Your guide to the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix

The Monaco Grand Prix is a Formula One motor race held each year on the Circuit de Monaco. Run since 1929  and joined the FIA Formula One world Championship 1950, it is widely considered to be one of the most important and prestigious automobile races in the world and, with the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, forms the Triple Crown of Motorsport. The circuit has been called “an exceptional location of glamour and prestige”.

The race is held on a narrow course laid out in the streets of Monaco, with many elevation changes and tight corners as well as a tunnel, making it one of the most demanding tracks in Formula One. It is the only Grand Prix that does not adhere to the FIA’s mandated 305-kilometre (190-mile) minimum race distance.

 

Monaco Grand Prix, round six of the 2016 Formula 1 season

 

Circuit Name: Circuit de Monaco

Race Laps: 78

Circuit Length: 3.337 km (2.074 mi)

Race Length: 260.286 km (161.734 mi)

Number of corners: 19 (11 Right, 8 Left)

DRS Zone: One Zones (Start/Finish Line Between Turns 19 and 1)

Circuit Direction: Clockwise

Pole Position 2015: Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:15.098

 

 

Pirelli used compounds

 

Pirelli will bring the following three compounds to the Monaco, to be held (May 26 – 29) on The Circuit de Monaco

Yellow soft: unusually, it’s the hardest compound of the weekend. Not so many chosen.
Red super-soft: a favoured race tyre, capable of quite long stints in Monaco.

Purple ultra-soft: chosen by many teams; the default choice for qualifying and expected also in the race.

 

The tires that Pirelli has said must be used at some point in the race:
One set of Yellow soft

One set of Red super soft

Each driver must have both these sets available for the race, and must use at least one of them.

The tires assigned for Q3 in qualifying:

Purple ultra-soft

 

THE CIRCUIT FROM A TYRE POINT OF VIEW:

The street circuit offers very little grip and a high degree of track evolution over the weekend.

Teams use a high-downforce set-up to ‘push’ the car onto the track as much as possible.

Wear and degradation is the lowest seen all year, making one-stop strategies possible even on soft compound tyres.

Tactics need to consider a high probability of the safety car and the difficulty of overtaking.

With little representative running of the ultrasoft up to now, free practice (on Thursday) is vital.

Lowest average speed of the year so tyre warm-up is a key skill for maximum performance.

 

HOW IT WAS A YEAR AGO:

Winner: Rosberg (one stop: started on supersoft, changed to soft on lap 37 of 66)

Best-placed alternative strategy: Hamilton, second with two stops. Pitted from the lead to take on new supersofts during a late safety car, but admitted later that it was probably a mistake.

The vast majority of drivers made just one pit stop: including Sainz who finished 10^thfrom last.

 PAUL HEMBERY, PIRELLI MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR:

“Monte Carlo will mark the first race for our new purple ultra-soft tyre, which offers the maximum performance and technology that we can put into a compound. However, the large numbers of this compound nominated by the teams for the Monaco GP shows that it is a serious race tyre rather than just a ‘qualifying special’. With the unique conditions of Monaco, and its own specific timetable, the teams will be looking to get a thorough read on the characteristics of the new ultra-soft during free practice. Only then will we have an accurate idea of race strategy, although with the difficulty of overtaking, drivers will be looking to minimise their pit stops.”

 Drivers / Teams compound choices

Team	Car #	Driver	Soft	Super Soft	Ultra Soft
Mercedes AMG	44	Lewis Hamilton	1	2	10
	6	Nico Rosberg	1	2	10
Scuderia Ferrari	5	Sebastian Vettel	2	2	9
	7	Kimi Raikkonen	2	2	9
Williams-Mercedes	19	Felipe Massa	2	4	7
	77	Valtteri Bottas	2	4	7
Red Bull Racing	3	Daniel Ricciardo	1	2	10
	26	Daniil Kvyat	1	2	10
Force India-Mercedes	11	Sergio Perez	3	3	7
	27	Nico Hulkenberg	3	3	7
Renault	20	Kevin Magnussen	1	2	10
	30	Jolyon Palmer	1	3	9
Toro Rosso-Ferrari	33	Max Verstappen	3	3	7
	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	3	3	7
Sauber-Ferrari	9	Marcus Ericsson	1	4	8
	12	Felipe Nasr	1	4	8
McLaren-Honda	14	Fernando Alonso	1	5	7
	22	Jenson Button	1	5	7
Manor-Mercedes	88	Rio Haryanto	2	5	6
	94	Pascal Wehrlein	2	5	6
Haas-Ferrari	8	Romain Grosjean	1	3	9
	21	Esteban Gutierrez	1	3	9

 

Monaco Grand Prix Winners (By year)

(Held under the FIA Formula One world Championship)

# Wins	Driver	Years Won
2015	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
2014	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
2013	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
2012	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault
2011	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
2010	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault
2009	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes
2008	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
2007	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes
2006	Fernando Alonso	Renault
2005	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes
2004	Jarno Trulli	Renault
2003	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW
2002	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes
2001	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
2000	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes
1999	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
1998	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
1997	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
1996	Olivier Panis	Ligier-Mugen-Honda
1995	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Renault
1994	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford
1993	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Ford
1992	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
1991	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
1990	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
1989	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
1988	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda
1987	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Honda
1986	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG
1985	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG
1984	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG
1983	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Ford
1982	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-Ford
1981	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari
1980	Carlos Reutemann	Williams-Ford
1979	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari
1978	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford
1977	Jody Scheckter	Wolf-Ford
1976	Niki Lauda	Ferrari
1975	Niki Lauda	Ferrari
1974	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus-Ford
1973	Jackie Stewart	Tyrrell-Ford
1972	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	BRM
1971	Jackie Stewart	Tyrrell-Ford
1970	Jochen Rindt	Lotus-Ford
1969	Graham Hill	Lotus-Ford
1968	Graham Hill	Lotus-Ford
1967	Denny Hulme	Brabham-Repco
1966	Jackie Stewart	BRM
1965	Graham Hill	BRM
1964	Graham Hill	BRM
1963	Graham Hill	BRM
1962	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax
1961	Stirling Moss	Lotus-Climax
1960	Stirling Moss	Lotus-Climax
1959	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax
1958	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Climax
1957	Juan Manuel Fangio	Maserati
1956	Stirling Moss	Maserati
1955	Maurice Trintignant	Ferrari
1954	Not held
–
1951
1950	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo

 

Multiple Winners (Drivers)

 

# Wins	Driver	Years Won
6	Ayrton Senna	1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993
5	Graham Hill	1963, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1969
	Michael Schumacher	1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001
4	Alain Prost	1984, 1985, 1986, 1988
3	Stirling Moss	1956, 1960, 1961
	Jackie Stewart	1966, 1971, 1973
	Nico Rosberg	2013, 2014, 2015
2	Juan Manuel Fangio	1950, 1957
	Maurice Trintignant	1955, 1958
	Niki Lauda	1975, 1976
	Jody Scheckter	1977, 1979
	David Coulthard	2000, 2002
	Fernando Alonso	2006, 2007
	Mark Webber	2010, 2012

 

 

Multiple Winners (Constructors)

 

#Wins	Constructor	Years
15	McLaren	1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1998,2000, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2008
8	Ferrari	1955, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1981, 1997, 1999, 2001
7	Lotus	1960, 1961, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1974, 1987
5	BRM	1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1972
3	Cooper	1958, 1959, 1962
	Tyrrell	1971, 1973, 1978
	Williams	1980, 1983, 2003
	Mercedes	2013, 2014, 2015
	Red Bull	2010, 2011, 2012
	Maserati	1956, 1957
2	Brabham	1967, 1982
	Benetton	1994, 1995
	Renault	2004, 2006

 

 

Numbers and Facts

Most wins (driver) 6 – Ayrton Senna 1987 – 1989 – 1990 – 1991 – 1992 – 1993

Most wins (constructor) 15 – McLaren 1984 – 85 – 86 – 88 – 89 – 90 – 91 – 92 – 93 – 98 – 2000 – 02 – 05 – 07 – 08

Wins from pole position 27 – Most recent 2014 (Nico Rosberg)

Lowest grid for past winner 14 – 1996 (Olivier Panis – only winner to start outside the top 10)

Most recent 1-2 finish 2014 – Mercedes (Nico Rosberg-Lewis Hamilton)

Most emphatic win (here) 1 lap – 1950 – 1964 – 1967 – 1982

Closest winning margin 0.215s – 1992 Ayrton Senna-Nigel Mansell

Rain-affected races 9 – 1960 – 1972 – 1975 – 1982 – 1987 – 1996 – 1997 – 2008 – 2012

Safety Car-affected races 11 – 2003 – 2004 – 2005 – 2006 – 2008 – 2010 – 2011 – 2012 – 2013 – 2014 – 2015

Red Flag (and result declared) races 1 – 1984

Fastest race 2007 – 78 laps @ 1hr 40m 29.329s (1984 red flag race finished at 31 laps in 1hr 01m 07.740s)

Slowest race 1950 – 100 laps @3hrs 13m 18.7s

Most pole positions (driver) 5 – Ayrton Senna 1985 – 1988 – 1989 – 1990 – 1991

Most pole positions (constructor) 11 McLaren 1984 – 86 – 88 – 89 – 90 – 91 – 98 – 99 – 2001 – 05 – 07

Monte Carlo, Monaco. Sunday 24 May 2015. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG, 1st Position, Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 2nd Position, and Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG, 3rd Position, on the podium.

What Happened last race here?

Lewis Hamilton secured his first ever Monaco pole position during Saturday’s qualifying. In the race, Nico Rosberg took his third consecutive win at Monaco, second win of the season, and the tenth of his career, while Sebastian Vettel finished second. Hamilton, who had led for most of the race, moved from first into third place following a “pit stop misjudgement” during a late safety car period, for which his team, Mercedes, later apologised. McLaren-Honda partnership scored its first points since Honda’s return to the sport.

 

2015 Race Classification

Pos.	Driver	Constructor	Time/Retired	Grid
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:49:18.420	2
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	+4.486	3
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+6.053	1
4	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing-Renault	+11.965	5
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	+13.608	4
6	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	+14.345	6
7	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	+15.013	7
8	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	+16.063	10
9	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari	+23.626	14
10	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Toro Rosso-Renault	+25.056	PL
11	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	+26.232	11
12	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Mercedes	+28.415	15
13	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	+31.159	17
14	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	+45.789	16
15	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	+1 Lap	12
16	Roberto Merhi	Marussia-Ferrari	+2 Laps	19
17	Will Stevens	Marussia-Ferrari	+2 Laps	18
Ret	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	Collision	9
Ret	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	Gearbox	13
Ret	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Mercedes	Brakes	8

 

 

Did you know?

✪ Lewis Hamilton will be looking for his 44th F1 career win aboard of course car ♯44.

✪ Hamilton has set 34 of his 52 pole positions to date on Pirelli tyres. It is 3 more than any other driver in the history of F1 (Vettel next-best 31)

✪ Hamilton is now just 16 pole positions from equalling Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 68 F1 GP pole positions. Since he has

been at Mercedes he has taken pole 26 times already. That is over 40% of all races he’s started for the team (26/ 62 = 41.9%)

✪ Hamilton has won (43) 25.0% of all GP he’s started (172) and is in the top 10 drivers races to win ratio of all-time. This is how he compares:-

1. Fangio 47.0%, 2. Ascari 40.6%, 3. Clark 34.7%, 4. M.Schumacher 29.7%, 5. Ja.Stewart 27.2% 6. Vettel 26.1% (42/ 161), 7.Prost 25.6%
2. Senna 25.5%, 9. Hamilton 25.0%, 10. Moss 24.2%

✪ Hamilton has led just 1 race lap so far in 2016 (0.4%). Last year he led 587 of 1,149 race laps (51%). After 5 GP in ‘15 he’d led 173 laps (59%)

✪ If Hamilton leads in Monaco he will then have led 87 F1 GP, 1 more than his idol Ayrton Senna. Only Michael Schumacher has led more (116)

✪ Nico Rosberg is aiming to become only the second driver ever to win the Monaco Grand Prix 4 times in a row (Senna 1989-92 [and 93])

✪ Rosberg run of 7 GP wins ended in Spain. It was best run ever in his whole motor racing career to date and is the fourth-best run ever in F1

beaten only by Michael Schumacher (8), Sebastian Vettel and Alberto Ascari (9)

✪ Rosberg’s has won 18 GP. Nobody has won more GP and not won the driver’s title at some point in their F1 career

✪ Rosberg (45 F1 podiums) has exactly half the number of F1 podiums of Hamilton (90)

✪ Rosberg in Monaco can beat Niki Lauda’s 24 pole positions

✪ Vettel in Spain beat Senna’s 161 GP starts

✪ Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas are the only drivers to have finished in the points in all 2016 Grand Prix to date

✪ Nico Hulkenberg is scheduled to make his 100th Grand Prix start on Sunday

CONSTRUCTORS’

✪ Mercedes aiming for an 12th pole in a row. Mercedes’ best-ever run of poles is 23 (Great Britain 2014 to Italy 2015 inclusive), and is beaten

only by Williams’s run of 24 poles in 1992 – 93

✪ Mercedes beat Red Bull Racing’s 57 F1 pole positions with pole in Spain

✪ Mercedes won its 49th F1 World Championship race victory in Russia. To date Mercedes has won just over one-third of all the F1 GP it has

has competed in (49 wins/ 132 races = 37.1%). Mercedes is now 2 wins behind Red Bull’s F1 career total of 51

✪ Ferrari has been represented on all 5 race podiums so far this season, a record no other team can boast

✪ Williams is the only team to have finished both cars in the points at all races so far in 2016

✪ McLaren in Monaco will celebrate their 50th anniversary of becoming a F1 constructor. The marque entered a Grand Prix for the first time

here in 1966 with Bruce McLaren driving the single-car entry. Originally it had been planned to enter two McLaren-Fords, one for McLaren

and the other for fellow Kiwi Chris Amon. McLaren retired on only the 9th lap with an oil leak. He had started P10 on the 16-car grid

 MONACO GRAND PRIX

✪ Mercedes will be aiming for a 4th successive Monaco Grand Prix victory. Only 2 other constructors have won 4 or more in a row in Monaco.

BRM won 4 in a row (1963 to 1966 inclusive) while McLaren won a record 6 in a row (1988 to 1993 inclusive)

✪ 20 years ago Olivier Panis became the only driver to win a Monaco Grand Prix from a starting grid outside of the top 10. Panis started P14

✪ The 1996 race is notable for other things too. Firstly, that just 3 cars were actually moving under power at the end, the lowest-ever number in

any Grand Prix. Secondly, it remains the most recent F1 Grand Prix won by a French driver. Thirdly, it marked the final win for Ligier in F1

✪ 50 years ago F1 celebrated ‘the return to power’ with the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix being the first race of the then new 3-litre non turbo / 1.5

litre turbo engine regulations. However, just 4 cars were classified as finishing, the lowest number ever in any Grand Prix before or since.

1998 Monaco Grand Prix. Monte Carlo, monaco. 21-24 May 1998. Mika Hakkinen (McLaren MP4/13 Mercedes-Benz) leads the field into Ste. Devote at the start.

World Drivers’ Championship standings

Pos.	Driver	Points	Diff
1	Nico Rosberg	100
2	Kimi Räikkönen	61	39
3	Lewis Hamilton	57	43
4	Sebastian Vettel	48	52
5	Daniel Ricciardo	48	52
6	Max Verstappen	38	62
7	Felipe Massa	36	64
8	Valtteri Bottas	28	72
9	Daniil Kvyat	22	78
10	Romain Grosjean	22	78
11	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	12	88
12	Fernando Alonso	8	92
13	Sergio Pérez	8	92
14	Kevin Magnussen	6	94
15	Nico Hülkenberg	6	94
16	Jenson Button	3	97
17	stoffel Vandoorn	1	99
18	Jolyon Palmer	0
19	Esteban Gutiérrez	0
20	Marcus Ericsson	0
21	Pascal Wehrlein	0
22	Felipe Nasr	0
23	Rio Haryanto	0

 World Constructors’ Championship standings

Pos.	Constructor	Points	Diff
1	Mercedes	157
2	Ferrari	109	48
3	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	94	63
4	Williams-Mercedes	65	92
5	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	26	131
6	Haas-Ferrari	22	135
7	Force India-Mercedes	14	143
8	McLaren-Honda	12	145
9	Renault	6	151
10	Sauber-Ferrari	0
11	MRT-Mercedes	0

 Drivers penalty points:

Driver	Penalty points
Max Verstappen	6
Daniil Kvyat	5
Marcus Erricson	4
Romain Grosjean	4
Valtteri Bottas	4
Nico Hulkenberg	4
Sebastian Vettel	3
Kimi Raikkonen	3
Lewis Hamilton	2
Fernando Alonso	2
Rio Haryanto	2
Carlos Sainz	2
Esteban Gutierrez	2
Kevin Magnussen	2
Jenson Button