Categories
2013 Racing Season

Monaco/Indy Recap

After 662 miles of intense racing and 6+ hours of being glued to the television yesterday, I feel compelled to jot down a few observations and dole out a few awards on racing’s biggest weekend of the year.

Overall I would rate Monaco a 6/10 and Indy a 8.5/10.  We were headed for a perfect 10/10 at The Brickyard until Dario understeered into the wall with 3 laps to go, depriving millions around the globe a last lap shootout that would have been one for the ages.  Marco, Munoz, RHR and TK were all poised to fight to the stripe and I’m pretty confident a photo finish and an ambulance were going to be required had the track stayed green.

Monaco is always a joy to watch simply because it’s one of the more scenic spots on the globe and the track layout turns the best drivers in the world into impatient cabbies.  It’s almost impossible to pass the car in front so when somebody ratchets up the nerve to have a go and pulls it off successfully, it’s worthy of a fist pump and a karate kick.

So without further ado, here are a few awards:

Monaco-

  • The Ayrton Senna award for demonstrating complete mastery of the Principality: Nico Rosberg
  • The Kimbo Slice/Jean Alesi award for displaying street fighting spirit: Sergio Perez
  • The Andrea De Cesaris award for crashing: Pastor Maldonado (with an assist from Max Chilton)
  • The David Copperfield/John Watson award for magically moving up through the field: Paul di Resta (17th grid to 9th)
  • The Nigel Mansell award for leaving the track under medical supervision: Felipe Massa
  • The Mark Webber award for being the left out teammate: Lewis Hamilton
  • The Ryan Gosling award for being the new “It” man on the scene: Adrian Sutil
  • The Scott Norwood award for choking: Romain Grosjean

Indy-

  • The Kevin Cogan award for crashing out early: JR Hildebrand
  • The Shakira/Juan Pablo Montoya award for being the next South American Sensation: Carlos Munoz
  • The Ghost Like Swayze award for not being visible but making a huge impression: Justin Wilson
  • The Rick Mears award for demonstrating complete oval mastery: Tony Kanaan
  • The Michael Andretti “Nearly Man” award for looking perfect but suffering a silly problem: AJ Allmendinger
  • The Meryl Streep award for Best Female in a lead role: Ana Beatriz
  • The Dennis Vitolo award for brain-fade resulting in a mangled car : Sebastian Bourdais

Final 5 Thoughts:

Every time I see Alex Zanardi I feel joy.  That guy is a treasure and the most inspirational human I’ve ever witnessed.

If Indy is the final race for Oriol Servia this season that is a shame.   He currently sits 9th in the points!

It will be interesting to see if Mercedes cured their tire degradation issues with their illegal test or was Monaco just an aberration?

Has Marco Andretti finally ironed out his weaknesses and become the favorite for the title?

Is Nico Rosberg the best driver on the grid?  He handled Schumacher with ease the past two seasons and looks to have the upper hand on Lewis Hamilton at the moment.  He’s only 6th in points and is 15 behind Lewis, but looking into the the situation a little deeper reveals a few interesting facts:

  • In Melbourne he was on the same winning two stop strategy as Kimi when he had a mechanical (Lewis P5)
  • In Malaysia he clearly did a better job managing his tires than Lewis but had to settle for 4th due to team orders
  • He had suspension failure in China while Lewis finished P3
  • In Bahrain he was on pole but faded to P9 with tire issues (Lewis finished P5 – 6 seconds ahead)
  • In Spain he was again on pole and finished P6 (Lewis P12)
  • Monaco – Pole and lights to flag victory (Lewis P4)

 

Be sure to check out the Formula Facial Hair post below!

 

 

 

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *