Qualifying in Monaco is the most important part of the weekend, and as Alpine driver Esteban Ocon emphasized the day before: if at another circuit success depends for 80% on the starting position, then here it depends on 99%.
Accordingly, the teams try to set up their cars for the maximum possible downforce, as required by the characteristics of the slow and winding city circuit. The basic settings are selected before the start of the weekend, but during training we continue to work on finding the optimal balance.
Italian expert Paolo Filizetti spoke on the pages of RacingNews365 about the features of this work.
Teams attempt to follow a pre-designed program, spread over three sessions. At each of them, information is collected and analyzed, each next is logically connected to the previous one and gradually certain adjustments are made to the settings, and in Monaco this process is more complex than at other stages of the season.
Initially, a fairly large angle of attack of the wings is selected, but during training teams try to compare alternative settings, after which they choose the one that best suits the performance achieved while working on the simulator.
Usually on the track most of the work is done when the car has medium tires, as their behavior is more or less neutral, so we can assume that in Monaco it will be the C4 compound, used this weekend as Medium.
In this case, as a rule, about 40-45 kg of fuel are poured into the car’s tank, sometimes up to 50 (every five additional kg corresponds approximately to a loss of time of one and a half tenths of a second).
Gradually during training the configuration of both the aerodynamic body kit and the mechanical settings is clarified – the teams do this work mainly on Friday in the second part of the first free practice and in the first half of the second session.
As training progresses, the angle of attack of the wings can be gradually increased and the torsion bars of the front suspension can also be modified to achieve maximum grip on the front wheel and avoid excessive understeer. When preparations for qualifying begin immediately, soft tires are put on the cars and the teams evaluate certain settings, for which the drivers drive series of 6 to 8 laps.
In the second half of the second session, the teams often switch to working at race pace, which lengthens the series of laps and increases the ground clearance slightly – also because more fuel is poured into the tank. Naturally, the cars are equipped with tires of the compound that will be used on Sunday.
In general, the Monaco circuit requires higher ground clearance and less firm suspension settings, allowing maximum grip in the slowest corners. in the hairpin bend of the Grand Hotel and in Rascasse. This is important because as speed decreases, the downforce generated by the underside of the car decreases sharply. And the soil works with maximum efficiency in the tunnel.
Ultimately, what is important in Monaco is not so much the maximum speed, but good and stable handling in corners and effective grip on the drive wheels when accelerating. Of course, much depends on the accuracy of driving, i.e. on the skill of the riders.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
