Not really sure what to make of it all. I've defended Pirelli this season as I like the unpredictability the tyre situation brings, but if the teams are going to start approaching races as they did this one, then they've got to change things. The first half of the race was appalling. They were barely braking for corners - it was like watching Vettel coast to the end in Barcelona when his brakes were on the point of exploding. Unlike some, I love watching the spectacle that is Monaco, but I was bored out of my mind.
It all went a bit nuts after Massa crashed, and Maldonado had his horrible accident, but this surely can't be repeated. Ramp the tyres to a compound harder or something for the rest of the year.
Great result for Nico, and clearly the Merc tyres held together well... but that secret tyre test will leave a bitter taste in the mouth, irrespective of whether it helped or not. Even if it didn't help them with their tyres, but 1000km... come on, they can't pretend they didn't try different suspension approaches, cambers and tyre management. If was as simple as burning tyres away to get a general feel, they'd have stuck their reserve driver in.
Massa - surely he can't have dropped it twice in identical circumstances? I mean, it happens over a race weekend, but it's not often that you repeat it in the race, when it matters.... still, Felipe himself managed it in India a couple of years ago, so who knows, but I did wonder when I saw it whether Ferrari might consider pulling Alonso out of the race. Edit: just seen that Ferrari are claiming this one was the result of a failure.
Perez was an accident waiting to happen. Alonso, was probably just about fairly punished, but had little choice - he either got a penalty or had an accident. With Kimi, Perez was never going to make the corner (even if he had enough steering lock to get around).
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2013 09:28PM by gav.