Well if it doesn't dry out for the San Marino Grand Prix - looks like it will be a walkover for M. Shumacher. Although I wonder if he will commit an imaginary penalty (at least to the stewards) that will get him moved back 10 places from his qualifying time in attempt to make the race intersting.

Good to see that the McLaren-Mercs were the quickest of the Michelien shod cars. The consensus in the paddock is that McLaren has built the best handling chassis this year, unfortunately the Merc motor doesn't have enough grunt yet for the car to shine. Although it should perform well at tracks where handling is more important than power (such as Monaco and Hungary).

BT

 

Trench, I'd agree if you pulled Monaco out of that analysis. Monaco is always the wild card track. Schumacher's wins in the Benneton there were against a far better handling Williams of the day, so it's way more than a decent handling car there. Monaco has always been about certain variables: timing of qualifying run (since there's nowhere for a slower car to get out of your way on a hot lap), and then, pretty much, track position and attrition. That Armco barrier doesn't give, the suspension arms do!

For example, didn't the Prost team or the like win there a few years back (Panis)? How many wins since?

 

In theory they should go well in Monaco, in actuality, that's an entirely different manner (I agree with you about it being a wild-card track). Although DC did manage to qualify for pole there with last year's car, too bad the start-line gremlins reared their ugly heads. Speaking of starts, the Renault's software is super impressive - did you notice the way they swept around the McLarens at the start of the Brazillian race. I thought that they had to be on a two stop strategy with that kind of getaway, but was ultimately proved wrong.

For accuracy's sake, the Prost team didn't win at Monaco, it was Panis driving a Liger-Mugen Honda in 1996 (prior to evolving [devolving?] into the Prost team in 1997). That was a very strange race where I think only four or five cars were running at the end.

BT

 

Yes, I think you're right about Panis' livery for that race. And I think that was the race where Schumacher crashed on the parade lap if I'm not mistaken, by going onto the painted line in the wet.

I have a love/hate feeling toward Monaco. I love the location of the race, but today's cars are just too wide for real racing to take place there. Also, there have been some horrific accidents there. Karl Wendlinger's Sauber accident comes to mind as one of the recent bad ones.