Wolff: Alonso-Hamilton duel shows F1 needs to look at Monaco tweaks
- 2 tahun yang lalu
Mercedes Formula 1 team principal Toto Wolff believes that Alpine's Fernando Alonso holding up Lewis Hamilton in Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix shows that changes to the venue are needed.
As the field changed to slicks in a wet-to-dry race, Hamilton was stuck behind Alonso in the battle for seventh, and the Briton remained on Alonso's gearbox right until the race was called early after 64 laps as the clock ran out.
To Hamilton's great frustration, Alonso trundled around so slowly that McLaren's Lando Norris was able to drive away from the pair by over 30 seconds, which gave him a free pitstop window to come in for fresh tyres and attack the fastest lap.
Alonso explained that he had to reduce his pace to make sure that his medium tyres would last until the end of the race, saying Hamilton's woes were not his problem.
The incident was reminiscent of Arrows' Enrique Bernoldi famously holding up David Coulthard for 35 laps after the McLaren driver was forced to start from the back in the 2001 race.
According to Wolff, Hamilton's inability to find a way past despite being up to five seconds per lap quicker has highlighted once again that F1 needs to look into tweaking the historic street circuit.
Monaco's narrow and twisty street layout, much like other organisational and commercial aspects of the grand prix, has remained virtually untouched for decades, with its position on the calendar coming under increased pressure in the face of Liberty Media's drive to expand into new markets and venues that it can better exploit.
As the field changed to slicks in a wet-to-dry race, Hamilton was stuck behind Alonso in the battle for seventh, and the Briton remained on Alonso's gearbox right until the race was called early after 64 laps as the clock ran out.
To Hamilton's great frustration, Alonso trundled around so slowly that McLaren's Lando Norris was able to drive away from the pair by over 30 seconds, which gave him a free pitstop window to come in for fresh tyres and attack the fastest lap.
Alonso explained that he had to reduce his pace to make sure that his medium tyres would last until the end of the race, saying Hamilton's woes were not his problem.
The incident was reminiscent of Arrows' Enrique Bernoldi famously holding up David Coulthard for 35 laps after the McLaren driver was forced to start from the back in the 2001 race.
According to Wolff, Hamilton's inability to find a way past despite being up to five seconds per lap quicker has highlighted once again that F1 needs to look into tweaking the historic street circuit.
Monaco's narrow and twisty street layout, much like other organisational and commercial aspects of the grand prix, has remained virtually untouched for decades, with its position on the calendar coming under increased pressure in the face of Liberty Media's drive to expand into new markets and venues that it can better exploit.