Traffic is a major concern ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix

By Sarah Holt BBC Sport in Monaco

Lotus driver Jarno Trulli has dismissed fears that the pace difference between F1 teams will cause significant problems during qualifying at Monaco.

There are concerns that the three rookie teams, who are seconds off the pace, could impede the front-runners.

"We are all going to suffer traffic but for the fast cars it should be easy to get through," said the Italian veteran.

McLaren's Jenson Button added: "It could be tricky. We'll have to keep hammering around to get a quick lap."

There are 24 cars in the F1 field this year, more than any year since 1995 when there were 26.

Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher, who won that race for Ferrari, claimed: "In a way, the field is tighter now."

The seven-time world champion said: "In the past it was pretty normal to have six seconds from first to last but there were bigger gaps.

"We suggested as drivers to split Q1 in two, each session with 10 minutes, but some team bosses felt they'd rather have the chaos and maybe take the profit from this rather than have a reasonably clean qualifying.

"So that's what we have to deal with and see who has to suffer the most."

With that many cars on the track and with the difference in pace I believe that some people will not get a lap time Bruno Senna

The drivers discussed the issue of traffic in Monaco qualifying with race director and safety delegate Charlie Whiting at the Spanish Grand Prix last weekend.

Whiting analysed the situation but decided that it would be no worse than 15 years ago.

And the teams were unable to agree to change the rules for this race.

Trulli added: "Maybe a quicker car slows down in front of me while I'm having a quick lap but on the other hand maybe I'm on a quick lap and I'm not quick enough for a car that is four to five seconds quicker, so he will catch me by the end of the lap.

"Both ways it's not going to work. At the moment we can't think about it, we just have to try to be free of traffic and to do our job.

"I don't have a solution. I don't care, I just want to go out in qualifying and do a quick lap."

Trulli said the difference between the fastest and slowest cars was the same as it was when he made his F1 debut in 1997, when there were 22 cars at Monaco.

He said: "In terms of pace it was very, very similar. I also remember that it was my first season and because of my experience I ended up being in the wall.

Button expects qualifying to be "tricky" in Monaco

"I had been given blue flags (to indicate a faster car was trying to pass) and in order to let everybody past I just went into the barriers so that was something I hope I don't do again this year.

"I do seem to spend more than half the race this year just watching the blue flags, so it isn't fun. It requires a lot of concentration because the speed difference is quite a lot and you are going to hit blue flags nearly every lap."

This week, Button's McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton echoed the sentiments of his team principal Martin Whitmarsh by warning that the race in Monaco could be a "disaster" due to the pace difference between teams.

"So far, fortunately, there have been no incidents and it's been OK but Monaco will be very tough," said Hamilton, who won Monaco on his way to becoming world champion in 2008.

After the first 20 minutes of qualifying the slowest seven drop out and in four of the first five races F1's three new teams - Lotus, Virgin Racing and Hispania Racing - have occupied six of those places.

Hispania's Bruno Senna was slowest in qualifying at last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, 5.71 seconds behind Mark Webber's pace-setting Red Bull in the first session, and the Brazilian agreed that qualifying would be "difficult".

"I think with that many cars on the track and with the difference in pace I believe that some people will not get a lap time," Senna said.

606: DEBATE This race is gonna be absolutely fascinating. Basically there is gonna be so many safety cars scenarios with Hispania, Lotus and Virgin trying to slow down letting the front runners through john

"That happens in GP2 with 26 cars on the track in GP2, quite a few quick guys start on the back of the grid because they were held up and there was a queue into Rascasse (hairpin) so it could be quite interesting.

"We have to be on the track as much as we can so that if we get a lap in we can make it counts.

"We'll find out tomorrow what the difference in speed is between the cars but it's going to be a big mess and if it's wet it will make it even harder and the race will be quite difficult as well.

"With that many laps during the race it will be interesting to see how many times we are going to get lapped.

"I think the field is going to be spread big time."

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