[Jody Barton]

LotusLover I take issue with your claim we always predict a Red Bull lock out at Monaco. I remember very well having discussions with Papa, Morini, Forza and others last season where we predicted the shoot out would be between Red Bull and Ferrari and I distinctly remember discussing S2 in Australia, S3 from Barcelona and also the Russian GP. In concluding Morini and Forza both tipped Ferrari last year at Monaco, and I leaned that way but I still felt that maybe red Bull would pip them. So it's not every season.

So looking at this year's evidence we don't necessarily have as much, because we sure as hell don't have the full Russia GP. What we do have is S2 in Australia, S2 in Baku and S3 in Barcelona. Here's where it gets interesting:

Australia S2:

Hamilton
Verstappen
Räikkönen

Baku S2

Verstappen
Ricciardo
Vettel

Barcelona S3

Verstappen
Ricciardo
Hamilton

It's a lot more mixed than it was, but I'd suggest that the evidence there is favours Red Bull. However, it's not that straight forward. It's always been clear that RBR for whatever reason struggle with elevation changes, and Monaco has plenty of that. Ferrari's car is very different this year to last year's but I still expect it to retain some of its characteristics, and last year it did very well in elevation changes. Not sure how Merc will cope, but I expect them to struggle.

[LotusLover]

Haha Jody you seem ti have misread my post i said why will there be a RB lockout. Also i said "i bet" not you did. I am merely pointing out we all s
Predict this and that and it generally goes to pot!!!

[morini]

Haha Jody you seem ti have misread my post i said why will there be a RB lockout. Also i said "i bet" not you did. I am merely pointing out we all s
Predict this and that and it generally goes to pot!!!

That's what makes it fun!

<disclaimer> Nobody should ever listen to me anyway. Look at my fantasy league results!

[LotusLover]

Here's mine Morini

"BTW i would most definitely get it wrong according to my Fantasy team"

Never leave yourself open to a shafting lol

[morini]

I think the biggest F1 fans love their back of the grid battles as much as who's winning or on pole!!

With you 100% in principle Brendan. But in this case we are talking about Monaco - the dullest race in history (with one of the most exciting qualy). I always watch the race on Sunday, but I also normally ask myself why I bother straight after it

[Jody Barton]

I think my thoughts on the Monaco GP are well known... I hate it. Qualifying is a spectacle, and often enjoyable, but after that and the first round of pitstops it's pretty much a bland fest.

[forzaferrari]

I vote for putting F1 drivers in 250cc karts to race around Monaco...they lap faster than f1 cars at this circuit (think they still have ultimate lap record) and much more exciting to watch

[Jody Barton]

Forza i Second the motion if they have to dress up as characters from Mario Kart.

[Monster Hesh]

Now we are talking folks. I'd even fork out a subscription fee for that level of entertainment!

[PapaofGags]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce...x-1039968/

"Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff admits that he is "bloody worried" about prospects for the Monaco GP, where the Brackley team struggled for performance last season.
In 2017, Valtteri Bottas finished fourth and Lewis Hamilton seventh, with the latter starting only 14th after a difficult Q2 session.
"Bloody worried," said Wolff when asked for his thoughts on the upcoming street race.

"We've seen in the last years that there were always tracks that suited us well, and some that we weren't perfect, for whatever reason.
"It's very difficult to undo the DNA of a car, and Monaco, Budapest, Singapore, were all tracks where we underperformed – underperformed a lot – last year.
"It's a great challenge for us to come back this year, tame the 'diva' - it's not a diva this year, actually, she's behaving better.
"It's a difficult one. Why our car doesn't like to be quick around the corners in Monaco, we haven't found out yet."
Hamilton believes that Monaco might be difficult for Mercedes, and he expects Red Bull to be particular strong, especially after the RB14 was fast in the tight final sector in Barcelona last weekend.
"Monaco is going to be a serious challenge," said Hamilton. "The others are going to be hard to beat. If you look at Daniel Ricciardo [in Spain] he was much quicker in the last sector, and the last sector is all downforce, so they're going to be rapid in Monaco, and very hard to beat.
"Montreal as well, where it's very, very hard to get temperature into the tyres, it's going to be multiple laps of driving to get temperatures into those tyres there.
"So different things that are coming up are challenging, I don't think it's going to be clear as it was [in Spain] at every single race."
Bottas agreed that Red Bull could be the team to beat in the principality.
"It's difficult to say how we're going to do there and the performance between the teams has been really changing a lot through the weekends," said the Finn.
"We know it might not be the best for us, like this weekend Red Bull has been really quick in the last sector [in Barcelona] which is all twisty corners, and that's what Monaco is all about so.
"I think Red Bull is going to be strong, Ferrari were on pole last year, so it's not going to be an easy weekend.
"But if we keep pushing and learning like we have been all season so far we can hopefully have a good weekend, and a good car for the qualifying, because that's going to be really important."