The one where the track limits are defined by a shiny barrier, more than willing to convert your fancy Formula 1 car into an immediate write off in a very short amount of time. It's been Nico Rosberg's home for the past few years (Quite literally)
Monaco is unique for me because it's the only track where I enjoy watching qualifying more than I enjoy watching the race. Qualifying around Monaco is a delight, low fuel, fresh tyres, the best in the business absolutely on it. Even the McLaren Honda looked great around there, doing a little justification that they actually have a decent chassis/aero package.
From a virtual perspective, I love driving Monaco on my own. With others it's just carnage. My favourite bit has got to going through Tabac and then blitzing past the swimming pool, that is an absolute joy. Getting pole around Monaco is almost like winning somewhere else, and that's because in part, it is.
For qualifying, Monaco is great. For racing? Monaco is probably the worst track there is. It simply doesn't work. The first half of the race was pretty monotonous, the glorified convoy. Only after all the pit-stops had taken place did the race hot up.
First point of call is the Max Verstappen and Romain Grosjean incident. There's a hype about the Dutchman that the paddock is buying into and I think he is running with it too. Whilst Verstappen was wise to use Vettel to get past cars, announcing it over the radio was not smart. It's a bit like running towards someone and saying "When I get to you, I am going to punch you in the face!" So they'll be braced and ready to thump you first... or simply step out of the way.
Grosjean put him in his place at Monaco and well done to the Lotus driver. He placed his car perfectly. He let the lapping Vettel pass him without allowing the 17 year old the opportunity to overtake too.
Unfortunately his hard work was undone when we went on-board with Verstappen through La Rascasse, and as soon as we did, I knew what was coming. Up through the final corner and along the pit-bend, I was telling Verstappen to go left because Grosjean will defend. And he did defend it and Max went straight into the back of him and straight into the wall at a fair old rate.
Totally Verstappen's fault, even if Grosjean braked early, it is the responsibility of the car behind to avoid the accident and he didn't do that.
I'm not going to lie, I'm not convinced about Verstappen, Carlos Sainz Jr. is doing just as good (if not better) of a job and is getting little to no credit. Monaco will have taught Verstappen a lesson or two.
Next point of call is Mercedes.
All I can do really is quote Ted Kravitz, from Sky Sport F1, "Where did they think they were? IT'S MONACO! Track position is king here"
The maths, the calculations, the data, whatever you want to call it. It's pointless, bringing Lewis in was dumb, and if he asked to stop, then he should have been told that nobody else had stopped. It's so easy to defend around Monaco. Plus, do you really think the Mercedes cars were going to start going wheel-to-wheel in the final few laps of the race with that annoying red car right behind them, ready to pick up the pieces?
The pack were closer in Monaco than expected, especially as Vettel held onto Rosberg the entire race. I'm sure it'll be normal service resumed in Canada.
Cheerio,
Stevie.
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