Will Monaco Pass The Test?

With a DRS zone of only 300 metres, speculation about extra passing opportunities is is coming from all over. Will this years tyre compounds increase overtaking at a track renowned for its lack of overtaking options? Lewis Hamilton says, Yes!

Lewis outlined his thoughts on overtaking at Monaco for Autosport.com;

"I'm really looking forward to Monaco this year because I think we'll see a different race from previous years. I think a combination of DRS, KERS hybrid and the tyres will really make the racing come alive, and I'd love to see some overtaking action and some hard racing this year," said Hamilton.

"I think the DRS zone at Monaco is only around 300 metres, so it's pretty short, and not really long enough to enable us to really get enough of a launch on the car ahead.

"I think the aerodynamics will only really start working properly once we've reached the braking zone for Ste Devote, so I don't think we'll see too many DRS-assisted overtaking moves next weekend.

"However, I think the tyres will probably give us the greatest scope for excitement and the best chance of passing."

"While I don't think the super-soft and soft compounds will be as critical around Monaco as they were at a place like Turkey, I still think the drop-off we encounter as the tyres go off should create opportunities for overtaking," he said.

"And I don't think the marbles will be as bad as people fear, because they tend to occur at the exits of high-speed corners, and Monaco is generally quite a low-speed track, so I don't think we'll see the build-up that we saw at somewhere like Turkey's Turn 8, for example."