NOW IS TIME FOR MONACO REVOLUTION
JONATHAN McEVOY Hamilton plea after Ricciardo’s dull win
WE can take our hats off to the triumphant Daniel Ricciardo in a moment. But first we should nail a lie. If Monaco is home to the world’s greatest motor race, let’s throw ourselves under the first car.
Yes, the grid girls were back among us. The thrill of the tight walls left no margin for error. The stories of heroes and spills — including alberto ascari crashing into the harbour in 1955 — spoke of Monaco’s handsome mythology.
But, for two stupefying hours yesterday, those romantic thoughts were crowded out by the reality that modern Formula One has outgrown its spiritual principality.
Lewis Hamilton, the world champion who finished third, put it this way: ‘Thank God that’s over. That was the most boring race I’ve ever participated in.’
To which his race engineer Peter Bonnington replied: ‘It was as dull as ditchwater.’
Indeed. It was only because overtaking is so hard here that Ricciardo had any chance at all of holding off his pursuers, led by second-placed Sebastian Vettel, for 50 laps after his engine lost power. That he did so was also due to the brilliance and resilience of his driving. He could not use his top two gears, yet he still slow-danced his way to victory.
In a further indictment of Monaco, the top six starters were the top six finishers. Time for another glass of bubbly, alice.
Monaco has provided feasts as well as the crumbs of yesterday in previous of its 76 editions. But the odds in these cars, never the easiest in which to make an overtaking move stick, is that the margin for excitement is too slender. The track needs to be expanded. Hope is at hand if only the automobile club de Monaco would listen. They have turned tin ears to talk of remodelling the place over recent years. now they have another important chance to adapt. Monaco is less than one square mile — smaller than central Park, new York — but a £2billion transformation is taking place to address its limitations.
an expansion, due for completion by 2025, will yield an extra 15 acres. and, as fortune would have it, they will be reclaimed just before the entrance to the tunnel.
Hamilton added: ‘It’s a shame the race is not as good as the whole spectacle. Qualifying is iconic. Maybe it’s time to make the track longer. Or change the format so it is not a one-stop race.’
Enough doom and gloom. Let’s celebrate Max Verstappen, aided by his superior Red Bull machinery, charging from the back of the grid to ninth after missing qualifying following a needless crash in practice. and there was late drama when brake-disc failure caused Sauber’s charles Leclerc to hurtle into the back of Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley.
as for Ricciardo, he was supreme, having been fastest in every practice session and in qualifying before getting off cleanly at the start. as his Red Bull boss christian Horner said: ‘Unbelievable. You have done an amazing job today. That is right up there with what Michael Schumacher did in 1994 and this is payback for 2016.’
Horner’s first point was a reference to Schumacher getting stuck in fifth gear in Barcelona, finishing second despite the handicap. The second acknowledged Ricciardo’s certain win being ruined by a botched pit stop two painful years ago.
Ricciardo drank champagne from his shoe, as is his custom on the podium, and even thrust the bottle into the hands of Prince albert and Princess charlene. Protocol! They gamely obliged with a quick slug. Ricciardo later went on to dive into Red Bull’s rooftop swimming pool as he continued his celebrations.
There had been moments when Vettel cut Ricciardo’s lead to a second or so, but the australian was never under serious threat even 12mph below full tilt. nor could Hamilton get near enough to Vettel ahead of him.
For Hamilton, it was a relatively good day on a track that has not suited Mercedes or Hamilton for some years. ‘I never like to lose three points, but I would take it in the circumstances,’ said the British driver, whose lead over Vettel is now 14 points.
Victory took Ricciardo to within 38 points of the summit with 15 races to go. ‘It is definitely a three-way fight,’ added Hamilton. ‘But Ferrari are still strongest.’ That is especially so after the FIa cleared Ferrari on Saturday of cheating by allegedly using an extra battery boost of power.
But Hamilton’s boss Toto Wolff was angry the FIa had named his technical director James allison and an engineer called Lorenzo Sassi — two former Ferrari men now at Mercedes — as the source of the doubts passed on to the governing body.