Alpine F1

Steeped in a tradition of opulence and luxury, the Monaco Grand Prix is quite possibly the most anticipated event of the F1 season, attended by the uber-rich, regional royalty and entertainment industry superstars.

Race day is witnessed by beautiful people on the streets, in the stands and perched on balconies. The most exclusive spectators are splayed across the decks of yachts  on the Cote d'Azur where the Mediterranean Sea sparkles like blue champagne in the sun—unless it's overcast with on again/off again rain.

The pre-race track was decidedly half-dry and half-wet, but rain did arrive by the start of the race. No automatic traction control and wet conditions on a street-circuit that has pretty much zero tolerance for error makes for an exciting race—the first wet race of the season.

Ferrari sat in positions one and two on the grid, with pole-sitter Felipe Massa still high from his huge win in Turkey. Not since 2001 has Ferrari secured pole position in Monaco. Kimi Raikkonen lost a position at the start to Louis Hamilton and never really recovered. As his tires weren't ready by regulation time before the start of the race, Raikkonen suffered a drive-through penalty.

Even after qualifying, it seemed to me that Raikkonen wasn't fully happy with the performance of his Ferrari, which might explain the uncharacteristic loss of control that sent him into Adrian Sutil who, while holding onto a strong fourth place, was taken out of the race by the reigning world champion.

It has been reported that Sutil will need grief counseling for life.

Pushing the limits while remaining on-track is what this race is all about. There have been some fairly dramatic crashes here, and limited run-off for the cars can turn even a small mistake into a very large problem for multiple drivers.

While roaming the grid for Speed TV, Peter Windsor spoke to Renault team leader Flavio Briatore, who summed up the Monaco Grand Prix vibe saying, "... the more danger we are, the more people love it."

And we are very danger indeed on the damp, oily, uneven supertwisty streets of Monte Carlo, the circuit where an overly cautious driver is referred to as a "grandma" or "old lady" within the teams.

Lewis Hamilton drove a brilliant race, taking first place for McLaren-Mercedes with no grandma moments. He now leads Kimi Raikkonen in the championship by three points. Robert Kubica took second for BMW Sauber and Felipe Massa managed to hold on for third place on the podium.

This race made me look forward to September for the new street-circuit night race in Singapore—yummy.

The next race (seen on FOX)  takes place in Canada, June 8th. Montreal. Be there. 

In reply to my previous article "three way switch", I am now explaining why switching ¨Coulthard for Piquet at Renault and bringing in Vettel at RBR whilst leaving the empty "chair" at STR for Nelsinho is pure business thinking.

Rumours regarding Coulthard as replacement for Piquet at Renault would have raised a few eyebrows. Why him in particular, since there's so many aspiring young talents in F1 today (Sutil, Glock Rosberg the list goes on) it is more than a surprise Renault would be considering an aging DC as no:2 driver for the rest of the season. Yet the answer to this ever so simple: Vettel!!!

and here is how it works

Matezitsch, RBR and STR owner made it clear a few months ago he would no longer participate in owning STR next year in light of new rules to come into force in 2009. However Vettel the promising young talent is racing at STR right now, and Matezitsch is fully committed to keeping Vettel under his wing thus the downside of splitting with Toro Rosso means splitting away with Vettel. Unless Vettel was to race for sister team RedBull instead and that's the business thinking behind it all; however there's only one problem, how to make this happen? In other words how to convince David Coulthard to relinquish his seat?

Simple make him an offer he cannot refuse i.e. a drive for Renault; also there is another issue to look into, and that's getting the timing sequence right... Business as it were

Back to DC, Surely Matezitsch could have waited till the end of the season for Coulthard to resign and then offering Vettel his dream drive at rising sister team RBR. However this would have been a very risky move, why? because in the meantime between now and the end of the season would have been more than enough for Vettel to shine and teams like Toyota or even BMW to try lure the young German away from RBR. Therefore preventing this from happening, offering Vettel an upgrade to the better of the two sister team, a guarantee in itself for the young German to be in a car that has the potential to lead the midfield and next to take it to the pecking order (if only..) . Moreover knocking two birds with one rock; testing Vettel in a better car, check whether he's more real than hype ...

That's the reasoning behind moving Coulthard as Piquet's replacement because let's face it Vettel is more than good enough to race for Renault but to that extent Matezitsch would be losing his new apprentice as it were; I mean can you imagine (star wars) the emperor without his darth Vader exactly!!!

Moving Piquet away from Renault is also brilliant business thinking from Renault; allowing him to stay in F1 is even better, realising he does have potential yet was brought out in this game a little too early is his main weakness; however he cannot be sent back to GP2, once you made it to Formula 1 you just don't go back, you can try your luck in NASCAR or even DTM ? but not GP2...

In many regards this article is based on rumours, and i fear I may have given more credance to these speculations.

bottom line, not this time I'm afraid.

Alex

There are a certain number of events on the sporting calendar that inspire the pure essence and romance of sport. Be it the Olympics, the Grand National or the World Cup Final, certain events will make the casual fan sit down and see what makes a particular sport special. The Monaco Grand Prix is certainly one of those occasions.

In recent years large, purpose-built tracks in locations such as Bahrain and Malaysia may have shown the future of the sport. Yet if you ask drivers, and ask commentators and armchair fans to list their favourite Grands Prix, you can be sure that Monaco is up there on the vast majority of many people's lists.

The glamour, the iconic corners, the sheer amazement that anyone in their right mind would want to drive at high speeds so close to those unforgiving barriers. There is always something captivating about street-circuit racing.

Given that type of build-up, it was only fitting that this year's race around the streets of Monte Carlo was full of incident, skill and luck, both good and bad. Part of the allure of the race at Monaco is that it is test of a driver's nerve and skill, more so than most modern circuits. Add in wet and slippery conditions, and you have the makings of a potential classic.

Lewis Hamilton, the prodigious talent from a quiet corner of Hertfordshire, showed that he is no one-season wonder with a skillful and at one point, a rather fortuitous drive to win the Monaco GP in his McLaren-Mercedes.

A jaunt into the barrier could have ended Hamilton's race early on—yet he was lucky enough to come away with a puncture. In normal conditions and at a high-speed circuit, this would have put him far down the field. Yet with the tight, twisting nature of this circuit coupled with the weather conditions, limited damage was done.

This enabled the young Brit to alter his fuel strategy, staying out for much longer—which allowed Hamilton to change his tyres from Bridgestone's intermediate-wet tyre to dry tyres at a time when the track had begun to develop a dry racing line—unlike his rivals, who either had to gamble on changing early or wait until their next scheduled fuel stop, losing valuable time.

Hamilton wasn't the only driver to make acquaintance with the steel barriers. Double world champion Fernando Alonso came off slightly worse with a broken wheel. The Spaniard used his experience to guide his Renault back to the pit lane. He stayed in contention for a points position, but fell away later in the race.

Other casualties of the barriers (and resulting crashes) were Sebastien Bourdais (Torro Rosso) and David Coulthard (Red Bull) were early retirees. Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India) and Nelson Piquet Jr (Renault) also came to grief in one of the more exciting Grands Prix of what has already been an exciting year for F1.

If Lewis Hamilton had the share of the good luck in the principality, then the German Adrian Sutil in the ever-improving Force India car had the largest share of bad luck.

Before being bought by an Indian consortium, the Spyker team were the "moving chicanes" at the rear of the grid. However, with newfound billionaire backers, the Force India team are looking to progress further up the grid. This has been aided by adding the promising young German to their books.

Having shown some promise already this season, Sutil was mere minutes away from finishing fourth, ahead of current World Champion Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari). Despite a drying track and his experience, Raikkonen lost control of his Ferrari coming out of the iconic tunnel—and ploughed into the back of the hapless Sutil, ending the young driver's almost-fairytale drive.

Sutil was forced to retire after a pit stop, while Raikkonen managed to limp into a ninth-place finish, just outside the points. Despite the setback, a bright future is in store for the German.

Due to often-treacherous circuit conditions, racing speeds were dramatically lower than usual—thus, the two-hour cut off was enforced. Hamilton eased over the line for a deserving win to put him top of the driver's standings. The impressive and more consistent Robert Kubica finished second in the BMW, with pole-sitter Felipe Massa finishing third after a mistake at St Devote.

Lewis Hamilton narrowly missed out on the World Championship last year. After winning the most iconic race of the year, perhaps he now has the skill and the luck needed to win the biggest crown in motor sport.

We see so much wasted talent never making it to Formula One, often because money speaks instead of skill.  In the past, great drivers found their way to F1 blocked because Suki Rekanother from Japan has umpteen trillion yen to throw at some back of the grid team for a race seat.

Nowadays, it is because there are only 10 teams and nobody can afford to set up an F1 team without engine manufacturer backing.  This is nothing new, and no big corporation is going to risk their investment on an unknown.  The young driver doesn’t stand a chance.

But here’s a concept.  Allow the teams to race a third car.  The cost will not be significantly higher, every team takes a third car to the race anyway, and if the lead two drivers need it, the third driver forfeits his car.  To ensure that the third car is offered to rookie drivers, no driver would be allowed to contest more than four races in that car and no more than two of whom are allowed to be under contract to the team as a test driver, allowing even more drivers to experience F1 racing and get their break in the sport. 

Alternative liveries could be permitted, though that would sometimes result in the lead driver being in an alternatively sponsored car. That's not good if you are Vodafone and are paying Hamilton’s salary and you find Lewis driving a “Bob’s Rent-a-wreck” liveried car!

It could also mean that some drivers do the merry-go-round that they used to do in years gone by.  In 1994, Johnny Herbert drove a Lotus Mugen Honda, a Ligier Renault and a Benetton Ford.  Mika Salo performed supersub duties in 1999 at both BAR and Ferrari and more recently, the firing of Trulli resulted in him driving for Renault and Toyota in the same year.

That would make Minichamps happy. There would be more toy cars for the collectors to buy!

Obviously, there should be conditions.  Drivers who have competed more than two-thirds of a season for one team within the last five years will be automatically excluded.  Therefore, Wurtz would be ineligible to drive, but Luciano Burti could make his Ferrari debut.

On the smaller teams, a driver would be able to bring a budget to fund his drive, but there would be a cap on how much he was allowed to pay, e.g. £10,000 per race.  Any driver who has shown ability in the lower formula should be able to find 40 grand for four races, especially if a prominent area of the car is allocated for driver sponsorship.

If a rookie gets promoted to the top two cars, as a substitute for an ill or injured driver, they are allowed to compete in as many races as necessary, but if they compete more than their allocated ‘four starts,’ they are not allowed to return to the third car for the remainder of the season. 

Also, if a driver goes from team to team, there should be a limit on driving for three teams’ third car in a season.  This would allow a situation where a Red Bull driver could drive four races for the parent team, four races for Torro Rosso and then four races for one more team.  Then they would have to sit out the rest of the season or drive in a number 1 or 2 car.

We could see other drivers come into the series from other top level motorsport as well. Indycar drivers such as Marco Andretti would get to try F1 racing without committing to a full season, so he can see how well he goes and not risk his career like his father or Alex Zanardi did.  Tony Kanaan could race alongside his pal Barrichello in the Brazilian Grand Prix. We could see NASCAR drivers try their hand at F1 in a US Grand Prix, and older British drivers could even jump in a car and race at the British Grand Prix.  Hamilton in a Merc and Mansell in a Beemer, anyone?

It would fill the grids, give young drivers a chance, allow teams to promote new talent, allow the test team staff to get some race experience, maybe even shake up the results a bit, with a young hard charger being given a championship winning Ferrari to play with!  IT WOULD IMPROVE FORMULA ONE.

Which is why it will never happen!

With a week to go until the Monaco Grand Prix, the atmosphere seems a little more relaxed since events unfolded at the Istanbul Park, where Ferrari won their fourth race this season and underlined their current dominance in this early stage.

But the Turkish race also showed a new trend in racing, beginning with a McLaren starting on the front row and finishing by splitting Ferraris. You have to feel most for Heikki Kovalainen, as he bounced back from his big shunt in Spain producing his best qualifying result, only to be undone by a puncture caused by a collision with Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari.

The rest of the race for Kovalainen was basically a charge from the back of the grid to finish a disappointing twelveth place, one lap down.

Could Kovy have won that race? Possibly, especially with Lewis Hamilton on a blistering low fuel pace. Hamilton finshed 3.7 seconds behind race winner Felipe Massa and showed the determination to challenge for wins, which some critics had believed he'd lost.

Hamilton's bold three-stop strategy almost worked and gave Ferrari something to think about. But now as we move to the principality of Monaco, strategies will be particularly important in the tight and twisty streets of Monte Carlo. And Hamilton will be looking to continue his trend of third in Spain, second in Turkey up on to that top step.

Are McLaren up to the task? I think so, especially since this is a track which Hamilton excels at. He was twice a winner in 2006 in GP2 and runner up last year, although he definitely had the measure of teammate Fernando Alonso and was told by the team to come in earlier for a pit stop, which probably cost him the race.

Ferrari's recent track record in Monaco is less impressive. The team hasn't won there since 2001 with Michael Schumacher. The Ferrari has traditionally had the longest wheelbase in the paddock, which would make it more of a handful when dealing with those tight bends. But I think that has been changed for this year, so they may have more of a chance.

But as strong a package the Ferrari may be, it requires 100% concentration from both drivers. Raikkonen won with McLaren in 2005 and Massa has yet to achieve that. As they seem to be the form team at the moment, they had better be mindful of the other teams, particularly McLaren and BMW.

Monaco tends to be the track where the pecking order is shuffled and the other teams have more of a chance than in the rest of the season.

The other aspect to watch out for is Lewis Hamilton. He loves this track and knows it very well. He is going into this weekend to put a block on Ferrari's charge and dent Raikkonen's title challenge.

He currently sits joint 2nd with Massa and I think he is more than capable of winning on Sunday. I also think that Kovalainen may be a critical factor in Monaco, he is definitely getting to grips with the McLaren and could prove to be a thorn in Ferrari's side.

Last weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul Park featured a thrilling duel fought between the two Ferrari aces and Mclaren’s Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton qualified fifth on the grid and had lamented a decision to go for his final grid slot on hard tyres during the Saturday qualifying session.

However, off the start-line, Hamilton’s Finnish team mate Kovalainnen made a poor start and Hamilton managed to leap frog all the drivers ahead barring Pole sitter Felipe Massa. Further back there was a touch of mayhem, the two Finns Kovalainnen and Kimi Raikkonen had a very minor coming together.

Although very slight, it managed to puncture the tyre on the left rear of the Mclaren and damaged the front wing endplate of the Ferrari. Also, Giancarlo Fisichella, who by now should perhaps have learned the route into turn one at this circuit, managed to find a third incorrect way to start the race in three years.

The Italian Force India driver steamed into turn one and missed his breaking point, plowing heavily into the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima, flying over the top of the Japanese driver's car and ending both their races. The incidents at turn one ended with the Safety Car being deployed.

With the end of the Safety Car period the battle at the front began afresh. The midfield battle would become furious between the likes of Rosberg, Coulthard, the two Toyotas of Trulli and Glock, and eventually, the recovering Kovalainnen.

Hoping to be part of the battle were the Honda duo of Button and Barrichello, who was breaking the record that weekend for most Grand Prix starts at 257. Sadly, Honda appeared to have moved backwards in terms of pace from their promising points finish at the Spanish Grand Prix.

During the course of the race Hamilton turned in some searing lap times to first keep pace with the Ferrari race leader and then shortly after, to actually pass Massa with a gutsy move which earned him the lead. Hamilton however, had to make a pit stop on lap 16. Massa didn’t make a stop until lap 18.

This would be the story of Hamilton’s race. He had been forced into taking a conservative three stop strategy approach to the race because of structural problems with his Bridgestone tyres. This approach though, turned into a super aggressive stance. On light fuel and hard tyres, Lewis turned in stunning times to be a constant threat to Massa. He finished the race in second place just over four seconds behind the Ferrari of Massa and ahead of title rival Raikkonen who he had held off in the closing stages using the less favoured soft tyres.

Elsewhere in the race, there were good performances from the Renault duo of Alonso and Piquet with Piquet having the more eventful afternoon. Fernando Alonso scored more points for Renault with sixth place. Mark Webber too scored well earning seventh.

Both Ferrari and Renault have enquired about the status of BMW's hotshot Robert Kubica for 2009. Having beheld his exceptional performances in the opening races of 2008, it's only natural that these high-flying teams should want to sign up the young Pole for future years.

Of course, it's ridiculously early to be starting "silly season" discussions like these. But since the rumours have already started, it's only fair of us to join in by speculating wildly about who might end up where in 2009! Here are my predictions about who the top eight teams might sign up for next year...

Ferrari

Räikkönen will most likely stay put, for 2009 at least. However, there are rumours that he'll retire after next year. As for Massa, his future at Ferrari was in doubt two or three races ago—the F1 world has little patience these days, and if you underperform in two consecutive races, then rumours will fly about the instability of your job.

Nevertheless, Massa has won two of the last three races, and if he keeps that up it's hard to see Ferrari wanting to replace him. Nevertheless, as we've already noted, the Scuderia seem to have their eye on Kubica. And what about Alonso?

McLaren

Hamilton will likely be at McLaren for several decades yet. As for Heikki—if he keeps up his Turkish qualifying pace, I can't see why McLaren would look elsewhere. But don't forget the Finn was McLaren's third choice after Rosberg and Sutil last winter—if Ron Dennis can get his hands on Rosberg, then don't be surprised to see Heikki leaving.

BMW

As we've seen, Kubica is a popular young driver—but BMW will surely want to hold onto him if they can. Heidfeld has proved himself to be solid, but has been underperforming relative to the Pole recently. It's rumoured that the Hinwil outfit have a long-term option on Sebastian Vettel, so perhaps they will exercise that and sign him for 2009.

On the other hand, if Mark Webber keeps up his excellent recent form, perhaps BMW will be knocking on his door. Or perhaps BMW will spring a surprise and sign former champion Fernando Alonso?

Renault

Unless Alonso goes to Ferrari or BMW, he's likely to stay at Renault for 2009. Nelson Piquet Jr. needs to up his game in order to keep his seat for next year, but given his talent in GP2, there's every reason to believe that he will do just that.

If not, young talent Romain Grosjean will be waiting in the wings to replace him. But if Piquet doesn't become better, Renault should be wary of fielding an unexperienced rookie for the third year in a row. Takuma Sato is also testing for Renault soon - if he impresses, he could be in the frame for a 2009 seat.

Williams

If Frank Williams can hold onto Nico Rosberg, then he will - it's as simple as that. As things stand, Kazuki Nakajima is doing a relatively good job in the second seat - better than some of his fellow rookies, at least - but should Williams fancy a change, they have the highly-rated young German Nico Hulkenberg ready and waiting for a 2009 seat.

Red Bull

Mark Webber wants to stay at Red Bull next year, and with their car looking quick and reliable, it's easy to see why. I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that Coulthard will retire at the end of this year. Red Bull have a host of Sebastians to choose from for this seat. They could try and nab Vettel or Bourdais from Toro Rosso, or perhaps they will give young Swiss driver Sebastian Buemi a seat.

Toyota

Jarno Trulli still looks fast, and recently his race pace has been matching his almost unmatched qualifying pace. Don't be surprised to see him stick around in 2009. My hunch is that Toyota will stick with Glock too, so long as he delivers some good results in the remainder of this year. If not, Toyota might try to sign Nakajima - after all, having a Japanese driver would go down well with the bosses of Toyota.

Honda

Jenson Button has shown admirable loyalty to Honda, and it looks like he'll still be there in 2009 hoping that they finally deliver a fast car. Barrichello should retire at the end of this year, so who will replace him? Difficult to say.

I've already mentioned more names than there are seats, and I'd guess that whoever doesn't get a seat in the above seven teams will be in contention for a drive at Honda. Ex-Super Aguri racers Sato and Davidson will be in prime position, since they've both had close links with Honda in the past.

That's quite enough "Silly Season" for the time being. What do you think? Do you agree? Or will there be more shocks and surprises in the 2009 lineup?

If Felipe Massa asserts ownership of Istanbul Park, then McLaren surely must do the same of the streets of the Principality. Over the past 10 years, a McLaren driver has tasted (and Kimi Raikkonen has gulped) the winner’s champagne five times.

Hakkinen won in ’98 and even Coulthard held off the relentless challenge of Schumacher and Montoya to win brilliantly in 2002. Raikkonen, building from a miraculous qualifying lap where he outpaced nearest challenger Alonso by half a second, won in 2005 without relinquishing the lead even for pit stops.

Of course, Alonso himself spearheaded the drubbing of Ferrari last year with Hamilton in (famously) close attendance. Ron Dennis has often said that waking up on the Monday morning after a Grand Prix weekend not involving a 1-2 for the Silver Arrows, is pain. Not much fear of that in Monaco.

However, could things be about to change? This time, it seems the relentless Kimi Raikkonen could be the one to unseat his old team. The World Champion was, by his own standards, muted in Turkey.

At a track often touted as tailor-made for teammate Massa’s driving style, the Finn was always half-a-tenth off the Brazilian, even before his prospects of winning were scuppered at the first corner as Heikki Kovalainen cruised tentatively into his front wing.

This caused him (albeit minimal) damage, but it lost him two places and perhaps 5-8 seconds to Kubica’s BMW.

But Turkey and Monaco are polar extremes. Massa, whilst massively quick at certain circuits, lacks the precision that marks Raikkonen out as a truly great driver. Even before his clumsy (and completely uncharacteristic) whack into the kerb last year, Kimi was half-a-second quicker than the Brazilian.

Massa has never fared well here; a first lap crash in 2006 and a distant third place a year later are not results of a man with serious championship aspirations.

The difference this year is the Ferrari has far better traction that last year’s car. The F2007 was a radical design with the longest wheelbase in the paddock. It was well-suited to fast, flowing circuits like Silverstone, Spa and Turkey by dint of its superior aerodynamics.

It was less impressive in the tighter confines of Monaco or Montreal, which placed a heavy premium on traction and low-speed mechanical grip. This year, the problem appears to have been more or less remedied. If anything, it’s been even stronger at lower speeds than the McLaren.

Raikkonen was quickest in the twisty final sectors of both Istanbul Park and Cataluña and both Ferraris have been starting consistently well off the line; a definite improvement on last year. Both ITV commentators James Allen and Martin Brundle remarked that the Ferrari appeared to have the best traction from the slow hairpins, particularly during the Malaysian and Bahrain Grands Prix.

BMW also appear to have made gains. Kubica, it seems, has banished the gremlins of his disappointing 2007 and for the last two or three races has comprehensively outpaced Nick Heidfeld. His precocious talent appears to be transcending a perhaps knife-edgier car than last year’s model, so maybe he is more able to extract the car’s maximum potential than the German. He could threaten a win this weekend, particularly in a car with obviously excellent low speed stability and traction such as the BMW.  

As for the others, Alonso has always gone well around the streets. After a quiet race in Turkey he will be another looking to challenge for high points or even a podium. Certainly—judging by his epic qualifying performance in Spain—he has a much-improved Renault at his disposal.

Webber could be another threat, and maybe qualifying specialist Trulli (a winner in 2004) could spring a surprise in the Toyota. It’s going to be too close to call, but ultimately I believe, unless McLaren have a clear car advantage, that the battle is between two of the best: Hamilton and Raikkonen. With the prospect of rain showers always looming large, it could well be an epic.  

Roland.

            The sounds of twenty engines singing at twenty thousand revolutions per minute around almost three and a half kilometers of windy, elevated, and treacherous pavement are a welcome sound to the people of France. This track encapsulates what a Formula One car is designed for. Built in the streets of Monaco, the track has many challenging corners, elevation changes, and it is very unforgiving to mistakes.

McLaren and Ferrari have very good records here so that should make for a very competitive race. Only three active drivers have scored a win here, and they all did it in a McLaren, although none of them drive in a silver car now. Fernando Alonso has two as well as David Coulthard, and Kimi Raikkonen has scored a win here too.

            With the loss of traction control this year, will there be more attrition due to a carelessly placed wheel? If history has anything to say, drivers will have to pay even closer attention when they get back into the throttle as the very hard and very close walls of the track will definitely cause a threat to component damage or total vehicle destruction. From the tunnel and the chicanes to the steep incline up to Massenet (turn three), this track has many infamous sections that seem to yearn for rubber.

            Monaco keeps the drivers full attention for almost two hours straight. Now add nineteen other cars around him and that allows for a very dramatic race. A tight, twisty track means that making a pass will be very risky to both competitors and must be timed just right. Qualifying will be even more important this year as the fewer cars that a competitor has to pass the easier his day will be.

            So does the quality of driving needed to complete the race and the stunning atmosphere surrounding this tiny city in France constitute the best race of the calendar? Many of the drivers enjoy it because it is very challenging and the characteristics it shows resemble what a Formula One car is meant to do. Together with the atmosphere and scenery, I think of Monaco when Formula One is mentioned.

After an exciting Turkish GP, which saw Felipe Massa emerge victorious after a stunning drive on an unusual three-stop strategy, the Formula One circus now moves on to the most glamourous event of them all: The Monaco Grand Prix.

The track snakes through the streets of Monte Carlo, and as it does so, it passes some of the most spectacular scenery on the calendar. As glamourous as it is though, it is a grueling and challenging race circuit that demands much from the driver.

The circuit is the slowest on the F1 calendar, requiring good mechanical grip, a high downforce setup, and chassis capable of riding the bumps of the circuit effectively. Other obstacles include drains, manhole covers, high kerbs, dips, lumps, bumps and perilously close walls.

On most circuits, a driver will find that the pit straight often becomes a moment of respite, a moment to sit back, throttle planted to the floor, and simply guide the car in a straight line.

At Monaco, however, there is no respite, the pit straight is a long sweeping curve lined with armco barriers, and with no other "straights" on the circuit, 100% concentration is required of the driver for all of the duration of the race.

As well as mentally taxing on the driver, the circuit demands much from the machinery. There are heavy braking areas, and the high downforce setups and low top speeds, coupled with often amicable weather conditions lead to cooling issues.

Mostly though, the circuit demands the most from the gearbox, which may make up to 2,700 gear changes during the race. For may drivers, this will be the second of the mandatory four-race lives of their gearboxes, and questions may be asked of the longevity of these items at the next couple of races after the ordeal of Monaco.

On the racing front, it's becoming difficult to predict what may happen here. The weather is often hot and dry, but it can be fickle. Often the track will suit cars that work the tyres well, mechanically speaking. The McLaren MP4-23 seems to fit right into this category here. And being a high downforce track, aerodynamic efficiency is not a huge factor, only outright downforce levels are. Again, the McLaren MP4-23 seems like a likely candidate.

However, the Ferrari F2008 was the faster of the two front running cars in the tight and twisty third sector at the Turkish GP last week. This clouds the picture. Is this a sign of the Ferrari's superiority on a tight and twisty track? Or purely a by-product of a different setup chosen by McLaren with emphasis on maximising the first two sectors?

Kimi Raikkonen has expressed concerns that BMW and Renault might cause an upset, but Renault have played down their chances, while BMW are holding their cards close to their chests.

It appears we just won't know what's going to happen until we get there, but we might gain an insight if we look at the test at Paul Ricard this week. At the time of writing only the first day has been completed, and Lewis Hamilton finished the day fastest, almost 0.5 seconds faster than the second-place man, reigning world champion Raikkonen.

Now this is not to say that the McLaren is half a second faster and that's the end of it. Instead, it is purely the result of two test plans by each team. Nonetheless ,the general consensus is that the Monaco & Canadian GP's will be better suited to the McLaren's, and first impressions seem to be upholding that viewpoint.

McLaren do seem to hold the upper hand at the moment, and in Lewis Hamilton they have a driver who is finding his way back to winning form. Until last year (when he finished second behind teammate Fernando Alonso) he's never lost at Monaco. A Monaco specialist in a car seemingly made for this track? Make of that what you will, but never write off Kimi Raikkonen or the Scuderia.

My prediction? We're in for a fascinating Grand Prix weekend, which is just too close to call right now. I cannot wait.