The FIA has revealed the fuel loads with which all 20 cars will start the Monaco Grand Prix. We analyse the data here.
The car weights reveal that the top eight on the grid were all carrying comparable levels of fuel – with the clear exception of Sebastian Vettel, who gambled on an ultra-light fuel load (of which more later).The lap time penalty of carrying fuel (the ‘fuel effect’) is approximately 0.023s per kilo around Monaco so, while Jenson Button took pole by just 0.025s from Kimi Raikkonen, taking their respective fuel loads into account he was 0.11s quicker.
That shows the championship leader did a consummate job once again and fully earned his pole position.Perhaps more significantly, it also proves that Ferrari is continuing its competitive resurgence, and – in Monaco trim at least – may even have leapfrogged Red Bull and become Brawn’s closest challenger.That is a remarkable transformation from the situation just two races ago in Bahrain, where Ferrari was some 0.8s off the pace.
The fact that Raikkonen was actually disappointed not to claim pole was a measure of the hugely impressive strides the Maranello team has made with its F60 car.Felipe Massa was half a second slower than team-mate Raikkonen with a near-identical fuel load and never seemed to fully regain his rhythm after clattering the Swimming Pool barriers in Q1.
For the second consecutive qualifying session, Rubens Barrichello was startled by the way his Brawn team-mate Button found a chunk of extra performance at the crucial moment in Q3.Rubens was convinced he had the upper hand over Jenson here, but wound up 0.175s slower than him with virtually the same fuel load – not a huge margin by any means, but the difference between starting first and starting third in Monaco is hard to overstate.
The man who will be most disappointed by the outcome of qualifying (with the possible exception of Lewis Hamilton) is Vettel.Figuring that the RB5 is not quick enough here to beat the Brawns on merit, Red Bull gave Vettel an extremely light fuel load with the clear target of taking pole and making a break in the race’s opening stint.
The theory was fine, particularly given Vettel’s qualifying prowess this year and the unfailing talent he has shown for delivering right on cue with the minimum of fuss.But the execution went awry when Vettel got caught in traffic and lost time behind a slow-moving Kazuki Nakajima in the final few corners of his hot lap.That’s always the danger at Monaco, and Vettel now finds himself fourth on the grid with much less fuel than the cars around him.For the record, he was 0.37s adrift of Button’s pole time, a deficit which doubles to 0.74s when you adjust for fuel loads and drops him three places from his actual grid berth of fourth.
Nico Rosberg is in a similar boat, albeit to a lesser extent.The Williams driver has been quick all weekend, topped the Q1 times and fancied his chances of challenging for pole with the help of a smidgeon less fuel than the Brawns and Ferraris.In the event, a combination of a slight handling imbalance and traffic problems left him sixth on the grid, 0.6s off pole.The fuel-corrected grid has Button on pole by 0.11s from Raikkonen, with Barrichello 0.16s off in third – and then a big gap to Massa (+0.63s), Rosberg (+0.68s), Heikki Kovalainen (+0.69s) and the two Red Bulls (Vettel +0.74s and Webber +0.77s).
Fernando Alonso is a fuel-adjusted 0.96s shy of pole, a somewhat bigger shortfall than at recent races when you take account for the short lap here, which will be a disappointing sign for Renault.
With its constant acceleration, braking and gear changes, Monaco is one of the hardest circuits on the calendar for fuel consumption, although the short lap distance gives a deceptively modest figure of 1.74kg per lap.All of the top 10 bar Nakajima have clearly opted for two-stop strategies, while those outside the top 10 have either gone for one-stoppers or built in enough flexibility to make a single stop a realistic possibility.But whatever the pre-planned strategies, Monaco requires tactical dexterity and thinking on your feet as the race usually features at least one safety car period.
Vettel only has enough of fuel for about 12 green-flag laps, so faces the unappealing prospect of rejoining after his pit stop in the thick of the midfield traffic.The young German will need a better start than he has managed in the past two races to mitigate the damage, and then will have to hope that the field spreads out sufficiently that he doesn’t lose too many positions at his first stop.
The two Brawns should both be able to reach lap 21, although they are unlikely to stop on the same lap so Button (with fractionally less fuel on board than Barrichello) may take on service on lap 20.
The Ferraris are fuelled slightly shorter, to lap 18 or 19, around the same time as Kovalainen and a lap later than Rosberg.The four teams that got both their cars into the top 10 on the grid – Brawn, Ferrari, Red Bull and Williams – have taken notably different approaches to race strategy.
Brawn and Ferrari have fuelled both cars equally, while Red Bull and Williams have hedged their bets against the possibility of a safety car early in the race.Thus, Vettel is fuelled to lap 12 and Webber to lap 20, while Rosberg can go to lap 18 and Nakajima to lap 33.
Of those outside the top 10, Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella, Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais, the BMWs and the Toyotas look set for one-stop races.Timo Glock’s car weighed in at a hefty 700.8kg, surely absolutely full to the brim – which should take him all the way to lap 52.Throw in a few safety car periods and he could start to contemplate going non-stop were it not for the requirement to use both compounds of Bridgestone tyres...
Car weights including fuel (in kg, by grid order)
1. BUTTON Brawn 647.5
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 644
3. BARRICHELLO Brawn 648
4. VETTEL Red Bull 631.5
5. MASSA Ferrari 643.5
6. ROSBERG Williams 642
7. KOVALAINEN McLaren 644
8. WEBBER Red Bull 646.5
9. ALONSO Renault 654
10. NAKAJIMA Williams 668
11. BUEMI Toro Rosso 670
12. PIQUET Renault 673.1
13. FISICHELLA Force India 693
14. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 699.5
15. SUTIL Force India 670
16. HEIDFELD BMW 680
17. KUBICA BMW 696
18. TRULLI Toyota 688.3
19. GLOCK Toyota 700.8
20. HAMILTON McLaren 645.5
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