MEDLAND: Enough with the knee-jerk reactions

So, who has got sore knees this week?

Lewis Hamilton definitely has. Fernando Alonso, too. And so have quite a few people who only pay attention for a handful of races during the season.

“It’s just crazy that this is the nicest event, it’s like the most spectacular event of the whole year, and practice and all that is great fun, but the race may be the most boring,” Hamilton said on Sunday night. “I don’t know how we make it more fun.”

You win the Monaco Grand Prix. That’s how you make it more fun.

I’m not saying Sunday’s race was a classic by any means. In hindsight, it was pretty dull. But the race doesn’t take place in hindsight, and therefore doesn’t need criticizing when you’ve not stood on the top step.

The sight of a Formula 1 car dancing between the barriers at over 125mph on a circuit that leaves so little margin for error really is breathtaking. The sight of some of the yachts, cars and their respective owners is also breathtaking, although not always for the same reason.

Image by Steven Tee/LAT

There is plenty of glitz and glamour in Monte Carlo. Sponsors and VIPs show up to be seen at such a prestigious event, and the parties go on long into the early hours of the morning.

Some of those parties even take place on the track itself, with the final sector -- from the Swimming Pool to Rascasse -- becoming a dance floor every night. It might look fun, but the F1 team members trying to work in the pit lane offices are rarely amused by the thudding bass that shakes their garage buildings.

For the drivers during the race, or those working in such an environment all weekend long, it’s far from perfect. But it adds up to something special and unique. It’s like the huge amounts of practice and qualifying at Indianapolis ahead of the 500. It might be a drain, but it builds and builds so that victory is so sweet after a monumental effort. You could see it in Will Power’s face on Sunday.

You could see it in Daniel Ricciardo’s too.

Image by Andy Hone/LAT

There’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t culture in F1. I’ve argued the point before that in order to appreciate the good sporting events, you need ones that aren’t at the same level. It’s the unpredictability of sport that makes people tune in.

After the race, it was easy to criticize a lack of action, but during it, there was tension. Ricciardo’s MGU-K issue left him unable to put serious distance between himself and Sebastian Vettel. Would the car last? If it did, would Ricciardo’s concentration hold up while managing the problem? For 50 laps he may have been driving slowly, but one lapse and Vettel could be through, or the Red Bull could be in the wall.

That the top five didn’t end up nose-to-tail as has previously happened in Monaco can be attributed to concerns over the Pirelli tire life, but that, too, added intrigue. If the drop-off was big enough for one driver over the other, then they would be vulnerable.

Image by Andy Hone/LAT

It was highlighted by Max Verstappen passing Carlos Sainz after a good scrap, with the Renault struggling massively with its tires. Even if overtaking wasn’t going to be possible, then worn tires made the likelihood of a mistake much greater on a circuit where you can’t afford one.

While the race was unfolding, these were all unknowns. Granted, the drivers might not have been enjoying it inside the cockpit -- and in an ideal world everyone would be having a thrilling time -- but that was because they were all afraid of the risk of failure. In Monaco, you pay a high price. Just ask Max Verstappen.

In the end there were very few failures among the cars, but one struck Alonso, who lost a handful of points when a technical issue forced his retirement. On Indy 500 day, it was the perfect ammunition he needed to kick F1 when it was down.

“Probably it’s the most boring race ever in Formula 1,” Alonso said. “I think in Monaco with these wide cars, no Safety Cars, no yellow flags, nothing... I think probably we need to give something to the fans at the end of the race to pay a little bit back their ticket.

“I think it’s just Monaco. We know how it is. I think it was quite boring, without a Safety Car, without anything. We just start in our qualifying position more or less, and we run until the checkered flag in that position.”

He added to that later with a tweet about being about to watch the 500, calling it “the RACE of the day.” It’s funny, but I don’t remember Fernando bemoaning a lack of action or overtaking when he won Monaco in a dominant car in the good old days of 2007…

Admittedly 11 years ago the cars were somewhat smaller, but it’s almost like the drivers were surprised that overtaking was so difficult this weekend. These are the same drivers that wanted faster, more spectacular cars to drive, which they got last year, and which resulted in Ricciardo setting a new lap record on his stunning qualifying lap.

Image by Glenn Dunbar/LAT

That lap was special because it was the car on the absolute edge, millimeters from the barrier on an all-or-nothing attempt to secure the most crucial pole position of the season. You don’t get that every week, and that’s part of the beauty of Monaco.

On Sunday, none of the complaints came from Ricciardo, who finally got the success there he deserved victory after being robbed of a win two years ago. Of course he didn’t care how boring the race had been: he’d just won Monaco. And that’s what really matters to the drivers -- getting their own place in the history books.

It’s not about great wheel-to-wheel battling or massive drama, though the track can still provide it. It’s about needing to pull your best performance out over one qualifying lap on Saturday and winning in front of all sorts of A-list celebrities, sponsors and bosses.

It’s where everyone wants to be seen, and every driver wants to be seen to win.

Hopefully those having a knee-jerk reaction to a processional race can cast their minds all the way back to Australia, where a lack of overtaking was bemoaned as a disaster. Then came three thrilling races with plenty of passing, and all was right in the world again.

Image by Steve Etherington/LAT

The 21 different circuits on the schedule this year will feature all sorts of different tests for the drivers and their cars. That’s part of what makes the championship such a challenge, and in a season like this, provides opportunities for different winners. We’ve had three different teams winning two races apiece so far, after all.

Monaco doesn’t need changing, F1’s attitude does. The boring races shouldn’t be labeled as the end of the world, and the great ones shouldn’t be construed as having made everything OK.

I can guarantee there will be more of both types of race between now and then end of the season. Not knowing which one you’re about to be treated to is part of the fun.

-Chris Medland