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[Denthúl]

Everybody has forgotten Toyota already One bad weekend and everybody writes them off.

Personally I see things like this. Monaco is a stop and go circuit. Bahrain is quite a similar circuit in those terms. Stop and go, with very few fast corners. Toyota were the fastest team at Bahrain, bar their poor tyre strategy. So again I expect Toyota to shine through. But they'll have a tough fight with Brawn. I don't see Red Bull being as strong this weekend. They may go aggressive, but we'll see. Not mention Williams, always one to excel at this circuit. It'll be one interesting weekend.

I'd be interested in seeing Sutil's performance at Monaco. He might be able to get close to the points, although I think it might take some rain for him to get any.

At the very least he'll finish ahead of Piquet and Crashajima.

Did you realise that Crashajima is at the bottom of the WDC standings? Piquet is three places ahead of him. Hell, even Kubica is behind Piquet!

[Hanwombat]

Everybody has forgotten Toyota already One bad weekend and everybody writes them off.

Personally I see things like this. Monaco is a stop and go circuit. Bahrain is quite a similar circuit in those terms. Stop and go, with very few fast corners. Toyota were the fastest team at Bahrain, bar their poor tyre strategy. So again I expect Toyota to shine through. But they'll have a tough fight with Brawn. I don't see Red Bull being as strong this weekend. They may go aggressive, but we'll see. Not mention Williams, always one to excel at this circuit. It'll be one interesting weekend.

I'd be interested in seeing Sutil's performance at Monaco. He might be able to get close to the points, although I think it might take some rain for him to get any.

At the very least he'll finish ahead of Piquet and Crashajima.

Did you realise that Crashajima is at the bottom of the WDC standings? Piquet is three places ahead of him. Hell, even Kubica is behind Piquet!

go Piquet!!

[cap-dude]

I'm writing Toyota off on the basis that I believe their pace in Bahrain was down to them being the only ones of the top teams to have tested there in the winter. Also, Spain denoted the first round of the all important development race and saw Toyota slip back. This is to be expected as Toyota do not have a good record of developing a car over the course of a season. Personally, I think they got lucky over winter and hit on a couple of concepts that have worked very well and put them amongst the leaders initially while Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and BMW were somewhat wrong-footed. I Expect Toyota to gradually slip back over the course of the season.

I wouldn't say so. Their pace was genuine at Maylaysia, and we seen they had the pace as Australia. Truili finished on the podium from pit lane, and their quali times were at the front when you remove the fuel loads. I personally think Toyota just a hit a rough patch at Spain. So I think Bahrain was pretty genuine. I mean, look at BMW in comparison who tested at Bahrain.

I think someone mentioned before. Red Bull are a team ready to win races, but not championships. I think the same can be said more so for Toyota. They could drop back, but they held up development pretty well last year.

[Gilles 27]

The amount they spent least year, I would hope so! It amazes me that Toyota have been spending as much as Ferrari and McLaren for the last few years and haven't managed to get out of the midfield! This season might be the one for them though but I'm still saying not

[scotty]

Everybody has forgotten Toyota already One bad weekend and everybody writes them off.

Personally I see things like this. Monaco is a stop and go circuit. Bahrain is quite a similar circuit in those terms. Stop and go, with very few fast corners. Toyota were the fastest team at Bahrain, bar their poor tyre strategy. So again I expect Toyota to shine through. But they'll have a tough fight with Brawn. I don't see Red Bull being as strong this weekend. They may go aggressive, but we'll see. Not mention Williams, always one to excel at this circuit. It'll be one interesting weekend.

I'd be interested in seeing Sutil's performance at Monaco. He might be able to get close to the points, although I think it might take some rain for him to get any.

I heard the Force India has been one of the quickest cars through the speed traps this year, but that's only because it's no good at generating downforce...

The amount they spent least year, I would hope so! It amazes me that Toyota have been spending as much as Ferrari and McLaren for the last few years and haven't managed to get out of the midfield! This season might be the one for them though but I'm still saying not

Difference is, before this year the cars were already very much developed to the potential the regulations would allow, so it was much harder to get out of the midfield (or indeed make any decent progress in one fell swoop).

[cap-dude]

^^That makes BMW's progress sound a hell of a lot more impressive doesn't it. They did make it out of the mid-feild and snatched a win. But this year, where has it all gone for BMW. They pulled out of the development race in 2008 very early, and still haven't made an impact.

[Gilles 27]

That's got to be the most galling thing of all really. Morale must be really low at BMW, they are the one's who really wanted KERS and theirs isn't really working out, they have made the biggest revisions so far to their Melbourne spec car out of all the teams and still aren't getting anywhere. All this from a team which gave up on a possible (although unlikely) title bid early on last year in order to focus on this year.

[Hexagram]

^^That makes BMW's progress sound a hell of a lot more impressive doesn't it. They did make it out of the mid-feild and snatched a win. But this year, where has it all gone for BMW. They pulled out of the development race in 2008 very early, and still haven't made an impact.

Renault's progress throughout 2008 impressed me the most, 2 wins was more than I had ever imagined and Renault's budget is one of the smallest.

[Gilles 27]

There was the big old Alonso factor going on there though. He was a beast last season!

[Hexagram]

There was the big old Alonso factor going on there though. He was a beast last season!

[bud]

^^That makes BMW's progress sound a hell of a lot more impressive doesn't it. They did make it out of the mid-feild and snatched a win. But this year, where has it all gone for BMW. They pulled out of the development race in 2008 very early, and still haven't made an impact.

Renault's progress throughout 2008 impressed me the most, 2 wins was more than I had ever imagined and Renault's budget is one of the smallest.

I would say lucky wins, they never outpaced McLaren or Ferrari. But your right they did make alot of progress and leap frog BMW into the best of the rest slot.

[scotty]

Massa: Monaco can be turning point

By Michele Lostia and Pablo Elizalde Tuesday, May 19th 2009, 08:55 GMT

Felipe Massa is adamant that this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix could be the turning point for his Ferrari team following its poor start to the season.

The Italian squad has scored just six points in the first five races and Massa conceded after the Spanish Grand Prix that his championship hopes were already gone.

Massa is 38 points behind championship leader Jenson Button, while Ferrari is 62 behind Brawn.

The Maranello-based squad, however, showed better form at Barcelona thanks to the introduction of a new upgrade package, and Massa reckons Monaco could be the race where Ferrari begins to recover.

"I really think that the Monte Carlo race can be the turning point in our season," Massa told Gazzetta dello Sport. "We'll have new things in our aerodynamic package.

"We come from a start of the season that we didn't expect, however we've improved a lot, especially in the last race at Montmelo we saw some steps forward. For all these reasons I believe in the first podium of the season, and also in our recovery."

He added: "I'm here, I fight and push with the whole team to make things improve race by race. The time for a comeback always comes, and I'm certain it will. Today more than ever."

Massa admitted that, despite the lack of results, he has been happy with his driving.

"As far as my driving is concerned, I think it's positive: for many races I was always there, among the top five, before problems came up, and it even happened that I couldn't finish the race. During this time we've worked on aerodynamics and on other areas of the F60.

"The Spanish Grand Prix left me with good feelings, it was a different race from the others. I believe in the team, so I still count on a comeback on our part, both in the constructors' and in the drivers' championship."

Well, it's very possible, Massa was very quick in Barcelona (especially in qualifying) so if these other updates continue to improve their car they could be right in the mix. Speed isn't their main problem at the moment though...

[Robert182]

im thinking vettel and hamilton will come good here seems massa is up for a fight so will be good to see what he does

[Denthúl]

^^That makes BMW's progress sound a hell of a lot more impressive doesn't it. They did make it out of the mid-feild and snatched a win. But this year, where has it all gone for BMW. They pulled out of the development race in 2008 very early, and still haven't made an impact.

Renault's progress throughout 2008 impressed me the most, 2 wins was more than I had ever imagined and Renault's budget is one of the smallest.

I would say lucky wins, they never outpaced McLaren or Ferrari. But your right they did make alot of progress and leap frog BMW into the best of the rest slot.

I disagree. In Singapore, Alonso was quicker than the Ferrari and McLaren cars - had he not been stuck in Q2 thanks to that car issue, he probably would've taken pole. In Japan, he was fast and he played the race intelligently. Whilst there was a luck factor involved at Fuji, it was no more so than Hamilton's luck at Monaco.

[Gilles 27]

Agreed Denthul, Alonso had the pace in Singapore, matched only by Massa and Rosberg imo. Fuji was more fortunate but he still had the work to do on the track with Kubica and Raikkonen behind him