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A FOTA gathering of team principals on Sunday morning failed to resolve the question of whether Pirelli or Michelin wins the F1 tyre contract for 2011 and beyond.

The consensus from those emerging from the meeting – which took place in McLaren’s motorhome – was that the contest is still finely balanced, and either party could yet get the deal.

The complication is that the offers from the two manufacturers are not easily comparable, with both sides offering different packages. However the general view is that a tyre war should be avoided at all costs.

The manufacturers, who are OEM customers of both brands, also have a different take on things than the smaller teams.

“It’s not clear cut which way it will go,” Mercedes GP CEO Nick Fry told this writer. “The technical and commercial packages are different. We think Pirelli and Michelin can both do the job, and to be honest we are ambivalent about it.”

As reported on this blog a couple of weeks ago, Michelin has dropped its price from €5m per team to €1.5m. The Pirelli deal meanwhile is complicated by the fact that it includes elements such as track advertising from which the teams ultimately gain a cut.

Pirelli has strengthened its hand by being part of the F1 circus this year as supplier to GP3, which means that the company is gathering data on many of the European venues.

Lewis Hamilton insists he put everything he had into qualifying in Monaco, and in the end he couldn’t make up for the McLaren’s current downforce defficiency. Hamilton will start tomorrow’s race from fifth on the grid.

“I touched all the barriers I could touch and used all the road I could use,” he said. “I’m happy with my performance, we got through it, and tomorrow we believe the car will be competitive in the race, and hopefully it’s an interesting race where we can make some steps forward.

“It definitely is the best that we could do, I really did put everything into all those three qualifying sessions. Especially my last lap, I got every ounce of the car that was there. There was no more I could get. We’re literally lacking downforce – we need a good step on some downforce to keep up with the Red Bulls.

“I definitely expected them to be the fastest, and I expected the Ferraris to be competitive. The Red Bull has so much downforce. I don’t think people understand it, but when he boots the power he just has full throttle so much quicker than me, and carries much more speed through these corners. It gives you so much confidence.  But we’re getting there, we’ll keep pushing, and I’m hoping in the next couple of races we’ll begin to close the gap.”

“The guys in front of me, it is very close. It is not so close from us to the Red Bulls, but with the other guys we’re not so far off. I think tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. I don’t know what the weather is going to do. If it’s a dry race it’s pretty straightforward, you can’t overtake here, but hopefully the strategy might come in to play.”

Hamilton is known for his overtaking abilities, but he concedes that the chances are slim: “There’s coming out of the tunnel, but even that is almost impossible. You have to outbrake the guy on the dirty surface and probably lock up your tyres and cross the chicane, then you have to let him past you. It’s very, very tricky. It’s not impossible, but it’s quite risky.”

Alonso will not be in qualifying - here's why

Fernando Alonso will miss qualifying and start the Monaco GP from the pitlane after a huge shunt in practice, team boss Stefano Domenicali has confirmed to this blog.

The Spaniard went off at the entry to the Casino right at the start of the session, and slid along the barrier. Both right hand corners were ripped off and crucially the tub was badly damaged just behind the front wheel.

It is impossible to repair on site and the rules say a change of chassis means no qualifying and a pit lane start.

Alonso made a real mess of the Ferrari. Photos:Adam Cooper

Michael Schumacher was a happy man after practice in Monaco, having finished the quicker afternoon session in fifth place, 0.239s off the quickest time.

While he was behind team mate Nico Rosberg, Schumacher clearly enjoyed being back in action on the streets of the principality after three years away, and he even had a trip across the chicane when he pushed a little too hard.

“I got back into the rhythm of the track, particularly in the long run by the end,” said Schumacher. “I increased the pace again. I’m quite confident, things are good. The car definitely handles quite reasonably here. Honestly I think it’s one of the big issues is that other teams have a certain advantage in top speeds. Here they don’t take the profit from this, and therefore the whole field probably comes closer together.

“We need to wait. I don’t know how much fuel other teams were running in comparison to us. I guess we are closer together. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe they were running lots more fuel than us, and therefore it looks like it. So let’s wait.”

Michael said that a driver can’t always make the difference in Monaco.

“You can, but then again sometimes it depends. You think you do, but then the car doesn’t do exactly what you want to do, so you’re not able to prove that.”

Fernando Alonso was typically cautious about Ferrari’s prospects for the weekend after finishing top of both sessions on Thursday in Monaco. However he was just 0.073s ahead of Sebastian Vettel in the morning 0.109s clear of Nico Rosberg in the afternoon, leaving him convinced that it might be tough to stay on top for the rest of the weekend.

“I think for sure this is a circuit to get confidence as soon as possible, it’s a circuit that you need to feel OK in the car,” said Alonso. “And to maximise the potential it’s very good to start in a good way, because you don’t need to get crazy or change completely the set-up or to find miracles for Saturday. You just need some continuity in the set-up, in the way you do the runs.

“Overall we found a car very good from the beginning, very easy to drive. I think Felipe and me we’re happy with today’s session, but we know in qualifying everything will be very close. As we saw today, in 0.3s there were seven or eight cars, so we cannot afford a mistake on the driver’s side or the set-up side. We need to be perfect on Saturday.

“I think we have improved a little bit since Barcelona. Hopefully we are not one second behind Red Bull, but we need to wait until Saturday. We saw some strong Fridays for us, or strong Fridays for McLaren, and then on Saturday Red Bull got the pole position very easy. We need to be clever and do a good lap on Saturday, because if not, you can end up sixth or seventh, as we saw today.”

Fernando also confessed to a scrape with the wall: “I think I touched the barrier at Casino, Turn 3 on the inside, just hit the wall 1mm, but enough to break a little bit the front wing, even if I kept running with no problems.”

Alonso admitted that as everyone had predicted, traffic could be a problem in qualifying.

“It was difficult for everybody, it’s a lot of cars all together at some moments of the session, but as I said yesterday I think it’s a challenge for all of us, a challenge for the drivers to get the space to do a lap and not to disturb anyone, and it’s a challenge for the team as well to find the right time to go out and the right strategy to go through Q1.

“I think Q2 and Q3 will be much easier because the cars are reduced. Q1 is a time that we need to focus, we need to concentrate, we need to put a lap together. Maybe we don’t need to do a super lap, we just need to be in the first 15 or 16, so we should be able to do that.”

Sebastian Vettel insists that he has no regrets about some of the frustrating problems he’s had this year, and which have left him with just one win out of five starts despite the Red Bull’s pace. But he joked that he hopes they are “no bits falling off” in Monaco this weekend.

In Spain last week he lost third place to a brake problem, but managed to regain it and salvage priceless points when Lewis Hamilton crashed.

“Would, could, should is not happening,” said the German on Wednesday. “We can’t change the races we had. But surely another race like last week, it was the key to get maximum points out of it. Third place or a podium is not a disaster, it could have been much worse if you look back. I think it’s good, unlike last year when we had a worse start to the season, we’re not massively behind.

“Ten points sounds maybe a lot, but obviously we have a new points system as well, so it’s not that much. Surely it shows if you look at the evolution of the championship and the points how important it is to finish races. Jenson has won two races and the other races he has been fifth and sixth or something like that. It shows how important it is to finish every single GP.”

Vettel says he sees no reason why Red Bull shouldn’t be right on the pace this weekend.

“It’s a different type of track, and usually you set up your car quite a bit different to other circuits, or to a normal circuit. But still I think we should have a very strong car here. It’s difficult to say how strong, and especially we need to wait and see how strong the others will be. Traditionally on circuits like this, like Monaco and Singapore, teams like Williams have always been very strong, McLaren has always been very strong.

“This year we need to wait and see. The cars have changed quite a bit, some cars now have a much longer wheelbase. I heard Mercedes is going back to the old car, maybe for that. I think it’s quite interesting to see what’s going to happen.

“But I’m confident for us. I think Saturday in Barcelona it looked very comfortable, but on Sunday again it was much closer. Yes we probably had the quickest car, but it wasn’t the offset we probably saw in qualifying. That’s only due to our adjustable ride height!

“I think we have a strong car, so we hope to have no trouble, so no bits falling off. And then to have a clean race. Obviously in Monaco the qualifying or the Saturday is very important, because it determines your race very much.”

Vettel added that while the race is special, it’s only worth the same 25 points as every other event.

“It’s a special venue, and it’s something you want to win. It would be very special, but if it doesn’t happen, it’s not the end of the world. In the end we’re here to fight every single race, and in the end win the championship. So we try our best as every weekend, and see how we get on.

“But surely this race has so much history and so much tradition and is always something unique. For us, especially when it comes down to the circuit, it’s not something you have every day. You have to keep your focus on all the time, it’s a very difficult circuit for that.”

Lewis Hamilton is looking forward to a competitive weekend in Monaco, but says that the team still needs to find qualifying pace with which to take the fight to Red Bull – a team he is convinced have found a “trick” for final qualifying

He’s also answered critics who suggest that he is harder on his tyres than other drivers, and suffers as a consequence.

This blog asked Lewis if he thought the combination of supersoft tyres, high downforce spec and higher ride heights might upset the status quo this weekend.

“I honestly have no absolutely no clue!,” he replied. “I’ve not really thought about that aspect of it. I just think that because it’s a track where there are not so many high speed corners that the downforce advantage they have on us won’t give us as big a gap as they had in the last race, where it was almost a second in qualifying.

“Here it will be a little bit less, and the driver can also have an impact on making it a little bit less as well. It’s a lot more to do with mechanical grip as well. I’d just like to get out tomorrow.”

Expanding on quest for qualifying speed, he said: “We need to find it as a team. It’s the downforce, pure downforce, and it’s not for me to go and find it, the guys in the team need to go and find it, and that’s what they’re working on very hard to do. It’s not easy to find.

“They’ve [Red Bull] got a lot more downforce than us in certain areas of the track, which gives them a big, big advantage. Nine tenths is huge, and there’s no more that I can get out of it, or we can get out of it through set-up.

“It’s a difficult to explain. I don’t think there’s anything wrong [us in] with Q3. They are obviously doing something that enables them to do that time, because in Q1 and Q2 we’re a lot closer than in Q3. Clearly there’s some kind of trick or something going on. I think bit by bit we’ll figure it out. It’s for the guys will figure it out, and I’ve just got to keep going and try do the job that I did at the last race. It was a solid qualifying session for me.

“I know I’m going to be strong in the race, I know how to look after my tyres. What people often write is that I’m very aggressive with my tyres, and it’s actually quite the opposite. When Bridgestone come to us afterwards and they tell us how we’re doing, I’m usually kind of mid way or one of the better guys or softest guys on my tyres. I know how to look after my tyres and look after the wear of the rears and the fronts. That’s probably why I am also able to keep the pace that I do in the races.”

Tyres will be one of the more intriguing aspects of this weekend. Last year those who started on supersofts – specifically Sebastian Vettel – were soon on trouble. This year the top 10 have to start on the tyres on which they qualified, so that could make life interesting on Sunday. In theory everyone will have to use the supersoft to get a lap time, and that may compromise their race form relative to those who choose mediums.

“I don’t know how the supersoft is going to be here, to be honest. Obviously in the past it’s always chewed up quickly, but during the weekend the track gets better actually.

“From a guess, depending on how big a gap there is between the two tyres, it might not be such a bad thing to start on the medium. Because by the end of the race the track is better already, so if you put on the supersoft, it will last. After tomorrow you’ll get a much better idea if there’s half a second difference.”

Intriguingly Hamilton beat Mark Webber to fastest lap in Spain, and by a substantial margin: “I think I’ve only had like three fastest laps in my career up until that point, so it’s nice to get a fourth! I’ve got more wins and poles than fastest laps, which means absolutely nothing…”

On his return to Monaco Michael Schumacher has had to dodge a barrage of questions about his infamous last appearance he in 2006 – when he was put to the back of the grid for blocking the track during qualifying.

Schumacher parked his car at Rascasse after taking pole, preventing anyone else from setting a quicker lap. After a long night of deliberation the FIA stewards – led by Tony Scott-Andrews – decided that he had done it deliberately. There has never been any proper explanation of the matter from either his then team boss, current FIA President Jean Todt, or Michael himself.

Today he grew increasingly irritated as journalists kept returning to the subject during a Mercedes press meeting, and even called respected BBC Radio reporter David Croft “boring” for pursuing that line of questioning.

Schumacher was initially asked if he had any regrets about the incident, not least because it potentially cost him the World Championship.

“I guess it didn’t, but it doesn’t change as well if we get back into it, because we’re now in 2010.”

Pressed on the matter, he said: “I had great fun in the race, I have to say. Coming from last, and going through the field, I think I finished fifth. That was good fun.”

Reminded that Saturday had been a low point of his career, he blamed the media, “You made it – some of you guys. I mean, let’s look forward and not backwards.”

When Croft asked whether Michael would so the same thing again to guarantee pole, he said: “You’re boring…”

Finally he was asked if there was any reason why he was not able to say sorry for what happened. “I mean you can keep trying absolutely, but we’re not talking about 2006 anymore. There’s enough said I don’t feel that I need to go any deeper into it…”

Felipe Massa with DTM driver Maro Engel, Jaime Alguersuari and Ivan Capelli

Tuesday night is usually pretty quiet in Monaco as few people are in town yet, but the charity football match promoted by Prince Albert has become something of a tradition. This blog decided to check it out for the first time, from the privileged postion of the side of the pitch. And an entertaining evening it was too as the F1 drivers – displaying just the sort of commitment you’d expect – overcame the ‘Star Team’ opposition. 

The drivers put out quite an impressive line-up, although it wasn’t always easy to discern who was playing where. Felipe Massa and Jaime Alguersuari appeared to be leading the attack, with Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Vitaly Petrov and Lucas di Grassi apparently in midfield and naturally also very keen to get up the front.

Jarno Trulli was the only driver to be happy to play at the back, while Tonio Liuzzi showed up in his kit but was injured and didn’t take the field. Former F1 drivers Ivan Capelli (who doubled as manager) and Emanuele Pirro also put in an appearance, while the team – with regular substitutions – was made up with a bunch of ringers. Charity football regular Michael Schumacher did not show up, alas.

Alonso scored the only goal of the first half when he teed up a volley from a long way out and fired into the net with a flair that suggested Spain should send him to South Africa this summer. In the second half DTM driver Maro Engel scored a neat solo effort, before the hard trying Massa was gifted a tap-in for the third.

Alonso, who like Vettel impressed by playing nearly the full 90 minutes, then added a fourth. The Star Team included bike racer Loris Capirossi, former F1 drivers Riccardo Patrese and Alex Caffi, and a mixed bunch of names from various sports. They scored two in reply, leaving it 4-2 in favour of the drivers. Prince Albert, who showed up late, presented the prizes. 

Sebastian Vettel argues with the referee...

Jenson Button may have retained  a slender World Championship lead after finishing fifth in Spain, but after the race his frustration was all too clear. As Lewis Hamilton proved, the McLaren was capable of taking the fight to Red Bull in Barcelona, but Jenson was left stuck behind Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes.

Button’s race was spoiled after his clutch dragged at the stop, and the mechanics struggled to change the rear wheels, as they were moving. That allowed Schumacher to get past, and JB spent the rest of the race staring at a Petronas logo.

“We had a problem with the clutch dragging, so the pit stop took a lot longer, and that was it really,” said Button. “I didn’t really know where he [Michael] was on the outside of me into Turn One. He turned in, and if I didn’t back out of it, we would have crashed. So he didn’t really give a lot of room there. There you go, you’d think with his experience he would know.

“As we know it’s almost impossible to overtake round here, and he was moving about quite a bit, making sure I couldn’t get past. It was really frustrating. The pace of the car looked really good, but it doesn’t make any difference – you can’t overtake. When I was behind him I was trying so hard, everything to get past. I damaged my tyres quite badly at the front, and flat spotted at the rear, just with traction.

“Michael’s not silly, he knows where to put the car. On a circuit where it’s almost impossible to overtake, you’re not going to get past Michael. He was putting right on the inside, and I couldn’t get down on the outside, because he’d push me wide every time I did.”

Button’s prospects weren’t help by the fact that he lost his dashboard information almost from the start of the race.

“They’re asking me to do things on the steering wheel, and I can’t see if I’m doing the right thing or not. Plus trying to see the rev lights as well… You can’t see them, so you have to go by instinct. Most of the time I was pretty close, but I was hitting the rev limiter a lot, because when you’re behind someone you’re getting a tow and obviously you’re shifting in different places.

“It was a little bit tricky, and it kept flashing at me at random moments around the lap. Fifth place is OK, but it was a really frustrating race.”

Button said retaining his championship lead was only a small consolation: “Yeah, but it’s not the result we wanted, and it’s not the result we really deserved, because we were pretty quick.”