The 23-year-old Venezuelan took his maiden GP2 win in last year's race and will have two chances to repeat the feat this season as the series holds a double-header at Monte Carlo for the first time.
Maldonado says Monaco is the jewel in the crown of GP2 as well as F1, but believes he is prepared for the challenge.
"To win at Monaco is fantastic," he said. "It's the most important race in the whole season, and the most difficult circuit of the year. You can't make any mistakes, not even the slightest, it's so narrow and the reaction times are so short.
"It's a street circuit so the track surface has very little grip, you slide a lot and it's very bumpy. The set-up at Monaco is a one-off. We set the car very high off the ground, with very soft dampers, and use maximum aero on the wings."
He expects qualifying to be even more crucial than usual and warned against a lapse in concentration during the mentally tiring races.
"It's incredibly difficult to overtake at Monaco so the most important thing is qualifying. If you're on pole position you have 80 per cent of the race in your pocket.
"Staying focussed is the hardest thing of all. You can't relax for a second because the barriers are so close at all times. Your concentration needs to be 100 per cent and at the end of the race you feel totally drained, but mentally rather than physically."
No comments:
Post a Comment