a race he should have won. But there was no post-race resentment. "Ayrton was fantastic," the loser said. "I have no complaints. He held me off, as he was entitled to do, and we crossed the line a couple of car lengths apart."

It was an epic climax to a race that all hard-core Formula One fans cite as a classic. But it could never happen today, thanks to the introduction of Kers – the system that stores energy from braking which can then be used to provide a power boost – and DRS, the drag reduction system, in which the rear wing can be adjusted on certain parts of the circuit to increase the car's top speed.

These innovations make it easier for the drivers but they rob spectators of the chance to see their heroes really working for their successes, in either attacking or defensive mode. The difficulty of overtaking was part of the character of grand prix racing and to remove it is like making PhD students sit the 11-plus.

The attitude of the drivers has changed, too. Last year Pastor Maldonado, then a Formula One rookie, was defending a superb fourth place against Lewis Hamilton at Monaco when the Englishman barged into him at the hairpin while trying to bully his way past. It was Hamilton's mistake but he and his fans criticised the Venezuelan for declining to leave the door open for him to get through.

Hamilton admires Senna, as do many of his supporters. Do they think the great Brazilian should have opened the door to Nigel Mansell that afternoon in Monaco 20 years ago? Or that Stirling Moss would have welcomed a power-boost button to help him do his job?

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Mercedes say Paul di Resta is on their radar as possible replacement for Michael Schumacher:

Mercedes CEO Nick Fry has revealed that Force India driver Paul di Resta is favourite to replace Michael Schumacher if the seven-times champion decides he does not want to continue in Formula One next season.

While he insists that no decision has yet been made on Schumacher's future, the German's contract is up at the end of the current season which has been his worst ever start to a championship having scored just two points from the opening five races.

Should the 43-year-old decide to call it a day for a second time after the season finale at Interlagos in November, Fry has identified Di Resta – 17 years Schumacher's junior and in only his second season as an F1 driver – as the standout contender to take the seat.

"Paul's on our radar," Fry said. "He has done a fantastic job, he's a nice guy, he's a great team player and he would be one of the drivers undoubtedly that, if Michael were to decide he didn't want to continue, we would look at.

"We haven't reached that time in our thinking yet, but we have all got a lot of admiration for Paul."

Di Resta, who has a long-term association with Mercedes having won the F3 Euro Series title with them in 2006 before winning the DTM in 2010, has made no secret of his desire to drive for Mercedes.

"I'd love to drive for them,' the Briton said in January. "I've got great friends and great support at Mercedes-Benz. I've been part of their programme for six years and I'm still very close to them now. I never say never.

"Right now I am a Force India Formula One driver so the focus is there. "But in the future I want to be winning races and I'll make my decisions based on that."

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Formula 1’s greatest drivers. Number 20: Jochen Rindt

Throughout Formula 1 history, there have been drivers who, through ability and charisma, have left an impression that transcends their limited results. Jochen Rindt, number 20 on BBC F1's list of the greatest drivers of all time, is one such man.

The Austrian with the boxer's nose is chiefly remembered for being F1's first - and so far only - posthumous world champion. Killed in a crash during practice for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix, he was not crowned until the following month, after his rivals failed to beat his points total from the season's remaining races.

But Rindt was so much more than that - he was one of the most flamboyant and exciting drivers in the history of the sport.

His brusque, typically Austrian manner - not unlike that of his countryman Niki Lauda - meant some thought him arrogant. But to those close to him - including his wife, Nina, a Finnish model - Rindt was funny, generous and kind.

He is renowned as one of the most aggressive drivers, with a wild and exciting style, famous for his car control. But like Gilles Villeneuve a decade later, this came about from a career spent largely in uncompetitive cars - which he needed to wring the neck of to go fast.

In fact, like Villeneuve, Rindt was one of the fairest and cleanest drivers of his time, and when he got into better cars, his driving became increasingly smooth.

Nevertheless, what marked him out was his ability to create moments that took the breath away. One such was at the wet Silverstone International Trophy in 1969.

Rindt was making up ground after being delayed by an earlier engine problem, which then cleared.

Heading on one lap into Stowe Corner - then a super-fast bend that tested the very best - Rindt was closing on Piers Courage and Jacky Ickx, who themselves were coming up to lap Pedro Rodriguez and Graham Hill. When they turned into the corner, Rindt was at the back of the five cars; when they came out, he was at the front.

It was, say those who were there, one of those moments that makes you doubt what you have seen.

The British Grand Prix that year, also at Silverstone, was another highlight. Rindt and Jackie Stewart staged one of the greatest races there has ever been.

Swapping places for lap after lap, sometimes several times a lap, they disputed the lead, running at record speeds despite the intensity of their duel. Only when Rindt's Lotus ran into problems did the battle break up.

"It was a fantastic battle," Stewart remembers, "yet full of good humour. Occasionally we'd go through Becketts or somewhere side by side, neither of us willing to give way, yet taking care always to give the other fellow room. And we'd come out of the corner and look across at each other."

Few of his contemporaries doubted that Rindt was the quickest driver of his time - at least once Jim Clark was killed early in 1968.

Yet he had to wait four years after his debut in 1965 with Cooper to win his first grand prix, saddled as he was with cars that were off the pace and, often, unreliable. That meant he had to forge his reputation against the likes of Stewart, Clark and Hill in Formula 2, in an era when F1 drivers also raced in the lower category.

Rindt's fortunes changed when he joined Lotus in 1969. He moved there because he wanted a winning car but it was not an easy decision, for he did not trust the integrity of the designs of the legendary team boss Colin Chapman.

There was no doubt about the speed of Chapman's cars - but it was a speed based often on paring things to the bone, and as a result they tended to break a lot as well.

Rindt was effectively a replacement for Clark, the greatest driver of the era, who had been killed in a Lotus in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim the year before Rindt joined the team.

Chapman had been very close to Clark, but he always had a frosty relationship with Rindt.

This was not helped in their first season together when the notorious high rear wing failed on Rindt's car during the Spanish Grand Prix on the fast Montjuic circuit in Barcelona. He was lucky to escape serious injury when his car overturned after hitting the wreckage of team-mate Hill's car, which had earlier suffered the same failure in exactly the same place.

Likewise, in 1970, Rindt initially distrusted Chapman's new Lotus 72, and it was in the older 49 that he took his first win that season - chasing down Jack Brabham in the closing laps of Monaco in stunning style and pressuring the veteran Australian into crashing at the last corner of the last lap.

Eventually, Rindt came to accept the 72 and, after a run of four wins, that summer he arrived at the Italian GP on the brink of the world title.

But again there was a dispute with Chapman. Rindt had wanted to race the 49 at Monza, thinking it would be better suited to the fast track, then without the chicanes of its modern format. But when he got there, there were three 72s, and Chapman told him to get on with it.

There was further controversy when Chapman took off the car's wings in the pursuit of straight-line speed.

In that specification the car was very difficult to drive, to the point that it completely spooked third driver John Miles. Then, in Saturday practice, Rindt's car veered suddenly left approaching the Parabolica, one of the fastest parts of the track, and crashed into the wall, probably because of a rear suspension failure.

Rindt, not wearing a crotch strap, 'submarined' in the cockpit and suffered unsurvivable throat injuries caused by the seat-belt buckle.

There was talk at the time that he might have been planning to retire at the end of the season. But The Independent's F1 correspondent David Tremayne, who has written an exhaustively researched biography, believes Rindt would have continued for another year with Lotus, before joining forces with his manager Bernie Ecclestone to set up their own team.

How good was he?

Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark, as you will see, have places much higher on this list. Yet Rindt could run with them on an equal basis and beat them on his day. And Stewart, the only surviving member of the trio, still has the utmost respect for him. That says it all.

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Formula 1's greatest drivers. Number 19: Graham Hill

Damon Hill makes a thought-provoking observation about his father Graham.

Despite winning two Formula 1 titles, as well as being the only man to win the 'triple crown' of F1 world championship, Le Mans and Indy 500, Graham Hill always had the image of a 'trier' - a man who made it to the top through hard graft, rather than the easy talent of his contemporary Jim Clark.

Damon sees it another way. His dad, he said, had only passed his driving test at the age of 24, was in F1 five years later, and won the Monaco Grand Prix five times, whereas Clark was racing competitively from the age of 20. So who, Damon said, had the greater natural talent?

It was a rhetorical question and Damon was talking about himself as much as his father - he, too, was perceived as a 'trier' racing a greater natural talent - in his case Michael Schumacher.

But it raises an interesting point, which Damon expands on: "My dad's experience was, just because someone's got greater natural ability doesn't mean they can't be beaten. It's just going to be harder. So if you get to the same level as them but you've had to try harder, who's the better driver?"

Even Damon would be hard-pressed to make the case that his father was a better driver than Clark, who has his own place somewhat higher on this list, but certainly Graham Hill's reputation somewhat underplays a formidable talent.

In many ways, Hill came to personify grand prix racing to the British public through the 1960s. His easy charm, star quality and distinctive Terry-Thomas moustache made him not only an instantly recognisable figure, but also a fixture on television, in those early days of the medium.

But his fame was based on substance as much as style. He was undoubtedly one of the greatest drivers in one of the strongest fields in F1 history - with Clark and Hill racing alongside Jackie Stewart, Dan Gurney, John Surtees, Jochen Rindt and Jack Brabham.

Hill won his first title for BRM in 1962, and had to wait six years for his second - when, with his 40th birthday approaching, he carried the Lotus team through the dark days following the death of Clark in a Formula 2 race early in the year.

But he also came close to the title in 1964, narrowly losing out to Surtees at the final race of the season after Ferrari's Lorenzo Bandini let his English team-mate by into the second place he needed to pass Hill's points total.

In between, Hill carved a reputation as 'Mr Monaco', the most glamorous name in the sport appropriately making its most glamorous event his own, with five wins in seven years on the unforgiving streets of the Principality.

Among those victories, only surpassed by Ayrton Senna, was the one Hill himself classed the best drive of his career - in 1965, when he recovered to win from 34 seconds behind after taking to the escape road at the chicane to avoid hitting another car.

After his second title, Hill won only once more in F1 - fittingly, in Monaco in 1969. At the end of that season he broke his legs badly in a violent crash caused by a tyre failure in the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.

He was never the same driver again - although he did win Le Mans in 1972 - but he refused to give up and even set up his own team in 1974, racing on until a failure to qualify in Monaco in 1975 finally convinced him the time had come to retire.

He carried on running the team, led by his young English protégé Tony Brise. But returning from a test in France in November of that year, Hill crashed his light aeroplane trying to land in dense fog at Elstree, and he, Brise and four team members were killed.

The crash left his family - wife Betty, and Damon and his two sisters - in financial trouble as Hill's insurance was invalid and they were left to field the claims of the families of those killed alongside him.

Many career summaries tend to gloss over that last unfortunate fact, as well as the less well-known tough and uncompromising side to Hill's character. But this is probably a measure of the affection still felt for a man who carved an indelible place in F1 history.

With era-defining looks, the wit to trade one-liners with Morecambe and Wise and the ability to race with the best, Graham Hill was truly one of a kind.

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Formula 1's greatest drivers. Number 18: Jack Brabham

Sir Jack Brabham is one of a select band of just eight drivers who have won the world title three times or more, but his achievements go far beyond that. He is also the only man to have won a title in a car bearing his own name.

The gritty Australian had a 15-year career that spanned two golden ages of F1. His rivals in that time included legendary names such as Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart and Jochen Rindt - all of whom have places on this BBC F1 list of the 20 greatest drivers of all time.

In some ways, Brabham has come to be remembered more for setting up the team that bore his name - and which went on to be taken over by current F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and win two world championships with Nelson Piquet, including the first with a turbo-charged car in 1983.

Brabham the driver has in some ways been relegated to a more diminished role in his history. Yet in many ways he was under-rated.

To win his first world title, in 1959, he had to beat the great Moss, driving a Lotus, and the Ferrari of Tony Brooks, a man who Moss rated extremely highly.

OK, it was a title won by stealth as much as outright pace, with Brabham driving only as fast as he needed to and often waiting for Moss's car to break, but he was always there or thereabouts.

In 1960, his second championship year, he dominated, taking five straight wins as his Cooper team again benefited from the fragility of Moss's Lotus.

Following a year of domination by the 'shark-nose' Ferrari 156, Brabham set up his own team in 1962, and the next few years were about building it into a consistently competitive force.

The team's first win, at the 1964 French Grand Prix at Rouen, was actually taken by Brabham's team-mate, the American Dan Gurney - a great driver in his own right. Brabham himself had to wait until 1966 - again in France, this time at Reims - to become the first man in history to win a grand prix in a car of his own manufacture.

That victory, when it came, opened the floodgates. Brabham went on to win in Britain, Germany and Holland to add the world championship as well.

It is a record that is likely to stand forever, and Brabham worked hard for it. Although the cars were designed by his partner Ron Tauraunac, Brabham himself was heavily involved in their engineering.

For 1966, he persuaded the Australian company Repco to design a new eight-cylinder engine for the new three-litre formula that was introduced that year - against the trend for engines of higher numbers of cylinders, but along the lines on which Cosworth were working for what was to become the defining DFV, introduced the following year.

The Repco was not the most powerful engine, but it helped give a good power-to-weight ratio in a car that had good handling and good tyres. Meanwhile, Brabham's chief rivals were all hamstrung in various ways - Ferrari parted company with their number one driver, John Surtees, part way through the season and Clark was hamstrung by the engines in his Lotus.

Brabham was 40 when he won his final title that year, but he remained a force right up until his retirement at the end of 1970.

His final season is chiefly remembered for his involvement in the race that set Jochen Rindt on the path to the world championship - Brabham buckled under the pressure of a quite remarkable drive by the Austrian and crashed at the final corner of the race, gifting Rindt victory.

In fact, though, Brabham had a strong season and, but for some unlucky breaks that robbed him of potential wins in Britain and Germany, he might conceivably have ended his final season as champion.

Brabham had a reputation as a tough, uncompromising competitor who his rivals felt pulled every trick in the book to keep them behind.

After a race-long battle for fourth place with Chris Amon's Ferrari at Silverstone in 1967, Amon remembered: "Jack was throwing everything in the book at me - stones, grass, dirt, everything. I remember he was adjusting his wing mirrors early in the race - and one of them flew off and whistled past my head! Then he seemed to be adjusting the other one - I've never been quite sure whether he was adjusting them or trying to tear them off.

"After about 30 laps, he'd lost both mirrors and then we had a real tussle. That was a very wide car indeed, but of course afterwards he tells me he's very sorry for chopping me all over the place but his mirrors were gone and he didn't know I was there!"

Jack Brabham was a man of few words, who perhaps lacked the charisma of some of the other drivers on this list. But his achievements mark him out as undoubtedly one of the greatest figures in the history of F1.

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Formula 1's greatest drivers. Number 17: Emerson Fittipaldi

Emerson Fittipaldi was a trailblazer in more ways than one.

He was the man who paved the way for future generations of Brazilian drivers to make their country synonymous with Formula 1.

But he was also the driver who held the title of youngest ever champion for more than 30 years - before it was broken in quick succession by Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.

Fittipaldi took that mantle from the great Jim Clark - he was almost two years younger in 1972 than the Scot had been when he won his first title in 1963, which says a lot about what an achievement it was.

Like fellow countrymen Ayrton Senna and Rubens Barrichello, both of whom looked up to him, Fittipaldi was born in Sao Paulo, at a time when it was not usual for Brazilian racing drivers to make it to Europe.

But he and his older brother Wilson were addicted to speed from an early age, and Emerson left for Europe in 1969.

Less than two years later, after winning regularly in the British junior formulae, he was drafted into the Lotus F1 team - then on its way to the world title with Jochen Rindt - at the 1970 British Grand Prix.

When the Austrian was killed in practice for the Italian race at Monza, Fittipaldi became team leader. His first victory - in only his fifth grand prix - not only confirmed him as a major talent, but also sealed Rindt's posthumous title.

A road crash in France, in which he and his wife Maria Helena were seriously injured, held back his 1971 season, but in 1972 Fittipaldi dominated in the iconic black and gold Lotus 72.

He won five of the 11 races, among them a superb victory in the British Grand Prix in which he held off the Tyrrell of Jackie Stewart, who remains a great friend of a man whose driving he rated very highly indeed.

Fittipaldi was the right driver in the right car at the right time - he barely put a foot wrong all year.

His first title in the bag, though, Fittipaldi was never as out-and-out competitive again, preferring to win by craftiness and intelligence.

That may have had something to do with his team-mate the year after he won his first title.

Fittipaldi was joined at Lotus in 1973 by the mercurial Ronnie Peterson, and he was not especially happy about it.

Peterson had a reputation as the out-and-out fastest man in F1, and he duly proved to be quicker in qualifying than his team leader.

But Fittipaldi's canniness gave him an edge in the races - and arguably made him a greater all-round driver.

In some ways, their relationship was a little like that of Senna and Alain Prost in their early days at McLaren - Fittipaldi, like Prost, was better at setting up the car, and Peterson, like Senna, would generally then go and drive it faster.

Like Prost, Fittipaldi preferred to play the percentages - but, like the Frenchman, he was super-quick, too.

Nevertheless, one year alongside Peterson was enough for him, and Fittipaldi left at the end of 1973 to join McLaren, where he won his second title in 1974.

It was the archetypal 'percentage' world championship, three wins and four podiums enabling him to edge Clay Regazzoni of the resurgent Ferrari team to the title.

At that point, Fittipaldi appeared set to be a man who would play a major role in F1 throughout the 1970s. He certainly looked the part. His long hair, sideburns, sunglasses, vulpine appearance and fur coats making him an archetypal superstar of that decade.

Instead, he let it all slip away.

Fittipaldi stayed at McLaren for one more year, taking two more wins as Niki Lauda romped to the title with Ferrari, before leaving F1 aghast with his decision to quit and set up his own team.

It was a decision based on patriotism and loyalty to his brother Wilson and their friend Ricardo Divila, who would be their designer.

With sponsorship from major Brazilian companies, it was essentially a national team - but it was a disaster and it wasted the career of one of the sport's finest ever drivers.

Fittipaldi stayed with his family team for five unproductive years, scoring a best result of second - in the Brazilian Grand Prix appropriately enough, in 1978, their most successful season.

By the end of 1980, though, he had had enough, and he retired from racing at the age of 33, to concentrate on a management role with his team, which folded at the end of 1982.

It may not have been clear at the time, but the smooth, clinical talent was all still there. In 1984, he started a new career in IndyCar racing in the US, going on to win the title in 1989 and the Indy 500 twice, in 1989 and 1993.

What could he have achieved, one is bound to ask, if patriotism and loyalty had not taken precedence over ambition?