Team Looks Forward to Improved Monaco Facilities
By Ferrari Press Release
May 30 2004
The sixth round of the Formula 1 World Championship takes place at the most famous race track in the world. However, the 3.34 kilometre Monaco circuit is only a race track for a few days of the year, as the one remaining true street circuit on the calendar.
It first hosted a race in 1929 and its picture-postcard location, set against a background of yachts bobbing in the harbour meant it soon became the race to attend to see and be seen. Underneath its glamorous image, this event provides one of the toughest challenges for the drivers and also the teams’ engineers and mechanics. The Armco-lined track means that the slightest mistake at the wheel can spell disaster as there are virtually no run-off areas.
Lack of space in the Principality also means that, until this year, the pits facilities have been primitive to put it mildly. The race cars, transporters, trucks and motorhomes have been parked in a separate paddock on the harbour, which meant the cars and all equipment had to be taken from the paddock to the very narrow pit lane prior to each practice and qualifying session and the race. It made for a much more tiring schedule for the mechanics and much more legwork.
However, 2004 sees a new pit complex. The organisers have reclaimed some additional land and built a new two-story pit lane with garages on the bottom and offices up above. "Although we had developed a well organised plan to deal with the difficulties of working at Monaco, the new pits will now make our life much easier," says Scuderia Ferrari’s race technical manager, Nigel Stepney. "The pit lane entrance is still after the final corner, but it has a different approach and cars now go to the harbour side of what were the old garages. The new garages are much bigger, comparable with those at Magny-Cours (France) and bigger than Spa (Belgium.) So although we will still have our trucks based in the old paddock, the race cars can now spend the weekend in the pits. I would say our working conditions here are now somewhere between a traditional European race and a 'flyaway' event outside Europe where we don’t have our trucks."
The offices above the pits will be used to house the telemetry computers normally found in the back of the garages and in the team trucks. "But we will still go back to the paddock to hold our debriefs after every session in the vehicles there," continues Stepney. "The Monaco weekend features several support events and with tall buildings opposite the pits, the sound of the cars bounces off the walls and is deafening. After a while, this noise would make it hard for everyone to concentrate."
One unusual feature of the new pit lane is that while cars enter with garages on their left, the pit-board signalling area, remains where it has always been, on the left side. This is because the new pits are now on a raised bit of road following the Swimming Pool section and the entrance is after the final corner. "The garages will therefore be open front and back so that team personnel can walk from the pit-signalling area to the other side of the garage," explains Stepney. "Another change is that, because the new pit area is much bigger than in the past, the speed limit will be raised to 80 km/h for the race, as opposed to a very slow 60 in the past. Although the organisers should be congratulated on this big improvement, it is not the final version as they have plans to further extend the pits for 2006 so that we can eventually park our trucks behind the garage in the conventional way." This improvement that brings Monaco into line with other more conventional circuits, has one downside, in that spectators seated in the grandstands on the main straight, will no longer be able to watch the action in pit lane.
While these changes are designed to make life easier for the teams, the organisers, who work tirelessly to improve driver safety, have made further changes to the track for this year’s event. The fastest section of this the slowest circuit on the calendar is the exit from the tunnel. Changes were already made at the chicane after Karl Wendlinger had a serious accident here in 1994 and, following Jenson Button’s high speed crash in 2003, the approach to the chicane has been widened to create more run off space.
Michael Schumacher (Driver):
Michael Schumacher looked in top form when he met the media in the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro motorhome in the paddock this afternoon. The previous night, he had indulged his passion for soccer, playing in a charity match between the Nazionale Piloti team and the Allstar Team put together by Prince Albert of Monaco. But leaving the pitch for the streets, the five times world champion admitted that winning here is always special. "Monaco is a big challenge and driving here gives you an extreme feeling, as the track is narrow, the barriers so close and the slightest mistake sees you in the wall."
Although he has not yet driven through it, the German was in favour of the radical changes to the pit lane for this year: "it looks very good and is a big improvement." The F2004 that Michael and his team-mate will use here have bodywork modifications designed to improve aerodynamic efficiency and cooling. "But this has not been done specifically for Monaco," explained Schumacher. "We are constantly working on improvements and it just a coincidence that this latest change has come for this race." He had a similar comment about the tyres. "Bridgestone give us new types of tyre at nearly every race. Here in Monaco we will be using very soft tyres to suit the circuit characteristics."
The media's traditional love of statistics meant the Ferrari man was asked what it would mean if he won here making him the only driver to win the opening six races of a season. And Michael gave his traditional answer! "That does not matter," he sighed. "I will just be trying to do the best job possible. At the moment we have a fantastic package, chassis, tyres, engine, but there is no secret other than our hard work, so other teams could do the same."
Finally, back to football. Who would be supporting in next Wednesday’s Champion’s League Final in Germany between Monaco and Porto. "I will be supporting Monaco of course," responded Michael. "I lived here for a while so naturally I take their side and last night, I wished Prince Albert the best of luck."
Rubens Barrichello (Driver):
Looking back at the Spanish Grand Prix, the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver confirmed he was happy with his second place, but happier still that he was growing in confidence with the F2004. Asked if his team-mate could win all 18 races this season, he replied: "The pressure is all on him because the media are already talking about," laughed the Brazilian. "But seriously I don’t think it’s possible. Michael has been very strong this season so far and it is good to see him so motivated. Personally, I am proud to drive alongside him, but I don’t fear him. I regard every race as the start of the season, so I just keep on working and I am sure wins will come my way. As I said already, I had a very good feeling with the car in Barcelona and since then I have had productive tests at Mugello and Fiorano."
On the subject of another misconception, Barrichello denied the fact there was a problem with Bridgestone tyres not getting up to temperature in the first couple of laps of a race. "Absolutely not," he maintained. "There was a specific problem in Imola where the ambient and track temperatures were lower than expected and also the way we came up to the grid on the parade lap was very slow. But in Spain there was no problem at all."
Although the final round of the season in Sao Paulo will be Barrichello’s true home race, this event is also something of a local grand prix, as like many of his peers, he lives in the Principality. "It is a convenient place because it is near to Italy," he explained. "And, although it doesn’t look like it now, it is actually very quiet for most of the year, so that combined with the nice weather makes it a good place for my son."
Barrichello turns 32 years old on race day, but the fact did not seem to impress him much: "the older you get the less you celebrate. But I plan to have a good time and all my family will be here to celebrate with me. Hopefully and thinking on the positive side, it would be nice to be able to celebrate winning the race."