27th May 2022, 0:0126th May 2022, 22:09 | Written by Will Wood

In the round-up: Kevin Magnussen believes that the Monaco street circuit will feel even more cramped in the latest generation of Formula 1 cars.

Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free F1’s latest car will make the Monaco Grand Prix circuit feel even smaller than before, says Magnussen.

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F1 cars have been radically overhauled for the 2022 season to encourage closer racing, but have become considerably heavier. Compared to previous generations of Formula 1 cars that were lighter and narrower than the current, Magnussen believes the new cars will be challenged by the tight, slow-speed corners.

“I think it’s going to feel like the track has become smaller,” he said. “Visibility is also worse – a lot of apexes this year, I haven’t seen. So I think it’s going to be more challenging obviously.”

Mick Schumacher says he agrees with Fernando Alonso’s time penalty at the Miami Grand Prix for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

Alonso was hit with a five second time penalty for cutting a chicane and breaking out of DRS range of Schumacher. Alonso and Alpine were originally critical of the decision, but Alonso said he apologised for accusing the stewards of “incompetence” after discussing the incident with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

Asked by RaceFans if he agreed with the penalty, Schumacher said “The stewards decided that, not I, so I think there’s nothing more to say from my side.

“I don’t know if the stewards take [Alonso breaking his DRS] into consideration. If so, I guess that’s right in that case. But from my side, again, I can only control my own race and I can not control what others do.”

Charles Leclerc is confident that Ferrari will be competitive in the Monaco Grand Prix if it rains during Sunday’s race.

Early forecasts predict a 30% risk of rain for Sunday before the start time of the Formula 1 race. Leclerc says he believes Ferrari will be cope better in the wet in 2022 than they would if it had rained using their previous cars.

“I think we’ve shown that we are very competitive also in Imola in the rain, so it’s not like in the past years where I was a bit more sceptical because we never really managed to put those wet tyres in the right window,” Leclerc said.

“This year we seem to find a bit of the right window for those tyres and we seem to be a bit more competitive. So I don’t really mind.”

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Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

🍑🖼 'To Lewis…' ❤️ pic.twitter.com/KZ9hTvWGaQ

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) May 26, 2022

I often miss being at an F1 race track during a weekend, but Monaco is definitely NOT one of the ones I can say that about. So glad that I'm not there #F1

— Mike Caulfield (@MikeCaulfieldF1) May 26, 2022

This is the United States of America… I had always dreamt of moving here. My wife and I are raising our children here. We need to make this a safer place for us, our children and our future generations to come.

— Simon Pagenaud (@simonpagenaud) May 25, 2022

The COMPLETE 2022 #Indy500 Milk Preference Poll

33 drivers. 26 whole milk. 6 for 2%. 1 no pref.

No matter the selection, the Winning Driver, Team Owner & Chief Mechanic will receive ice cold milk from Indiana dairy farmers.

Let the TRADITION continue. #WinnersDrinkMilk @IMS pic.twitter.com/atL63Oa5zr

— Indiana Dairy Assoc. (@INDairy) May 26, 2022

👌SCAR #MonacoGP #Alpine #F1 #Formula1 #F12022 #Ocon #Alonso #Piastri #EO31 #FA14 #OP81 #A522

♬ original sound – Alpine F1 Team

Motor racing links of interest:

McLaren F1 racer Ricciardo on ‘Drive to Survive’ popularity, Verstappen relationship and his new wine brand (Maxim)

"I feel good about the cars in terms of the racing. I feel we’re able to race closer and a there’s a little bit more side-by-side stuff, a little bit more touching. I feel like it’s a bit more intense the racing, which is cool. Obviously personally as a team, we’ve still got unfortunately a bit of work to do. I wish we were obviously fighting for wins already."

Off Grid - Spanish GP (Williams)

"The latest episode of Off Grid features a new pop-up hair salon called 'Albonos', a debut drive for Nyck de Vries and podiums and points for the Academy, all at a swelteringly hot Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya."

Fans Encouraged To Arrive Early, ‘Plan Ahead’ (Indianapolis Motor Speedway)

"With the expected crowd, it’s important for fans to arrive as early as possible with plenty of time to park and patiently make their way in through the gates. The earlier you can arrive, the better. There’s no shortage of things to do at the track, even several hours before the green flag. I hope everyone will treat this like the 100th Running and come out in the early morning hours ready for an epic day."

Episode 110: Jack Doohan (In the Fast Lane podcast)

"Alpine Academy driver Jack Doohan joins hosts Matt Clayton and Michael Lamonato to talk about his breakthrough Formula 2 podium finish in Spain last weekend."

Lego has built a Ferrari with a fully functional gearbox (Stuff)

"Lego Technic has shown off its latest kit, which shrinks the Ferrari Daytona SP3 from 2021 into 1:8 scale and 3778 pieces, including a working eight-speed gearbox."

Rebellion Timepieces unveils special editions inspired by Bottas and Zhou (Sauber Group)

"Rebellion Timepieces, has unveiled two limited edition pieces inspired by the team’s drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, to mark the first Monaco Grand Prix of this partnership. Each model, limited to 50 pieces, incorporates a part of the drivers’ C42 cars and, to remark on the uniqueness of these items, will be presented to new purchasers by the drivers themselves during an exclusive dinner at the Alfa Romeo F1 Team headquarters in Hinwil, Switzerland."

God Of War, Horizon And Gran Turismo TV Shows Are In Development At Netflix And Amazon (Press Start Australia)

"Sony has announced that Horizon Zero Dawn, God Of War and Gran Turismo TV shows are in development. The announcement was made at a Q&A during a Sony Business Briefing for Sony Pictures Entertainment (as detailed by a Resetera user watching the live stream)."

We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.

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Christian Horner claimed that unless Formula 1 agrees to raise this year’s budget cap, some teams would be forced to miss races later this season. However, many other team principals, and @f1frog, aren’t buying Horner’s financial concerns…

Horner’s statement that seven teams might have to miss races due to the budget cap undermines his argument, because that means three teams will be able to stay within it and prove it is perfectly possible to run a Formula 1 team within the budget cap.

I would not like to see teams tactically missing races on a regular basis in seasons to come because it is worth it for the extra car performance at the rest of the tracks for spending money on development, but in this one-off season it would be far fairer to allow that to happen than to bail out the teams that have made the mistake of spending too much money, and thus penalise the teams that have stayed within the rules. @f1frog

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Red Pill (@redpill) 27th May 2022, 1:47

Of course Mags and the other drivers would think that. F1 chassis spec’s have left behind the older city (dare I say upscale village) narrow roads in the dust. The chassis’s are 2m wide, now the same overall length of an entire Ford F-150 pickup (or longer?) and have now become much heavier. They’re literally truck size, trying to whip around Monaco. I’m guessing any opportunities that were once available to pass are no longer as viable. The longer chassis’s make it harder to take sharper radius turns, or trying to fit into open slots and the now heavier cars make it harder to take any opportunity to pass and brake. Then add the shiny new aero package that’s much more stable when hugging the (smooth) ground; with Monaco’s older bumpy city street’s, that will make the aero package way more unstable, hence harder to act on opportunities causing hold back and parades.

So yeah, I can understand his sentiments. I think the car size & weight of the mid 90’s chassis was a much better fit for Monaco but this days are over.

I do hope the race is successful and the winner wins on merit and not because of some silly shunts and yellow flags. Lets keep everyone on the track while still racing hard. I think Saturday is going to be best part of the weekend and Sunday will be a parade or lots of yellows but I hope I’m wrong.

“The chassis’s are 2m wide, now the same overall length of an entire Ford F-150 pickup”

Just to make sure you realize – 2m is the minimum proper width for a racing car. F1 cars were much wider in the 1970-1992, you do know that? They were as wide as 220cm. It’s the length that’s the problem as they are extremely long. With how tall the wheels are these days, the cars would look better being a bit wider.

Width is very much an issue – especially at such a narrow track.

Think about it – if the cars were only 1m wide, how many car widths are there across the track, including racing room? 4? 5? With 2m wide cars, merely having 2 cars side by side is pretty hairy. The wider the track is relative to the cars, the more likely someone will attempt an overtake.

Red Pill (@redpill) 27th May 2022, 18:06

With how tall the wheels are these days, the cars would look better being a bit wider.

Yes, I am aware and it was in the 80’s (correct me if I’m wrong) when the overall chassis length was the shortest (real short) and looked more like Super Karts but I think they only went to 2.18 wide until the 90’s when they went to 1.8m but the weight and diameter of the wheels were significantly lighter and smaller wheels. Also all the wings were much narrower, allowing more room when cars were overlapped in tight settings. It’s not just the wheels. Another comparison to the current F1 length is that F1 cars are currently about 1mm longer than a Chevy Suburban, then add the wider wings and bits on the side, it’s taking quite a bit of sq, meter area footprint compared to the yesteryears.

I remember someone posting on this site saying they wished f1 made the cars even wider than they are now so they would look better with the new wheel size, I’m very much in the opposite camp of that opinion and believe far more in that Form follows Function and good competitive racing should come way first, much before aesthetics. It’s become very apparent that chassis design has out grown almost all the tracks; and the tracks realistically can not be enlarged. Without those tracks, F1 racing is well, not good racing. Go watch the YouTube Monaco races back in the 80’s. F1 made the attempt to improve passing with the aero package but neglected to consider that the increased sq. m. area of the new car and larger tires can have an even greater (negative) impact of racing and passing. Two steps forward, one step back (or three).

Tommy C (@tommy-c) 27th May 2022, 2:05

A gran turismo TV show? Will the first 5 episodes be a newbie practising driving around cones and picking braking points and getting frustrated that he/she/they can’t beat the gold medal time. Episode 6 is then an 8th to win cruise in a Mazda MX-5 where the competition jumped out of the way and the final episode will be a GT car race of some description. At least that’s what I’d invisage based on my experience of the game series! I suspect the Netflix producers will be a touch more imaginative…

Jim from US (@jimfromus) 27th May 2022, 2:25

Time to move on from Monaco or have a smaller spec car for certain circuits.

Shouldn’t the Schumacher headline be: Miami stewards made the call with Alonso penalty, says Schumacher or Schumacher thinks Miami stewards made right call with Alonso penalty.

There were some other articles (and even Social Media blobs) yesterday which were more deserving to be shared in a round-up.

That was a deliberate choice from Racefan editors, hoping to increase activities in the comments section. We always have readers who’d make comments before reading the actual text, but reading only the headline.

@f1frog good COTD. It made me think about the infamous race at Indianapolis in 2005 – Ferrari and the sport got a lot of criticism that day but I don’t recall Bridgestone getting much praise for building tyres that enabled them to get round the track safely. When you think about it, Michelin really dropped the ball, but much of the clamour was for moving the goalposts to allow their cars too race.

If seven teams really have to miss races then I reckon so be it (assuming this includes the big 3, it could have interesting ramifications for the title race). There are far too many races anyway.

F1 frog (@f1frog) 27th May 2022, 17:06

@frood19 thanks, and I agree with you about Indianapolis 2005.

Right call or not: Yes

Ferrari indeed should be competitive should the rain become rain-affected.

I couldn’t care less about getting myself such a photo in a frame.

COTD raises an interesting point & perhaps allowing the suggested move for this season wouldn’t be bad, even if unideal.

Also on this day: The 2012 edition’s 10th anniversary & Webber’s 2nd Monaco GP win.

Euro Brun (@eurobrun) 27th May 2022, 8:48

If you “tactically miss a race”, that’s not force majeure, so they’d arguably be fined for bringing the sport into disrepute. Let’s hope that fine is included in the budget cap!

Chance of a rainy Monaco race? YES!

Ploss (@f1-ploss) 27th May 2022, 18:15

In case anyone didnt know thought Id post this link…24Hr of Nurburgring

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