This week's Grapevine brings you information fresh from the paddock on: Midfield Watching for Renault Bridgestone Marching Ahead

Midfield Watching for Renault

Heading to Monaco, most of the teams have a fair idea of what to expect for themselves, and looking back on Olivier Panis's surprise win for Ligier, know that this is the one place where fortune can bring in Championship points, podiums, even wins, and really make their year.

Last year, Eddie Irvine surprised himself as much as the rest of the paddock by finishing third in a Jaguar that rarely looked useful on the circuit. This year, with the car in arguably worse shape, the team hold out little hope of repeating the feat, but even they are hoping to see points again.

Looking at the grid from Jordan's perspective, this is going to be a very interesting event. This year, Jordan have struggled on power, despite turning out a chassis that the rest of the grid sees as well balanced and pretty efficient. The team themselves are claiming that they are lacking downforce, and attempting to maximise it makes the car twitchy and more difficult to drive - not exactly a characteristic to relish at Monaco. However, they are looking forward to Bridgestone's new tyres, and are looking to put on a better show.

Whilst analysing their chances, Jordan have simulated the performance of the other teams, and arrived at some interesting predictions. They expect qualifying to be a Ferrari dominated event, with Williams the only team to really show a challenge, if anyone can get near. However, behind that, the cat is really amongst the pigeons - things are going to be very exciting between McLaren, Sauber and Renault, with performances too tight to call between them - although Jenson Button's form is considered key to whether Renault can pull off fifth on the grid.

Sauber too, apparently, rate Renault's chances here, although they believe Jarno Trulli is the pivotal man. Button's form at the Principality has not matched that of his more experienced teammates for the last couple of years, although he is still expected to be a threat - but one that Nick Heidfeld at least is expected to match. Felipe Massa is a huge unknown, even to Sauber; he'll either excel, or drop the car in the barriers! If Trulli gets himself organised, however, and settles in to the form he showed at Jordan, then his experience at the circuit could make all the difference between fifth and tenth for Renault.

Arrows are rather unfancied by all except themselves; they also have designs on a top eight qualifying session, hoping that Frentzen might be able to pull off something special, but they don't really rate Sauber here. They see their challenge as getting into Renault and McLaren for fifth to eighth places, with Jordan and BAR about as likely to spoil the party. Honda has been down on power this year, and Arrows think both teams may be in a position to hide their weak spot.

As always, qualifying is seen as the critical component of the weekend - the further up the grid a driver starts, the fewer drivers ahead need to suffer misfortune in order to bring home the points, since no team's simulations managed to predict a pass in the race...

Bridgestone Marching Ahead

There's a lot of noise coming from the Bridgestone camp about the tyres they are taking to Monaco this year: they are, after all, designed especially for the circuit, and promise to offer Ferrari, at least, a solid basis from which to work.

The nature of the circuit offers tyre manufacturers a chance to roll out their softest rubber, as maximising mechanical grip is key to success. despite the teams crowding on all the downforce they can muster, this circuit offers the smallest aerodynamic contribution to grip of the year. Fortunately, the relatively slow speeds and straightforward street surface also offer low wear rates, giving the tyre manufacturers a chance to soften their compounds and showcase their highest grip tyres.

Or, putting it another way, this circuit, of them all, is where tyres make the biggest difference, so getting good results here is a key target of the manufacturers.

Bridgestone are making a big deal of publicising their new tyres ahead of this race, as they believe they have stolen a march on Michelin.

According to Bridgestone's "spies" - every shared test, of course, is filled with information on the competition - the French manufacturer has been working on coming back at Bridgestone for this event. They estimate Michelin have prepared a new construction and two new compounds, focussing on Williams's requirements and based on their historical data (which, ironically, includes some derived whilst working with Bridgestone). Over a full lap, the prime tyre should offer a clear second advantage compared to last year's offering, with the option showing much the same outright performance, but with a different wear profile.

As it happens, Bridgestone have also been working hard on their own Monaco project, but covering more bases. The event carries a reasonable chance of showers, if not outright rain, so the latest incarnation of intermediate tyre is being made available to the teams - stretching the already noticeable gap to Michelin's equivalent.

As for their prime and option dry tyres, compared against last year, Bridgestone do not believe they have made the same strides as Michelin - they put their advantage at something under a second. However, considering they held a half second advantage last year and are working better with Ferrari than ever, there seems to be considerable marketing capital to gain from this event.

You would have thought that telling the world that they have been making an effort for Monaco would put Bridgestone's image into a poor light, if they fail to bring home pole and the race win over the weekend. However, returning to the unique nature of the circuit, there is always room to manoeuvre: even Schumacher has had bad days here, so in the unlikely event of a disaster at Ferrari, there is going to be a good reason for the dominant cars to fall short of the mark.

In tough times, Bridgestone's marketing people certainly aren't going to pass up a free play like this one!