Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Mark Webber drove a masterful race from pole to win the Monaco GP despite four safety cars. His ability to pull away from Vettel each time displayed a surprising level of superiority to his young team mate. In every team he has driven for to date Mark had  been able to establish a mental domination over his team mate. There were questions as to whether he had met his match with Sebastian, but it looks like his toughness is showing through again. Last season there were questions raised as to whether he would keep his drive with Red Bull, but let's not forget he drove all season with the remains of his injuries following his off season bicycle crash. This year he is fully fit and obviously back on top of his game. It will be interesting to see how Vettel handles this situation. Mark has denied signing a new contract, but all the signs say he has and he is showing he deserves it.

It was a typical Monaco race with almost no overtaking except for Alonso on the slowest cars, and even then not without difficulty. Pity about poor Chandook being taken out while leading the new boy's brigade. The accidents provided the highlights, and it looks as if Williams not only have a lot of work repairing cars, but more importantly working out why something broke on each one. Pity we did not see the problem with the drain cover. These are a potential problem on street tracks if not properly bolted or welded down. Obviously they did not have time to weld it so it must have been a bolted version that came loose.

Interesting the number of empty seats. Barcelona had empty seats despite their man Alonso being in the Ferrari, but I put that down to just the large number they had for the race so did not sell out, but Monaco is notorious for being hard to get a ticket, so something is going on. Turkey will give us no clues as they have had terrible crowds the last few years. It will be interesting to see what happens at some more established venues. Silverstone will probably sell out for the Lewis and Jenson show. Just perhaps the economy in Europe is starting to bite and fans just cannot afford the crazy prices for an F1 race.

Interesting radio conversation between Lewis Hamilton and his McLaren pit about saving the brakes halfway through the race. Our Speed commentators, more on which later, made a big deal about Lewis getting snarly with his team in public. PC gone mad. You hire a guy like Lewis, a real racer, who you know is going to give you 110%, and then wonder why he is a little annoyed at being told to conserve while in the middle of a fight between two Ferraris! It's different when you ask Vettel with only a few laps to go and no one behind you to keep slowing down, but in Lewis' situation I do not think it unreasonable to ask as a racer "do you want me to race or just drive around?" It's what makes sport so great is the emotion and the commitment, let's not destroy that.

So to our Speed commentary team. David Hobbs is funny and knows what he is talking about in respect of driving almost anything. Steve Matchet is an experienced F1 mechanic and also know his business, but is anyone else fed up to the back teeth with Bob Varsha, Mr "I must talk all the damn time whether I have anything to say or not, or whether I have said it in every session." If I hear one more time that Monaco and Monte Carlo are not the same I will throw something through the TV. He is there as the commentator to tell us what is happening, and he can keep his opinions to himself, that is why he has David and Steve for informed opinion, and it is OK if there is no one talking for a nano second. We can see for ourselves what is going on and would just like to hear the cars from time to time.

Having got that off my chest, another Aussie won at Monaco, Daniel Ricciardo emulated Mark Webber winning the World Series 3.5 race from pole. Let's hope he gets some sponsorship from Australian companies to help him. It was not that long ago that we had another great young driver, Craig Lowndes, who had one season in Europe thanks to Qantas before the money ran out and he returned to drive tin tops in Australia, finishing second at Winton Raceway today in the V8Supercars. Young American, Alexander Rossi, drove well in fourth place for most of the World Series 3.5 race before being pressured into an error by the more experienced Brendon Hartley from NZ. Good job Alexander and let's hope it results in better rides in future.