25/05/2022
NEWS STORY
Big, heavy cars with stiff suspensions that are sensitive to ride, not to mention the ongoing complaints from drivers over visibility in placing the front wheels, Monaco will present a unique challenge this weekend.
While the likes of Zak Brown lead the debate over the future of Monaco, it is noticeable that in almost every team preview of this weekend's race the drivers are relishing the prospect of the challenge that lies ahead.
So too are the teams as they anticipate one of the most demanding circuits on the calendar.
"Monaco is always a unique challenge every year," Williams Dave Robson. "This year it will be a little bit different, because the cars require slightly different things.
"But I think, ultimately, as long as you can ride some of the bumps and the kerbs, then the most important thing is really just giving the driver confidence that they can get round the corners, and they can they can attack the whole lap. So in that regard, it's not too different.
"Ind if you have to give up a little bit of downforce through ride height to get that balance and confidence, then I think that's perfectly acceptable and something we would have done to varying degrees in the past anyway," he admits.
"We will be taking it nice and gently to start with, as much as you can around Monaco," adds Aston Martin's Andy Green. "But I think one of the positives of the changes that we've made is it does give us room to adapt the set-up to places like Monaco.
"It was one of the things that the launch car would never have been able to give us," he says, referring to the 'B-spec' introduced last weekend. "So we're quite optimistic that we can now move in a direction with set-up that's more sympathetic to a street circuit like Monaco."
"The harder the challenge, the better it is, no?" smiles Ferrari's Laurent Mekies. "It's good for the fans, it's good for the drivers, they want this sort of challenge. It's good for the engineers, they also want this sort of challenge. So everybody's looking forward for Monaco, so it should be a good one."