FIA F2 Round three Monaco

[skells22]

next weekend the F2 cars try not to play block the street track as it the big one for them next weekend, The Monte Carlo round

Therefore its also time to have two groups of ten to deicde the Front row on Next Thursday and please keep this in mind the feature race as per normal is Next Friday with the shorter race Next Saturday

[Juntos]

Pole position for Leclerc. But he wasn't penalized as expected. There is nothing as sharp as a woman's tongue or being managed by the son of a FIA president.

[Razzzor]

That was impressive from Leclerc! Another 3-4 laps and he would have had enough to pit and retain the lead over Albon/Ghiotto. He was almost second faster than everyone else.

Unfortunately for him the SC ruined that, then picked him up instead of the actual leader, another big blunder from race control after last years embarrassment in gifting Markelov a win.

I was looking forward to the laps CL was going to set in his comeback after that 2nd stop, probably would have got into the 1m 20s. Not to be though with the breakdown.

Rowland finally gets that first win, even if it was handed to him as CL and Albon were much faster. Markelov seemed a bit faster too for that matter.

Fuoco, gosh. It's almost at a point where they need to consider replacing him. Sorry Fuoco I thought you'd be better than this. CL was out front doing 1m 21.4's and 5's, Fuoco wasn't even keeping up with cars in front of him doing high 23's and 24's. Until King's tyres went off with 5 laps to go, Fuoco had drifted 3secs behind Canamassas/King/Cecotto in 12th. He then caught up with a few King slow laps, but by the end started to drift away again. Prema have CL for the drivers title, do they need Fuoco to lose them the constructors, or would they be better off drafting back a good solid driver like Marciello, Giovanazzi, Lynn, Sirotkin, Pic? Obviously Fuoco isn't going to contend for the title but at this rate he won't even contend for a win.

Deletraz another shocker as well, in a car that shouldn't be where it is. I wonder if he'll find some pace soon.

Albon drive of the race after Leclerc. He might be kicking himself in hindsight for pitting so early. He was in the boxseat for taking over after CL retired and was actually keeping up with him in the early stages.

[chunterer]

You really don't like Rowland do you Razzor lol.

The lad's a class driver. He's learned to temper his natually aggressive style to help with tyre life. I suspect he knows that Prema have a speed advantage at this point so is playing the long game.

If it ends up being a straight fight betw him and Leclerc for the title that will be great value for us all. They are probably the 2 best drivers in it anyway.

[Razzzor]

No I'm not a fan, haha. There's usually someone I don't like in every field. Don't you guys have the odd driver you don't like? I guess people do, with the amount of boos Vettel used to get.

I went against Rowland because of the amount of hype he was getting a couple of years ago, so much that Status replaced Stanaway for those last 3 races of 2015. Despite Stanaway having 2 wins in 2015 and probably being in the top 5 in performance. Maybe even top 3, when you look at his results vs his teammate Stockinger who never got close. But nope, Rowland has the money so goodbye Stanaway your single seater career is now over and forgotten about.

Rowland ends up slow in the last 3 races, gives Status their worst qualy performance of the year and has a silly wreck, getting beaten by Stockinger in every race. That probably killed his chance right there of getting a better drive for 2016, and for some drivers would have been it for Gp2.

BUT he won that years 3.5 series (in his 2nd year though), but it wasn't the strongest of fields that year when you look back it. No one in that field is going on to bigger things. Dillman to FE and De Vries now winning a race is about it for that 2015 field, unless Orudzhev suddenly finds some magic.
I guess that's where Rowland got all the hype though.

Then last year he was a very good in Gp2, but it's the way he'd just drive other cars off track that I didn't like. Even commentators wouldn't call him out on it. Sure, Senna, Schumacher, Verstappen will do the same. But still he is one of the fastest drivers in the field. I just feel he could be slightly overrated.

Did you notice he had no speed in Monaco race 2, even getting passed by King who had been so slow in race 1 and finishing 15 secs behind him. That was a bit of a surprise. Wonder if he had something wrong with the car.

Anyway, good to see De Vries get that win. I've never been a De Vries fan either (that goes back to his domination of Cassidy as teammates in F3) but he is a fast driver too and probably had some bad luck and mistakes last year ended up having Leclerc and Albon outshine him. It's easier to back an underdog which is what he's now become.

Other notes of Monaco, Deletraz poor again while Malja is on the podium. Sure he started at the back, but apart from Canamassas crashing at the end, Dele finished last and not even close to Visoiu. Must have some serious issues with setup or brakes. Perhaps he can't drive to the tyres yet since he came from 3.5. In fact, Deletraz replaced Rowland at 3.5's Fortec and came just 7 points shy of taking the title against most of the same drivers (but it was his rookie season). You could say he almost did just as well as Rowland from that perspective. And look at the performance he's now having in F2.

Leclerc just giving up in the end, whats with that?

Markelov showing great speed. He might have charged to the front if this were anywhere other than Monaco. Ghiotto was ahead of still, but he's making Ghiotto look not that sh-t hot anymore. I thought Ghiotto would have been a star this year behind the Prema's, but not so far.

[peebee2]

The idea that Rowland was favoured or has had an easy time is laughable.

You should be more positive that a poor team gave Stanaway yet another career lifeline until they could find a driver with some budget.

De Vries has never even done F3.

Malja is consistent enough to finish in the lower reaches of the top eight and so get himself a decent sprint race grid slot, but not a good enough racer to stay there - except at Monaco where passing is near impossible.

Deletraz, assuming you are serious, I don't know anyone who seriously expected any performance other than financial from him...

[Razzzor]

Originally Posted by peebee2

The idea that Rowland was favoured or has had an easy time is laughable.

Who said he's had an easy time? He drove for Status, then MP Motorsport. Not exactly top teams. Though he's with a top team now.

Originally Posted by peebee2

You should be more positive that a poor team gave Stanaway yet another career lifeline until they could find a driver with some budget.

Stanaway well and truly showed he deserved the drive. Obviously someone at Status saw he had talent.

Originally Posted by peebee2

De Vries has never even done F3.

The lower formula series where he and Cassidy were team mates is what was relevant, not the series. And it's probably the least most important point out of my post. You can just look it up on Wikipedia if you weren't sure what series it was and really had know (Eurocup 2.0).

Originally Posted by peebee2

Deletraz, assuming you are serious, I don't know anyone who seriously expected any performance other than financial from him...

Don't know what budget he brings (sounds like you do?) and I don't watch much of WSR so I didn't see his actual performances last year.

But going by his previous seasons he won the NEC in 2015 (after being 2nd in 2014), narrowly missed out on 2.0 the same year finishing 2nd. If he'd won both that same year that would have been quite an achievement.

Then like I said replaced Rowland in the main series and finished 2nd in 2016. He was actually leading the points until the final race. This against mostly year 2 drivers, except Dillman the champ who has about 10 years car racing experience on all those guys that year and should have creamed them.

Deletraz left Fittipaldi his team mate a long way behind.

So yes I am actually serious when I expected him to not be consistently last for a team that's regularly contested for wins the last few seasons. I'm not expecting him to be winning regularly, but he's one of those in the field standing out as under performing hence something to discuss.

[10TENTHS]

Rowland lost his RSF backing and it seems like Renault aren't interested in giving him an F1 seat... not sure where you got the impression he had it easy?

He's got a better record than some drivers currently in F1, and much of the F2 grid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver...Career_summary

Unsurprisingly enough he is second only to Leclerc in the standings right now.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by 10TENTHS

Rowland lost his RSF backing and it seems like Renault aren't interested in giving him an F1 seat... not sure where you got the impression he had it easy?

He's got a better record than some drivers currently in F1, and much of the F2 grid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver...Career_summary

Unsurprisingly enough he is second only to Leclerc in the standings right now.

He's still on Renault's books but probably behind the well backed Sirotkin and Latifi, both of whom are quite inferior talents to him.