If Jenson Button and Stoffel Vandoorne, not to mention Honda, struggle at any stage this weekend, they could do worse than to think back 21 years to an extraordinary Monaco win for Olivier Panis.
The Frenchman was hardly the favourite. His previous results in 1996 had been seventh, sixth, eighth, crashed, retired. But none of that -- not even problems with his Mugen-Honda V10 -- would sway Panis from the conviction that his Ligier, and the engine in particular, would be perfectly suited to Monaco.
From the moment he had tested the Ligier JS43 at the beginning of the year, Panis could sense possibilities that he shared with Tenji Sakai, the Honda engineer assigned to Ligier. While appreciating such enthusiasm, Sakai could not see an easy means of fulfilling his driver's earnest expectations.
"I gave Tenji a hard time," admitted Panis when recalling the occasion for Malcolm Folley's latest book*. "I said 'I want the engine like this, the throttle like this'. But I said 'If we do this, I tell you in Monaco we do a good thing, I am 100 per cent sure. Even if we lose top end from the engine, I don't care, provided it is easy and smooth on the throttle'."
Such optimism would be supported by P5 on his first set of qualifiers -- and dashed by a misfire on the second set. It could not be fixed. Things went from bad to worse when Pedro Diniz crashed his Ligier, took the spare car and dumped that in the wall before Panis could have a final run with the back-up car.
Olivier was 14th. What use was that on a track where, until that point, no driver had ever started further back than eighth and gone on to win? Emotions boiled over in the Ligier garage. Poor Tenji was in tears.
Realising morale was in danger of plummeting, Panis stayed with the engineers and mechanics late into the evening as they tried to cure the misfire. His view that a podium was still possible was greeted with a shake of the head and benign looks reserved for someone who really should know better. Any closet doubts that Panis may have had were banished the following morning when he drew back the curtains and saw the Principality cloaked in rain. Now he was sure a top three finish was possible, a conviction bolstered by his smiling mechanics when they declared the Mugen-Honda was finally running exactly as it should.
But not even when Panis was fastest in overcast and humid conditions during the morning warm-up did anyone outside the team take him seriously, the received wisdom being that the Ligier was light on fuel. Panis didn't care what anyone said. The car handled beautifully and he knew the sweet response of the engine was perfect for the wet as rain returned.
As the 21 starters rolled onto the grid, all eyes focussed on the front as Damon Hill's Williams-Renault got the jump on Michael Schumacher's pole position Ferrari. Hill's chances were improved further when Schumacher clipped the barrier at Portier, adding to a list of retirements started by Joss Verstappen, followed by Giancarlo Fisichella, Pedro Lamy and Rubens Barrichello hitting the wall at various points on the opening lap. After five laps, only 13 cars remained.
On lap seven, one car actually overtook another. It was Panis, taking 11th from Martin Brundle's Jordan-Peugeot with an assertive move as they accelerated out of Rascasse. Nine laps later, Panis took Mika Hakkinen's McLaren-Mercedes for what had become eighth place thanks to more retirements up front. Now came the dilemma of when to pit for slicks as the racing line began to dry.
Hill, holding a commanding lead, was the first to stop, Panis doing likewise as soon as he was informed of the Williams tactic. The early call paid off as the Ligier jumped to fourth. But that appeared to be the limit of his ambitions as Panis caught Eddie Irvine.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen had already let frustration get the better of him by hitting the back of the wide Ferrari going into Ste Devote. Panis was more circumspect, noting the wide line taken by Irvine each time he swung the red car into the Loews Hairpin. Seizing his moment on lap 35, Panis dived down the inside, banging wheels with the Ferrari to take third.
With Hill and the Benetton-Renault of Jean Alesi comfortably ahead, the win Panis had talked about was out of the question but at least his predicted podium was now a reality. And then this eventful race took another turn -- or two. With a much-prized win seemingly in his pocket, Hill's heart sank, along with the Renault's oil pressure, when the V10 let go. Then Alesi's chance of a second F1 win went the way of broken suspension.
Olivier Panis was leading the Monaco Grand Prix -- and stayed in front for 15 more laps as the two-hour limit approached. It could not come soon enough. The team knew their man was very low on fuel but, figuring there was no point in letting go when this close to a win, Panis short-shifted and pushed just enough to keep five seconds ahead of David Coulthard's understeering McLaren. It was the most improbable of victories on the most unlikely of race tracks.
Panis says people still stop him on the street today to talk about Monaco 1996. "I thank those who say nice things," he told Folley. "I am very proud of this; it is part of my life. The track is not a race track; it is many streets and they have so much history to tell."
There is more to be written next Sunday. But never assume you know the identity of the likely author.
*'Monaco. Inside F1's Great Race' by Malcolm Folley (Century).