The risk of rain is high, with temperatures dropping to around 15 degrees.The Formula One field has yet to experience a wet race in 2008. It will be the first Grand Prix run in such conditions since the abolition of traction control at the start of this season, a factor that could have a major impact on the result, given the already miniscule margin for error around the Monaco streets.
Rain forecast for Monaco this weekend could turn tomorrow’s glamour Grand Prix into as much of a game of chance as anything to be found inside the principality’s imposing casino.
With traction control systems banned and drivers needing to be inch-perfect as they thread their cars around the tight and twisty circuit hemmed in by metal barriers, there is plenty of scope for mayhem in the wet.
“Without traction control it will be a lottery,” said Ferrari’s Brazilian Felipe Massa, winner of two of the last three races this season but no fan of the most glamorous race on the calendar.
Honda’s Jenson Button agreed conditions could be difficult, with the painted road markings becoming an additional danger when wet and slippery.
“If you are driving around a normal circuit and you lock up a front in the wet, you can run wide but here there is no run-off area, so you are going to hit a wall,” said the Briton of Monaco’s special characteristics.
“And in the wet you take different lines. You brake deeper into a corner and run on the outside, so if you get it a millimetre wrong then you are in the wall.
“If it does rain, it’s going to be very tricky out on the track for sure, especially without traction control and the aids that we used to have last year…but that’s part of the game,” the Briton said.
“They have had races here in the wet in the past years and Monaco is the best track whether it is wet or dry. It’ll be a little bit more dangerous in the wet but that’s the excitement for me.”
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