Reflections On Monaco
	by Roger Horton, England

It's the Rainy days and Mondays. Ron Dennis, McLaren's long time team chief, is on record as stating that it is the Monday morning after that it really hits you. You lost. The objective that you set for yourself as you started yet another Grand Prix weekend was not attained. If second is the first of the losers, then third is total failure. Results that many would kill for are of little consequence to a team that sets its standards so high. This defeat will have hurt a lot. Coming as it does on the back of the Imola result and yet this time they had only themselves to blame. So far this season, in eight Grand Prix starts, only once has the McLaren MP4-14 run throughout a race with no obvious mechanical glitches. This was David Coulthard's run to second at Imola. Even when Hakkinen won in Brazil the gremlins nibbled, though not terminally. At the end of Saturday's qualifying it had looked so different. On Monaco's tight little grid, first and third looked a whole lot better than second and fourth. Although the way both McLaren drivers improved their positions with last gasp efforts showed all too much the extent to which their dominance had slipped. But pole is still pole, and at Monaco, so often pole equals win. Hakkinen of course had two battles for his pole position. The first time to win it on the track, the second to hold on to it in the stewards' room. He passed a stationary (as opposed to waved) yellow flag on his last fastest lap and wisely decided to lift his hand in acknowledgement, rather than his right foot from the throttle. Ferrari and Michael Schumacher complained, but their protests came to nothing. In the end it wouldn't matter. Schumacher didn't need to start from pole to win. Practice, as they say, makes perfect and the business of getting a Formula One car off the line at the start of a Grand Prix is more of an art than a science. Well, usually. There are many examples of drivers making radically different getaways in re-started races to underline the point. Damon Hill at last year's Belgian race springs to mind. Third to sixth at his first attempt, third to first in his second. At Magny-Cours, again last year, the Ferraris went from third and fourth to first and second, the second time around. Friday is uniquely a "rest" day at Monaco. Officially it is to allow the local residents to top up on house-hold supplies, in reality it is to allow them to stretch their Grand Prix by an extra day. But Michael Schumacher and Ferrari didn't rest. Schumacher, together with some key personnel, flew back to Ferrari's test track at Fiorano and reportedly "shook down" an F399 that was later flown to Monaco. Interestingly, the same report spoke of Schumacher carrying out some ten practice starts. Some 48 hours later all that effort would pay off when both Schumacher and Eddie Irvine would make brilliant get-aways whilst their McLaren rivals floundered with too much wheelspin. Less than 100 meters and the race was over. The grip that McLaren had hoped to exert on the race and their rivals was broken in seconds and thereafter they would be competing for just the scraps. Funny business this wheel spin, sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't! The rest of the runners had just walk-on parts in this race so dominated by Michael Schumacher, as he raced away to take a useful lead in the '99 championship race, and to become the Ferrari driver with the most wins along the way. His sixteen victories takes him past Niki Lauda's total of fifteen, although Lauda still leads him in Ferrari drivers' titles by two to nil. Damon Hill had another wretched weekend for Jordan and it's becoming a habit. Alex Zanardi in his Williams at last saw the chequered flag which was progress of sorts, although he was the last car actually running. He will have gleaned some comfort from Monaco in that he outqualified his teammate Ralf Schumacher, making it 1-3 for the year so far. Monaco saw the Williams team struggling worse than ever, with neither cars making into the top ten on the grid. One can only start to wonder whether BMW power will solve their problems. Both BAR cars again failed to finish and Jacques Villeneuve made no attempt to hide his disappointment. Villeneuve has shown that the car has potential, but at the moment little else. One gets the feeling that he didn't sign up for this. Teammate Mika Salo is just happy to be back driving a Formula One car and he has done his reputation no harm with his two races for the team. Heinz-Harald Frentzen continued his front-running form in his Jordan to once again win the "best of the rest" award. Amazingly, Jordan have yet to suffer a mechanical DNF in 1999 and third place in the constructors' points standing for the season looks a realistic target. If Jordan do get their hands on works Honda engines for next year, it looks more likely that they - rather than Williams - will be challenging the Big Two. For Ron Dennis, though, there is much to ponder. The two-week schedule of races gives him little time to draw breath. No doubt the McLaren retains its performance edge on the faster circuits where it can let its superior aerodynamics come into play. Unlike last year, however, McLaren are now playing catch-up and Ron Dennis can't afford too many more bad Mondays.

Roger Horton	© 1999 Kaizar.Com, Incorporated.
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