“We always ask the drivers to brush the barriers as much as possible, because that’s where the lap time comes from,” explains Rob Smedley, who has been Felipe Massa’s race engineer for many a year. “Once, me and a colleague went to watch a race in one of the junior formulae from the entrance to the Swimming Pool section: well, when we saw how close they got to the barriers at over 200 km/h, we said to ourselves that maybe we ought to have a bit more respect for the drivers!”

Rob has decades of experience in Formula 1, even though he is not yet forty and he knows the secrets of setting up a car for the streets of the Principality inside out. “You need a very good front end to tackle the many slow corners as well as possible,” he explained to www.ferrari.com. “At the same time, you need to bear in mind the undulations, the kerbs and the bumps: the car jumps a lot and so you have to keep a close eye on the braking and acceleration points.”

“Mechanical grip counts for a lot as there are hardly any fast corners, only slow ones, some of which are very tight, like the Loews hairpin,” continues Rob. “From an aerodynamic point of view, you therefore look for the configuration with the most downforce, without getting too concerned about drag. On paper, it’s an inefficient choice, but that’s how it works here. From a weight distribution point of view, you try to go as much as possible towards the rear, which needs to be very stiff, coupled to a soft front end to reduce understeer in the slow corners.”

Like all street circuits, the grip level from the track surface is very low at the start of the weekend. This factor, coupled with the need for the drivers to get used to such a unique circuit, always makes it difficult to understand clearly what effect a set-up change really has. “The track evolution is very significant as bit by bit rubber goes down on the surface from Thursday through to Sunday and usually, that masks the effect of the modifications made to the car,” adds the English engineer. “Then there’s the factor of confidence: gradually as a driver does more and more laps he gets an ever clearer picture of how far he can push before getting to the limit. When all is said and done, that is one of the factors that has the biggest impact on improving lap time!”

“Monaco is a very special track, completely different to all the other venues we race on,” says Felipe Massa and the Scuderia Ferrari driver ought to know, as he is a resident of the Principality, which means the street circuit is part of his daily life. “Everywhere, you are really close to the edge of the track to the guard rails and you have to drive on the limit but not the slightest bit over it, because the smallest mistake is severely punished in Monaco. It is such a special circuit and I get a great feeling from racing there.”

Of the current driver line-up, only Button, Webber and the Scuderia’s Alonso have raced at Monaco more often than Felipe, so the Brazilian has got an intimate knowledge of the track’s secrets. “I don’t think one part of the circuit is particularly more difficult than another,” he maintains. “Every corner is difficult and a big challenge, so in order to get a perfect lap here, you must drive every turn at a hundred percent. At some tracks, if you make a little mistake at one corner, you can make up for it elsewhere on the lap, but in Monaco, the slightest error at one point and you will lose a lot of lap time and that’s what makes it a fantastic place to drive.”

In 2008 on Saturday afternoon in Monaco, Felipe flew to pole position at the race where a good grid position is more important than at any other venue. “Being on pole in Monaco was a fantastic feeling. I had a great car in 2008 and I was also fighting for the win, but unfortunately the race was run in the rain that year and so many things happened that in the end I was third. Back then, the cars had more downforce than the current machines, but I don’t think the fact we have less downforce now changes our approach to the race. In ‘09 and 2010 we had less, but now the situation is much closer. I think we are going to have a lot of fun driving in Monaco this weekend, partly because this year’s car, the F138, is much more stable.”

The Monaco event defies convention in so many ways, with its unique timetable with practice taking place on Thursday and Saturday and its facilities, which although modernised in recent years, wouldn’t pass muster at any newly built circuit. The race also defies the usual conventions regarding strategy. As before, Pirelli will bring its Soft and Supersoft tyres and we are unlikely to see more than two tyre changes per driver in the race, with just one being a preferred strategy if the tyres can do it. Unlike other tracks where you can change tyres when the first set shows sign of wear and then use the KERS and DRS to blast past slower cars on older tyres, that is not so easy on these tight city streets, so choosing the very best moment to make the switch and avoid traffic is the most important call of the whole weekend. This is not something that can be planned in advance as it depends so much on track position in the actual race. Something else you are unlikely to do in Monaco is go from the fifth row at the start to third at the chequered flag, so Saturday afternoon’s qualifying takes on the level of important it had in the “old days.” Fifth row to third is precisely what Felipe did two weeks ago in Barcelona and the Brazilian was delighted with his performance at the Catalan track. “Going from ninth on the grid to end up on the podium in third place was a great achievement for the whole team, for me and for Fernando winning the race,” he recalls. “I was not happy with losing three places on the grid after qualifying, but I had a really great race, during which I managed to overtake many cars on track. We have to make it our target to fight for the podium at every race and of course, what I really want is to get a win soon.”

Why not this weekend?

However, there have been plenty of podium finishes in the past eleven years, with two second places and six thirds, but very often, something happened over the course of the weekend to see the chances of victory evaporate. For example, how can one forget Fernando Alonso’s accident in Saturday morning’s free practice in 2010? The Spaniard was flying that weekend, however he ended up in the barriers at the start of the session: it seemed innocuous enough, but once the car was back in the pits, it was found that the chassis was damaged beyond repair and would have to be changed. The Spaniard was therefore unable to take part in qualifying and the next day produced a spirited climb up the order, which took him from a pit lane start to sixth at the flag. A similar performance, which ended with a result one place better than that, was produced by Michael Schumacher in 2006. The German also started from pit lane, after being sent to the bottom of the qualifying time sheet following the famous incident at Rascasse. He fought his way back to fifth behind the man who was his Ferrari team-mate for so many years, Rubens Barrichello.

Taking pole at Monaco usually means the win is in your sights, as indeed has happened in 26 of the 59 races held in the Principality to date. From 2004 to 2012, the pole man only failed to win once and if further evidence of Ferrari’s lack of success in this race is needed, the exception that proved the rule was provided by Felipe Massa who, on the Saturday in 2008, produced a fantastic lap at what can now be considered his second home race. The next day, the race started in the wet, but things did not go as planned and furthermore, the gods of fortune concentrated on helping the Brazilian’s main rival for the title, Lewis Hamilton, as much as possible, with the Englishman winning the day. Felipe finished third, just as he had done the previous year.

All this means that the Scuderia has a total of eight wins in the Monaco Grand Prix. Apart from the first one, with Maurice Trintignant in 1955, all the others are bunched together in two clearly defined cycles in the history of the team. From 1975 to 1981, Ferrari won four times: twice with Niki Lauda (1975 and 1976,) once with Jody Scheckter (1979) and once with Gilles Villeneuve (1981.) Sixteen years would go by before a Prancing Horse triumphed in the Principality again: in 1997, Schumacher took the first of his three Monegasque wins at the wheel of a Ferrari. Then in 1999 he headed a one-two with Eddie Irvine and in 2001 came the aforementioned double with Rubens Barrichello. Strangely, only one of these eight wins, Lauda’s second, came in a year that was an even number: given this is 2013, maybe it’s time to cross our fingers!

In the morning the Scuderia Ferrari members – Tadeas, Vladimir, Jiri, Ladislav – have been welcomed by the staff, followed by a garage tour, visiting all the present teams. The hot laps are the most exciting oportunity of the day: a lap on the track on board of 458 next to a professional driver.

In the afternoon the races have been held, watched by the guests at the TV compound, accompanied by Ferrari staff.
The impressions from the group of Guests have been enthusiastic: “It’s been one of the most beautiful days of my life, the hotlap just a dream come true. Who works in the TV production really has got a thousand eyes! Everybody has been very kind. Thanks Ferrari, Thanks a lot for making us live such an extraordinary experience”.

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The part came from a batch used in previous editions of the championship, as well as in testing. It was a moment’s inattention which did not however detract from a triumphant weekend for Prema. The team from Venice took two clean sweeps of the podium in races 1 and 2. Winner of the third one was Lucas Auer, who was second past the flag behind team-mate Marciello, but inherited the win in the stewards’ room.

After twelve of the thirty races that make up the season, Raffaele continues to lead the championship on 214.5 points, ahead of Rosenqvist (137) and Auer (130.) In qualifying at Brands Hatch, he was quickest of his group no less than three times, but in all the races, he had to start from second because the fastest man in the second group set a better time. At the start of race 1, Raffaele tucked in behind poleman, team-mate and eventual winner Lynn, while in the next two races he managed to lead off the line, keeping it to the chequered flag. The F3 FIA European Championship will be back on track on 1 and 2 June at Austria’s Red Bull Ring, with the fifth round of the series marking the mid-point of the season.

Raffaele Marciello
“I’m very pleased with what we achieved this weekend. On the performance front we were always front runners, managing to get ahead of the redoubtable English teams, who are usually very strong at their home races. We went through a range of emotions this weekend. Qualifying went well and I was quickest in my group, but obviously I would have preferred to have taken pole position. It’s almost impossible to overtake at Brands Hatch and I knew that the start would be the key moment if I was to win. I think I got off the line very well in all three races. In race 1, my team-mate and poleman Lynn was equally good and I wasn’t able to get past him at the start as I’d hoped. All I could do was tuck in behind and the race was thus a long wait for a mistake from Alex, but none came. Race 2 went better and I managed to go into the lead thanks to a very good start. From then on, I managed the race without any particular problems and I got the win I deserved. It was the same story in the last race too, but unfortunately, after the race came the disappointment at being disqualified. These things can happen and I’m sure they won’t occur again. Sometimes drivers make a mistake, sometimes it’s the teams, but as from the next race, I’m sure we will once again be fighting for the top slot, as we did at Brands Hatch.”

Luca Baldisserri, Head of the FDA
“The best way to sum up the job Raffaele did this weekend is to look at the numbers: 3 pole positions in his group, which translated into three starts from second place on the grid, two wins and a second. A shame about losing the race 3 win at scrutineering, because it’s down to a moment’s inattention which certainly had no effect on the car’s performance. However, the rules are very clear and the penalty was the right one. In fact, plaudits should go to the organisers and the stewards for the precise and detailed job they do, in order to ensure the technical transparency of the series. Despite this, the Prema team had a decidedly positive weekend and they will learn from this mistake so that it cannot happen in the future. Getting back to Marciello’s results, I think that, even without the win in race 3, the overall appraisal of the Brands Hatch weekend is a step forward in terms of the championship and confirms how competitive he is. There is still a long way to go this season, but we are concentrating like never before to ensure that nothing is left to chance right to the last lap of the last race.”