Motorsport: Monaco a defining race for Webber

Friday motorsport reportMay 25, 2007

Time's right for Australia's F1 driver to deliver
The Monaco Grand Prix is often described as the jewel in Formula 1's crown, and this weekend's running of the famous race on the streets of Monte Carlo may be the most decisive in Australian driver Mark Webber's career.

Success on this narrow, tight, twisty circuit carries greater weight than anywhere else.

And, in the main, the best drivers excel on it.

Ayrton Senna won in Monaco six times. Michael Schumacher five times.

Among the greats only Jim Clark didn't win there, while his contemporary Graham Hill was the Monaco master of that era.

Webber needs things to start going right in his F1 career.

He's now approaching 5½ years in motor racing's top echelon, with only one podium to show for himself.

That was in Monte Carlo two years ago, in his first season with the Williams team -- and may have had a big hand in him still being in the sport.

A year ago he started on the front row, again in a Williams and after Michael Schumacher was penalised for his outrageous blocking of the track in qualifying.

But last year's Monaco GP turned sour for Webber when his Williams failed as he was on course for another podium.

Memories of him angrily tossing his detachable steering wheel back into the cockpit as he saw his hopes shot remain vivid.

It was probably the moment that broke his spirit at Williams, a once-great team he had joined with hopes of winning GPs but which ultimately yielded little other than a catalogue of mechanical failures.

It was Monaco in 2001, when he won the Formula 3000 race the day before the GP, that probably did more than anything to show the powerbrokers in F1 that he had what it takes to be an F1 driver.

Even then, not everyone was convinced. But, crucially, he gained the support of the ultimate F1 powerbroker, Bernie Ecclestone, for whom it was perhaps pragmatic to have an Aussie in the big league of open-wheeler racing again.

Six years on Webber may have more doubters than he did when he broke into F1.

The Australian public is cynical about him, because most of what it hears of him is yet another failure to finish.

Most of these retirements are from mechanical failures.

As we highlighted here early in the year, Webber has been ranked -- in a survey by F1 Racing magazine -- in the top 50 fastest F1 drivers of all time.

He is undoubtedly quick, although we concede there may be cause to doubt the standard of his racecraft -- certainly in comparison with a Michael Schumacher or Fernando Alonso.

But, given the right equipment, we believe Webber can be a more than serviceable GP driver.

Indications are that Red Bull Racing's RB3 car has improved a lot since the start of the season, although there are still some worries about its transmission.

It was that that crippled Webber in Spain two weeks ago, and his teammate David Coulthard was missing a gear even though he made it to the chequered flag for Red Bull's first points of the season.

Veteran Coulthard has driven exceptionally well in the past two GPs, while Webber has been the pacesetter among them in qualifying this year -- until Spain.

Now is the time for Webber to deliver, in qualifying and the race -- if his car will allow him.

First practice for the Monaco GP is always on the Thursday, because the Friday is a public holiday in the principality, and Webber was quicker than Coulthard in both sessions overnight.

However, the day was not without incident for the Aussie, but the signs are good.

"We had a hydraulic problem in the second practice session, but when we're on the track we're going pretty well," Webber says.

"But we're not always able to run for as long as we'd like.

"In the morning I touched the barrier at Sainte Devote, which seems to be proving quite a tricky corner for most people.

"I was lucky to get away with just a damaged rim.

"The rest of the car was okay, but the guys changed the gearbox as a precaution.

"I'll be here with the guys Friday, but, to be honest, I wish it was Saturday tomorrow, as I'm looking forward to qualifying."

Peter Windsor, the esteemed F1 commentator (GP editor of F1 Racing and the questioner we hear at the post-race interviews on the Channel 10 telecasts), is a serious student of driving styles and rates Webber highly.

Of Webber's season to date with Red Bull, and in stark contrast to the Australian public's perception, Windsor says: "I think he's done a great job.

"He has arrived and has instantly gone quicker than DC -- and not too many people could do that.

"If Webber has a completely trouble-free run in Monaco then for sure he will finish top four."

Based on the season's form to date, GP podiums are likely to be a Ferrari and McLaren duopoly most of the time this year.

But, if Webber, finishes anywhere in the top five on Sunday night, our time, his career might just get the kick along it needs.

He's now in a three-cornered contest with Coulthard and Scuderia Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi for Red Bull's two drives next year, while sister team Toro Rosso is seemingly lining up Champ Car triple champion Sebastien Bourdais and Bruno Senna, Ayrton's nephew, for 2008.

The time has arrived for Webber to deliver big-time.

Let's hope he can.

Monaco maketh the greats
It is 20 years this weekend since Ayrton Senna first won in Monaco. He then had five successive victories from 1989 to 1993.

Four drivers in this year's field have won in the principality -- David Coulthard for McLaren-Mercedes in 2000 and 2002, Jarno Trulli for Renault in 2004, Kimi Raikkonen for McLaren-Mercedes in 2005, and Fernando Alonso for Renault last year.

Monaco is the only circuit in the F1 world championship that has not seen a Ferrari winner in the past five years.

The red team's last win in Monaco was in 2001, courtesy of with Michael Schumacher.

Ferrari have had eight Monaco victories compared with McLaren's 13.

If McLaren wins on Sunday it will be its 150th GP victory. Ferrari has won 195 GPs, Williams 113 and Renault 33.

Qualifying is especially important on the tight streets, but only four of the past 10 Monaco GPs have been won by the driver on pole position. However, the last three victories have all gone with pole, and eight out of 10 have been won by a driver starting on the front row.

McLaren rookie Lewis Hamilton has led all four GPs he has started and been on the podium at all of them, is youngest leader of the F1 world championship in its 57-year history, but has not yet won a GP -- although the expectations are high for this weekend.

The last driver to win a GP in his F1 debut season was Juan Pablo Montoya -- in 2001, at Monza in Italy with Williams.

A rookie driver has never won in Monaco.

Hamilton has never lost around the Monte Carlo streets, in Formula 3 and GP2, but the opposition will be a lot tougher this time.

GP2 comes to Asia; KO blow for A1?
The GP2 series, which provides the main support races to GPs in Europe, is to expand to Asia next year with a new championship between January and April.

And that could mean a race at the Australian GP in Melbourne.

"Our inclusion as the support races on the program of Asian GPs in 2008 is an essential key in this new venture," says series organiser Bruno Michel, a lieutenant of Flavio Briatore.

Asia next year will have GPs in China, Japan (perhaps two, with a mooted return of Suzuka), Malaysia, the new street -- and night -- race in Singapore, with South Korea to join the calendar in 2010, while India is also chasing a GP.

The birth of the GP2 Asia series could be a big blow to the two-season-old A1 GP series.

The GP2 Asia Series will be part of a package called Grand Racing that will include a new Speedcar Series with 24 identical 650bhp stock cars -- like NASCAR.

Jean Alesi is already committed to the Speedcar Series, with Johnny Herbert and Stefan Johansson also tipped.

Lewis Hamilton won last year's GP2 title in Europe, while Williams driver Nico Rosberg was the category's first champion in 2005.

Others to have graduated to F1 from GP2 are Renault's Heikki Kovalainen and American Scott Speed.

Michel says the GP2 Asia series "will give gifted drivers from the region greater opportunity to aim for F1 seats".

The rival Indy Racing League is now using 100 per cent ethanol -- a clean-burning, non-toxic and bio-degradable fuel developed from corn -- but Forysthe says: "I don't know why people are talking about E10 or E55, or even E100 -- none of that is on the market.

"E85 is what's going to be on the market. That's what's going to be promoted and I think that's what Champ Car should be going to.

"It smells good and it's more pleasant than gasoline or methanol and it's going to be the most heavily marketed alternative fuel for quite a few years to come."

The main one is Sydneysider Ryan Briscoe starting from seventh position, on the third row.

Briscoe will be directly behind Brisbane-born New Zealander Scott Dixon.

And popular Brazilian and almost de facto Aussie Roberto Moreno is on the last (11th) row of the grid in the 33-car field after a late call-up.

Moreno is best known to Australians as the winner of three GPs at Melbourne's Calder Park in the years immediately before Australia's GP became a round of the F1 world championship.

Also back in action in the US this weekend is dual V8 Supercar champion Marcos Ambrose in NASCAR's Busch Series at Charlotte.

Ambrose is just 15 points out of the top 10 in the series, which now doesn't have a weekend off until mid-September.

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