Team Bosses Accused of Wanting "Controversy" at the Monaco Grand Prix

Michael Schumacher and Martin Whitmarsh have accused some team bosses of wanting "chaos" and "controversy" on the streets of Monaco this weekend. At a meeting held last week in Barcelona, team bosses rejected a drivers' proposal that “Q1” qualifying should be split into two separate sessions for this weekend's street event.

With a busy grid in 2010 and six cars that are considerably slower than the others, drivers fear not only that the traffic will impede their ability to set good lap times, but that the situation could be dangerous.

Despite these opinions, Lotus team boss Tony Fernandes admits to having used his veto right, arguing that he wants F1 "to be exciting, to be unpredictable". McLaren's team boss Martin Whitmarsh expects the unpredictability to be in the form of a large number of stewards inquiries about blocking.

"There are those, and I'm not one of them, who feel that controversy and stewards' hearings after the event are entertaining. I don't share that view," he told reporters earlier this week. Seven time world champion Schumacher also expressed disappointment with Fernandes' line of reasoning.

"Some team bosses felt that they'd rather have the chaos and may take the profit from that than to have a reasonable, clean qualifying," he said on Wednesday. "Let's see who has to suffer or not."

Almost every driver, from either end of the grid, spoke on Wednesday about the traffic situation. Spanish reports quote Fernando Alonso as neatly summarizing: "It will definitely not be easy, but it's the same for everyone."