In the round-up: Mark Webber says he is “comfortable” at Monaco having won there twice but still finds it “daunting”.

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Webber hoping to get back on familiar track (The Telegraph)

“I’m comfortable on street circuits, although I can’t translate it to Singapore yet. I don’t know why. As for Monaco, it’s still a daunting place, a very challenging venue. I’m not saying you are on holiday there.”

Di Resta dreams of finishing on the podium in Monaco (The Sun)

“During the winter testing we were a bit confused as to how quick we were. We were a bit shocked to be in front of McLaren and that’s been an improvement.”

Raikkonen: no surprise to be second (Autosport)

“We wanted to win more races already, but it hasn’t happened. Looking at it afterwards, you’re never happy – even if you win all the races, you’re probably not 100 per cent happy.”

McLaren needed deal with major carmaker – Whitmarsh (NBC)

“We’re going to be doing all we can to win races with Mercedes this year and next, but inevitably moving to Honda in 2015 gives us a bedrock of being one of the big teams.”

F1 Online: The Game Service is closed (Codemasters)

“The decision to discontinue the game’s development and operation was taken as the service did not attract the required number of active players during its beta phase to make it a viable ongoing project.”

Thanks to Mike for the tip.

The Art of Driving (McLaren)

“Even though I was wearing a fireproof balaclava and a helmet padded with fire-retarding padding and sound-proofing material, and even though my Cosworth V8 was revving at high decibels just a few inches behind my back, I could still hear the sickening impact of Clay’s Ensign smashing into that concrete barrier.”

Tweets

Good day at Monaco!! Tomorrow we start the preparation, awesome place and track… twitter.com/GvanderGarde/s…

— Giedo van der Garde (@GvanderGarde) May 21, 2013

Interesting question from delegate in Miami. Were @narainracing & @karunchandhok given a good enough opportunity in F1? No. #india #f1

— Mark Gallagher (@MarkGallagher62) May 21, 2013

Today @susie_wolff is helping us to promote the #BGP with pillion rides in this! twitter.com/SilverstoneUK/…

— Silverstone (@SilverstoneUK) May 21, 2013

• Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory

Comment of the day

@William-Brierty almost believes Lewis Hamilton will win in Monaco:

Just because Rosberg has out-qualified Hamilton in the past two races, don’t think he enters the Monaco Grand Prix as Mercedes’ best chance for victory. Do not underestimate Hamilton, especially at a track that he was unbeaten at until he found himself in a seat next to a certain Spanish chap.

Hamilton will be on pole, that to me is a certainty, but the victory? Well, I personally don’t see why not. Historically, Mercedes have been quick in a straight line so they cannot be overtaken regardless of how bad their tyre issues become.

So only a bad start or the undercut will allow another car past a Mercedes, but this is Ross Brawn we’re talking about, and not the clowns that invited the undercut on Hamilton by both Alonso and Vettel last year.

For me, the ingredients are all in place. Its a track that is very special to Hamilton, a track where Mercedes were quickest last year in the woeful W03 and its a track where degradation is minimal.

For me that makes Lewis Hamilton the favourite for the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix… which probably means Alonso will win.
@William-Brierty

From the forum

• Sauber reserve driver Robin Frijns will get to race in GP2 again in Monaco

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On this day in F1

Following a 13-year absence, Formula One returned to a shorted Spa-Francorchamps circuit on this day 30 years ago.

Alain Prost started from pole position, lapping the 6.9km circuit in 2’04.615. He won the race, the opening stages of which were led by Andrea de Cesaris for Alfa Romeo.

Patrick Tambay finished third for Ferrari ahead of Prost’s Renault team mate Eddie Cheever.

The original start of the race was abandoned:

Here’s the restart:

Image © Red Bull/Getty

Three drivers have shared the victories in the first five rounds of 2013 but there’s a good chance that could change this weekend.

Qualifying position is everything at Monaco. That’s good news for Mercedes, who have been the team to beat on Saturday this year but are yet to score a win. Spanish Grand Prix victor Fernando Alonso has already tipped them as favourites to win in Monaco.

If Mercedes can extend their run of pole positions to four in a row they will be in an excellent position to score their first victory of 2013. They came close last year: Michael Schumacher was quickest in qualifying but a penalty dropped him to sixth on the grid. Nico Rosberg started second and finished there.

The high degradation and frequent pit stops seen during the Spanish race provoked intense debate over whether F1 has gone too far in using tyres that degrade quickly to produce close racing. But the slow Monaco course sees the lowest rates of wear and degradation of the season.

Pirelli’s soft compounds did not tempt any of the leading drivers to make more than the mandatory single pit stop last year. But that was not the case the year before.

In 2011, with tyres approximately as aggressive as today’s, the top three finishers all used different strategies. Sebastian Vettel attempted a one-stopper, nursing his tyres from lap 17 until the chequered flag. Behind him Alonso stopped twice and Jenson Button three times. The pair were running nose-to-tail when a crash blocked the track, forcing a red flag which conspired to rob us of an exciting finish.

With Pirelli bringing the softest tyres in their range again this weekend, there’s a chance the race won’t be decided on Saturday afternoon. Monaco specialist Pastor Maldonado described qualifying as being worth “probably 70% of the weekend” but in seasons past that figure would have been closer to 100%.

Unlike most circuits on the calendar this year, Monaco will have just one DRS zone, simply because there isn’t space to safely install another one in a place where it might be worthwhile on this tight, narrow and punishing course.

Monaco Grand Prix team-by-team preview

Red Bull

Red Bull are looking for their fourth consecutive win in F1′s most prestigious race. Vettel has two wins to his name already this year but Webber has excellent form at the principality and claimed two of the team’s previous victories here.

They have been closest to Mercedes on one-lap pace but have fared much better in the races, which should make them strong contenders this weekend.

Ferrari

The last win for the prancing horse in Monaco was 12 years ago. Qualifying remains the weakest part of their game and that will count against them here.

But Alonso’s formidable abilities mean he is always a contender. The two-time Monaco Grand Prix winner might need a bit of help from his strategy to get ahead but if his Ferrari gets a glimpse of daylight in the race he’ll be hard to stop.

McLaren

McLaren will bring further upgrades for the recalcitrant MP4-28 this weekend despite the cramped Monaco track being the worst place to test them.

This is a drivers’ track, however, and that presents Button and Sergio Perez the opportunity to drag the car into the final ten and collect out some useful points.

Lotus

Like Ferrari, Lotus have great race pace but are missing that final tenth in qualifying which will create problems for them in Monaco. However Kimi Raikkonen has seen the front row of the grid once already this year so don’t rule him out.

Team mate Romain Grosjean was unable to carry his resurgence in form into the last race as he was sidelined with a suspension problem early on. Monaco was where things started to go wrong for him last year and he will need to exercise all of his new-found caution on the run to the first corner.

Mercedes

Mercedes are the early favourites for pole position (and, therefore, victory) but there’s not much to choose between their two drivers at the moment.

Lewis Hamilton has a great flair for Monaco and won in the rain in 2008. But Rosberg started the last two races from pole and had a good run here last year as well.

Sauber

Of the three teams who most needed to improve their car in Spain, Sauber seemed to find more performance than Williams or McLaren. This wasn’t entirely realised in the race due to Nico Hulkenberg’s pit lane crash and Esteban Gutierrez’s grid penalty, so they will need to maek good on it here.

Force India

Surely Adrian Sutil’s bad luck has to come to an end soon? If pit stop problems haven’t been wrecking his races he’s been hit by other drivers.

And if any track owes him one, it’s Monaco. In 2008 he was on course to give Force India their first points score, running fourth with nine laps to go, when he was taken out by Raikkonen.

Williams

Maldonado needs to make good on his reputation as a Monaco specialist this weekend if he is to bring home the first points of 2013 for Williams.

He could also do with a decisive showing against team mate Valtteri Bottas, who’s out-qualified him 3-2 so far this year. Bottas will do well to repeat that on his first visit to this demanding track where his team mate is very strong.

Toro Rosso

There’s still everything to play for between the two Toro Rosso drivers but it’s Jean-Eric Vergne who’s on the back foot at the moment. He ran seventh for several laps during last year’s race but a late pit stop dropped him out of the points.

Caterham

Caterham not only convincingly defeated Marussia in Spain, they were close to one of the Williams drivers at the end of the race too.

Last year Heikki Kovalainen resisted pressure from Button’s McLaren for lap after lap at Monaco. Can either of the team’s young charges replicate his heroics this weekend?

Marussia

Marussia have finished behind Caterham in the last two races but remain ahead in the constructors’ championship. However Monaco often sees a lot of retirements and Marussia will need to ensure they, and not their rivals, are the ones to capitalise. It was at this race last year they first lost the initiative in the championship to Caterham.

2013 driver form

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2013 Monaco Grand Prix

• Monaco could be Mercedes’ best chance for victory
• Lotus to maintain momentum despite loss of Allison
• Hulkenberg expects Sauber to do better in Monaco

Browse all 2013 Monaco Grand Prix articles

Images © Daimler/Hoch Zwei, Ferrari/Ercole Colombo, Red Bull/Getty

In the round-up: BMW deny claims they are planning to return to Formula One.

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BMW rubbishes F1 return talk (Autosport)

BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt: “We have absolutely no intention of looking at other categories. We made a conscious decision to withdraw from Formula One.”

• BMW: Ten years in F1 in 100 pictures

Bernie Ecclestone proposes chassis share to reduce costs (Daily Express)

“I believe that customer cars will be a good thing. Everybody needs to agree to that but Frank Williams is the one who is against it.”

In conversation – Bernie Ecclestone and Niki Lauda (F1)

Ecclestone: “I asked Pirelli to make tyres that would not complete 50 percent of a race – meaning we need pit stops. And that’s what they did. It is very, very difficult to predict and say these tyres will last 15 or 20 percent of the race because each circuit is different, we are facing very different temperatures, the cars are different, and last but not least each driver has a different driving style. In the times when Niki was racing his biggest concern was looking after the gearbox and the brakes – not the tyres. Then we got away from that and the drivers didn’t have to think about anything. Now they have to use their brains and start thinking about how to win races.”

F1 tyre changes to be less dramatic than feared (Reuters)

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery: “Some teams have worked in a certain way to maximise the tyre and chassis package and they don’t want that to be lost by radical change. We’re trying to find something that is sportingly equitable amongst the vast majority that allows us to rid ourselves of the tread (problem).”

Kevin Garside: How McLaren would love to be contenders again on the waterfront at Monaco (The Independent)

Kevin Garside: “There have been rumours, denied by Dennis, that he wants back in the paddock to take control of the team. Clearly something needs to happen to stop the bleeding.”

2,500 members of the public will get chance to walk through the F1 pit lane (Straits Times)

“The pit lane is usually accessible only to ticket holders of the Formula One Paddock Club, worth about $8,500. The public can sign up on the Singapore GP website and selection will be through balloting.”

Tweets

To compare, total V8 attendance was 68,000, Grand-Am was 26,000 total, MotoGP was 131,000, and F1 was 265,500.

— American-StatesmanGP (@StatesmanGP) May 19, 2013

Interesting 2 hear Bernie’s comment re BMW back in F1 1 day. Same applies to Toyota, I suspect & Ford once someone remembers their heritage

— Mark Gallagher (@MarkGallagher62) May 20, 2013

• Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory

Comment of the day

@TimothyKatz on the BMW rumours:

BMW are having pretty good success in DTM this season and last, so in a way I’d be surprised if they felt a return to F1 would be attractive. But if they decide to become an engine supplier, it would be most welcome I’m sure.
@TimothyKatz

Site update

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• 20th-21st May site unavailability

From the forum

• Stephen Jones (@Aus_Steve) shows how he went from last to first while wearing a helmet camera in a Formula Vee race

Happy birthday!

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On this day in F1

Ferrari made their first appearance in a world championship race on this day in 1950.

They had not participated in the season-opening British Grand Prix, making their first start instead at Monaco with three cars for Alberto Ascari, Luigi Villoresi and Raymond Sommer.

Image © BMW