The Monaco Grand Prix always represents a special challenge for the Formula One teams. The tight streets and the slippery roads are just a few of the difficulties they face when setting up their cars. Craig Scarborough reviews the cars and their performance in the sixth round of the 2002 season

Again we come away from Monaco with a weekend that turned the formbook on its head. Monaco is very much a one-off race on the calendar and although Hungary shares some of its set-up requirements, it was the everyday road surface that distanced the weekend from all others.

The weekend revolved around the slippery road surface, and the tyres provided the vital link between car and the tarmac. The track was initially slippery in a cooler Thursday morning session, but then, as the cars laid more rubber down and the temperature climbed, more grip could be found on the track. Surprisingly, there was little in the way of major developments, Renault and Toyota providing the two most obvious improvements, with several teams having subtle revisions to the cars, beyond the expected Monaco changes such as steeper wings and larger cooling outlets.

In the race there was probably one key factor beyond all the aerodynamic, suspension and even tyre performance: 'Launch Control'. At the start of the race, with the normal racing line running down the middle of the road no matter what side of the grid the driver started, he would have a partly dirty line to cope with. So every driver had an equal advantage, but when the lights went out on Sunday it was David Coulthard and the TAG electronics on his McLaren that were able to get the better start and David had the race won as he lead clearly into St Devote for the first time.

Juan Pablo Montoya equally had a good start, the Williams moving off the line simultaneously with Coulthard, but the Williams struggled briefly as he changed from first to second gears, whether the dirty road induced the electronics to cut in or the BMW engine bogged down as the revs dropped is not known, but the smoother progression of the McLaren simply did the job better on the day.

The surrounding cars largely had equally good starts, except Rubens Barrichello, who was beaten by two cars into the first corner. The other poor starter was Jenson Button, whose Renault crept on the clutch during the red light sequence. Jenson lifted off the throttle, upset the Launch Control software, and he had to wait until the grid had cleared before he could start properly. Jacques Villeneuve was the third driver to suffer at the start when the BAR-Honda's infamous clutch once again proved to be problematic, leaving Jacques stalled and almost a lap down by the time he cleared the grid.

Tyres

So if the race was a clear question of getting off the line properly, running reliably, and keeping clear of the walls, then the event was largely decided in the practice sessions and, as usual, in qualifying. From the first running on Thursday it was clear that Michelin tyres were producing the best grip and ridding the cars of the dreaded understeer.

Thursday's first session left the Ferraris well ahead of the field but thereafter the Bridgestone shod Ferraris were never able to compete with their rivals on Michelins. The French marque opted for a pair of very soft compound tyres to provide grip at the expense of longevity. The Michelin runners adopted a strategy of "qualifying is all" and only after Saturday's qualifying session pondered strategy for the race.

Bridgestone struggled quite a lot at Monaco, the harder front tyres graining as power understeer scrubbed the rubber across the track surface in the slower corners. From the onboard camera even with the neat driving of Barrichello, the Ferrari could be seen pushing its tyres sideways as it accelerated out of the Grand Hotel hairpin. Bridgestone runners adopted the more usual Michelin strategy of running scrubbed front tyres to reduce graining. Michelin runners were doing the opposite finding fresh tyres were the way to go for qualifying.

For the race most teams adopted worn front tyres and new rears, the new rear tyres providing an estimated extra 15 metres advantage from a standing start over used tyres. The scrubbed front tyres avoided the graining and associated drop off in performance, while the grooves wear down off new tyres.

Pit strategy was quite simple: one stop was the best way to go and run a longer first stint as possible. However, many teams made earlier stops than planned to gain track position; Ferrari pulled Schumacher in early as he could run faster than the cars he was following even with a heavier fuel load. McLaren, who saw the diminishing gap, brought David in earlier than planned to eclipse this strategy.

Downforce

Monaco presents one of the toughest aerodynamic challenges for the teams. It is not that it requires the ultimate efficiency that all the teams strive to design into their cars, but the maximum downforce possible from the package. F1 cars produce downforce from three key areas on the car: the front wing, the rear wing and the underbody\diffuser. The latter item is compromised in Monaco as the bumps on the road force the teams to run the car higher off the ground and this reduces the ground effect the diffuser uses to add a large proportion of the rear downforce. This leaves the wings to create the extra downforce. The front wing is also further from the ground and I described in the Austria technical review this lessens its effectiveness. The teams were limited by the rules in the number of elements (profiles) they can have on the wings. The front is limited to three and the rear is limited to four, one of which is universally used in a lower positions doubling up as a beam to mount the wing assembly to the gearbox.

Hence the main way to increase the downforce the wing produces is to angle (camber) it more steeply to the airflow: the steeper the angle of the wing, the more force it generates. This also increases drag, making the wing less efficient. The force increases to a point where the airflow under the wing (blue) starts to detach from the wings surface, this creates a turbulent bubble of air between the main airflow and the wing itself (yellow), this is known as separation. Separation causes yet more drag and creates dirty air behind the wing.

There are a few cures for separation, if the wing is in a cleaner airflow separation, it will occur at higher wing angles, while the front wing has an unobstructed airflow, the flow to the rear wing being interrupted by other parts of the car. A real cure for separation is to introduce a jet of fast moving air ahead of where the separation will occur. This is usually accomplished by splitting the wing profile into two smaller profiles, the slot created between the two profiles injects an energetic flow from above the wing (green) through the slot to fill in the bubble. This is why teams use two profile wings instead of one larger profile. Some teams, notably Ferrari and McLaren, have three profile wings. McLaren in particular have a wing that has the longest chord (length from leading to trailing edge) which needs the extra slot gap to reduce separation. Where there is a limit to the number of elements the teams can add to the wing. The main option they adopt is to use larger slot gaps and alter the overlap between the two profiles. In development, the teams create a map of the downforce the wing creates as the wing's angle increases and the slot gaps required to support that angle. This is done either in the wind tunnel or increasingly with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), a computer simulation tool that recreates airflow around objects.

The other option to reduce separation is to introduce another aerofoil ahead of the wing to alter the shape of the airflow to the wing. The Bi-plane rear wing arrangement is a version of this: the third wing element is mounted above and ahead of the wing, this at a shallower angle than the main wing, reducing separation on trailing surface of the main flap, which in turn increases the flow through the slot.

Toyota this year - and many teams last year - placed an extra aerofoil low and ahead of the rear wing. These so called 'shelf' wings can be placed in this area via a loophole in the bodywork regulation and do not count as a profile of the rear wing. Shelf wings are not designed to be an extra wing, but to act as a spoiler in the airflow and reduce separation under the main wing.

Renault adopted a design utilised by Jordan last year where the rear element of the rear wing has a three dimensional profile. The Renault wing, when viewed from above, forms a trailing "V" shape. The outer parts of the rear wing are placed in clearer air than the centre section, whose airflow is interrupted by the airbox and rollover bar. Renault make use of this and the outer edges of the wing have a steeper angle of attack, as the cleaner air lessens the onset of separation.

Team by Team

McLaren

While the McLaren has yet to see a larger aero step this year, there was some subtle differences to the floor of the car. The outer channels in the diffuser appeared squarer and featured less of a gurney strip running along their width, also the omega shape of the centre tunnel was slightly revised.

This small change and the form discovered in Monaco are necessarily evidence of a McLaren revival, the tight and low track was always going to equal car performance and this track is one of Coulthard's specialities. That said, it is fair to say the team made the most of their package and the tyres and provided a reliable car to bring David home in first.

Throughout the weekend David was careful to eradicate understeer from the car, changing the set-up as the track conditions varied, his work on Thursday built up to the qualifying session on Saturday, which went smoothly despite traffic and won David the important front row start he needed for the race.

Meanwhile, and in contrast to the neat style of Coulthard, Raikkonen was having a bad weekend. On Thursday he lost control of the car and damaged the front suspension mounts on the McLaren chassis. He had to wait until the Saturday sessions allowed him to use the spare car instead. He went off again on Saturday and the towrope the marshals placed through the towing eye under the airbox inlet damaged the chassis, which required the use of another spare car. To make matters worse, another problem this time with the oil system in qualifying led Kimi to use his fourth chassis of the weekend which according to the quiet Finn "it's not ideal!"

In the race David made a clean start and lead throughout. He had a problem from around lap 30, when he felt the engine tightening. As David crested the bump out of Casino Square a spiral of blue oil came from the exhausts, this smoking increased and appeared over smaller bumps and under acceleration. David was initially worried: "it felt like I had lost a bit of power and then I saw smoke coming out from the back. I radioed back to the team and they told me it was nothing to worry about and fortunately they were right". It transpired the oil pump was passing too much oil from the transfer tank to the engine, causing the engine to blow out oil through the cylinders. The team were able to change the pumps settings via the newly legalised two-way telemetry and corrected the problem. Despite pressure from Juan Pablo Montoya and later Michael Schumacher, David had an untroubled run to the finish.

Kimi had a more spectacular race, he passed Rubens at the start and was defending his position until Rubens misjudged a passing manoeuvre and rammed the back of the McLaren. Kimi was able to return to the pits with the rear wing awry, the team looked the car over and Kimi briefly stepped out before being ordered back in as the team had replaced the wobbly broken rear wing with a new one. He completed a few more laps before retiring with worrying handling resulting from the crash.

Ferrari

There was a small noticeable change to the shape of the diffuser for Ferrari in Monaco, the revised outer tunnels were more curved and the top edge of the intermediate tunnels were squarer and more parallel to the ground.

The team also had the distinctive front wing; with a complex "jagged" trailing edge, on closer inspection the wing appears to have a cut out in the trailing edge to feed air to the brake ducts. The team also ran the ducts jutting out from the top edge of the sidepods to aid cooling.

Images from the last race showed what I had believed to be an electronic pod on the side of the drivers helmet. Both Michael and Rubens had this device, which is always seen on the right side of the chin bar. The pod unhinges when a screw is undone and uncovers nothing more than the connectors for the helmet radio, but the streamlining of these simple connectors shows the attention to detail Ferrari pay to their car.

The weekend provided the downturn in fortunes Ferrari feared since the F2002 debuted. As usual, the team chose to concentrate on race set-up on Thursday and in retrospect Ross Brawn admitted this might have been an error. The team arrived to qualifying with a generally good set-up on the car but incidents and traffic hampered the drivers' runs and were unable to get the best from the tyres. Ross Brawn commented "We have had more straightforward days!" For the race there were no technical issues for the drivers. Michael's strategy evolved to find an advantage over the leading two cars but again traffic stymied his progress.

Rubens made a poor start and, in his haste to pass Raikkonen, misjudged his braking out of the tunnel and hit the rear of the McLaren, flipping his car momentarily up in the air. "I have to thank the team for building a really strong car, as after the accident, I was able to continue and the car was still very quick, even if it had a bit of oversteer." It appears the car was not only strong but clever as well as Ross Brawn explains, "We have a monitoring system and if one of the suspension components had reached a critical stress level we would have spotted it already as he drove round into the pits". With his confidence that the car was OK Rubens was able to continue in the race without any other serious problems.

Williams

Williams experimented with the curved wing and the older flat wing and both versions featured new endplates. The new endplates had flat sides with no coved shape to the rear, on the outside face there two flip ups, one large inclined, one made from clear plastic although half painted, and placed ahead and above that one was a smaller horizontal one. As well as the improved aerodynamics, the car appeared to ride well over the kerbs and bumps especially through the chicane on the exit to the tunnel.

All weekend the drivers felt they had the set up right, but struggled with traffic. In qualifying it was Juan Pablo that mixed the speed and timing in the traffic to gain pole, chief engineer Sam Michael was pleased: "It is positive to see our car on pole on a circuit which rewards downforce and mechanical grip." Both qualities that Williams have lacked recently.

The race disappointed the team as Juan Pablo was beaten to the first corner and could never get in a position to pass Coulthard. He sat uneasily between the McLaren and Schumacher's Ferrari until his engine let go wrecking a certain podium finish. Ralf also had some problems, when a tyre delaminated forcing him to make a second stop late in the race but fortunately retained his third position.

Renault

As mentioned previously, Renault had a new delta shaped rear wing and also a revised front wing and endplate arrangement. The new front wing endplates had a different shape along their top edge, being squarer initially before rising up without the more usual cut out. The horizontal lip along the bottom of the plate still has the small "diffuser" shaped into its trailing edge. The team also played with cooling arrangements, which included an experiment removing one of the panels in the top of the sidepod.

The weekend favoured Jarno Trulli from day one. The Renaults found great speed very quickly on the circuit, and Thursday found Jarno in first. "We didn't have any problems at all I'm pleased with the handing of the car." But his happiness with the car was not found by Jenson Button: "The car isn't perfect as I'm suffering from a little bit of understeer." For Saturday both drivers were happy with the car but not with the traffic and all their runs were spoiled.

In the race Button's trouble at the start left him catching up and an over-optimistic move on Panis crashed him out of the race. Trulli meanwhile found his car going well until the tyres wore down. He pitted and found more speed, but time in traffic cost the tyres their edge and he struggled with the car to a welcome points finish. This finish was made provisional as his car's electronic box was found to have the FIA tamperproof seals missing. After the investigation, Trulli and Renault kept their points.

Sauber

A new detail on the rear wing compliments the changes Sauber brought to Austria: the lower wing mount now has a narrower chord just as it mounts to the gearbox. In Austria, the engine cover was made slightly lower at the end of the coke bottle shape and moved to be in line with the suspension. Sauber are clearly trying to improve the flow over the rear of the car. The team also retained the subtly revised front wing end plates from Austria.

The team struggled for grip all weekend, while some of the problems may be down to the tyres, Sauber suffered more than most and that suggests they have less mechanical grip than previously thought. The drivers struggled even more in qualifying, Heidfeld commenting, "It just didn't have the same level of grip." While Massa drove around the problem: "The balance of my car was okay today and the grip was not too bad."

In the race the tyres grained and didn't hold up for as long as the original pit stop strategy had planned. Again Heidfeld explained: "All the way through I battled for traction, with understeer in the slow corners and oversteer in the faster ones. The car was very nervous." Still Nick finished the race for the team, while his teammate Massa had one incident pushing off Bernoldi at St Devote and then his brakes failed, "On my 64th lap nothing happened when I braked for Ste Devote, and the car just went straight on into the tyre wall. It was a big impact and I hit my nose on the steering wheel". Felipe sat in the cockpit for a while and then stepped out otherwise unharmed.

Jordan

Jordan spent the first part of the weekend playing with the recently introduced aero parts, differing between the three front wings on offer and also switching cooling outlets.

Technical problems also hit the cars when Giancarlo Fisichella slowed down due to an incident on the track. The electronics mistook the signals and, thinking he was stalling, disengaged the clutch, preventing him from getting first gear. He had to be pushed off the track. A link inside the Jordan front suspension had a problem, preventing Sato from running at the end of the afternoon. Qualifying was less troubled, but the graining the team were experiencing with the Bridgestones before the end of a flying lap pushed the team out of the top ten.

In the race Sato made a storming start and jumped four places up the order. Fisichella was finding he could lap faster and faster until he came up behind his teammate, the team asked Sato to let Fisichella pass as he was lapping so much faster, Sato decided to move over in the tunnel, but somehow lost control of the car on the dust and marbles. He hit the barrier inside the tunnel, slid down the road hitting the barrier on the outside of the tunnel and finally making quite a large impact with the barrier opposite the tunnel's exit. All four wheels were still attached and Sato was unharmed.

Giancarlo managed to avoid the spinning car and actually overtook the uncontrolled car before the chicane. The Italian continued to another points finish, making him the leading Honda driver and the leading Bridgestone (non Ferrari) customer.

BAR

As the team are waiting for the new package of aero and gearbox developments, due for the next race, there were no new developments on the BARs. On Thursday both drivers were happy with the car and knew the changes it required. "We don't have the best set-up yet and we need to make the engine a little more responsive but generally we seem to be making good progress so far," said Panis.

With the team's focus on race set-up on Thursday, they struggled with the Bridgestones in qualifying and both drivers had low grid positions. Despite the setback both drivers were prepared for an attacking race. Villeneuve's problem on the grid hindered his progress and then on lap 46 he pulled over on the track. "The car suddenly developed a problem and I had to pull over". His teammate fared no better. He was defending from the late starting Jenson Button and both were eliminated in an incident at St Devote. Oliver Panis has yet to finish a race in 2002 and the team have no points, the season is harking back to their first year in F1 when the entire season passed without any points.

Jaguar

Jaguar returned the rear most element of their triple plane front wing to a full width profile, as previously it had been shortened to leave a gap between the drop plates mounting the wing to the nose. This, in theory, should have added more downforce, but the Jaguar still struggled without the aero long awaited update.

A "so-so" performance typified the weekend, both drivers were generally happy in free practice but an accident delayed Irvine on Saturday morning when "a broken stud in the gearbox housing, which holds the rear suspension, collapsed and spun the car into the barrier near the swimming pool complex." Eddie switched to the spare and struggled to get a good grid slot. Eventually the Jaguars were behind Webber's Minardi on the grid. The Michelin tyres performance allowed the drivers to keep a good pace in the race and Jaguar were to get two cars to the finish in 9th and 10th which isn't bad starting from 18th and 20th on the grid, but not when only 12 cars finished!

Toyota

Before the weekend the team were open in that they didn't expect great results from the car, which had been criticised in the press as not being equal to the engine.

For the weekend the team brought the high downforce wing package used at Imola and added one more aerofoil to the set-up, the sidepod mounted winglets, and the low rear placed "shelf" wing were complimented by a Jordan style mid wing mounted behind the roll bar. Their version was wider than the current Jordan version, but was still within the FIA regulations. These changes, plus the pre-race testing in France allowed the team to perform in the top ten from the start of the weekend. McNish was happy: "The car actually suits the circuit a lot better than I had expected it would" Mika Salo had a few handling woes "I am suffering from a lot of understeer." The team worked on his set-up and found improvements for Saturday allowing both drivers into the top ten for the grid on Sunday.

Mika Salo had an eventful race: "We had an unplanned pit stop near the start after my left rear tyre lost tread, causing lots of vibration. After a change of tyres the car felt great, but I completely lost the brake pedals towards the end, causing me to crash." From the outside Mika was seen to lock his outside front wheel, which pitched the car firstly into the inside rail then the car spun and violently hit the outside rail. He emerged unhurt. By this stage Allan had also retired from driver error when he misjudged his braking into St Devote and hit the inside kerb and slid harmlessly into the outside barrier.

Arrows

As one of the Bridgestone customer teams Arrows suffered more than most with the poor form of the Japanese rubber, as the team previously expected to be up in the top ten. There were no visible changes on the cars and the team ran the newer front wing and endplate arrangement. The team achieved a good balance in the more slippery conditions on Thursday and this carried through into qualifying.

The team found their form in the warm up which found Frentzen fastest following a change to the front suspension. In the race Heinz battled well only to suffer when the refuelling rig failed during his stop and required an extra stop, but he still retained sixth place for the second batch of points for the team. Bernoldi also had a strong race but was punted off the track by Massa after overtaking him, damaging his jacking point and his pit stop was also delayed.

Minardi

With the equalling effect of Monaco, Minardi were expected to do well, and they found a good pace almost immediately, Mark Webber running as high as 8th on Thursday. The team confidence was bolstered by the fact that the faster times were set with a reasonable amount of fuel left in the car. Yoong made several trips into the barriers on Thursday and in qualifying. Webber was more accurate in his driving but did damage an oil cooler on Saturday after spinning on oil from Irvine's Jaguar. His revenge was to qualify ahead of both Jaguars in 19th.

The team fuelled the cars heavy for the race hoping a long run will jump them past any nearby cars in the pit stop sequence. Webber ran well after his pit stop but had to stop again when he had a tyre problem. Yoong ran over some debris at the Casino, thumped the barriers side-on, and deranged the rear suspension, ending his race after limping back to the pits.