Monaco avoids a catastrophe long waiting to happen. PETER COSTER calls for a change to save young lives.
“This is madness” were the near hysterical words at Monaco, not in the aftermath of the crash that saw Sergio Perez sitting in the wreckage of his Red Bull, but in qualifying for the F2 race.
Isack Hadjar, not a name on everyone’s lips, showed lightning reactions to avoid what would have been an explosion of metal, carbon and body parts in the tunnel.
It was to conjure up the scene in Michael Mann’s movie, Ferrari, when the Marquis de Portago crashed in the Mille Miglia. The horrifying accident caused the Italian race to be abandoned.
On Sunday, the 19-year-old F2 driver was travelling at more than 200kmh when he came upon a car slowed to a crawl.
His micro-second reaction saved him and another young driver whose engine died in the tunnel from an accident that has long been waiting to happen in F1.
As cars slow to give themselves a gap for a clear run in qualifying they rely on teams watching screens on the pit wall to warn them of cars on the other side of corners.
The risk is always there as drivers dawdle on the track while waiting for a clear lap, whereas in the race itself everyone is trying to get ahead of the car in front.
When the danger passes without drivers and their cars strewn across the track, so does the moment.
Until it happens again.
Hadjar and young Tiomo Miyata in the other F2 car will likely have put it behind them but the answer to an impending disaster is to have fewer cars on the track at any one time.
What then took place at the start of the Grand Prix as the field bunched at Sainte Devote before the charge up Beau Rivage drove what didn’t happen in the tunnel from everyone’s mind.
Perez in the Red Bull and Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg in the Haas cars were all at full throttle.
Magnussen tried to pass Perez only to tag the Red Bull, which spun into the barriers and then into the Haas of Hulkenberg further up the hill.
Perez was left sitting in a smoking wreck, saved by the carbon-fibre safety cell.
“It was a massive incident and my car is completely destroyed, said the Mexican driver after walking away from a car that needs to be mounted in the Casino Square as tribute to driver safety.
The three drivers retired, as did Esteban Ocon who was launched high into the air in his Alpine when he tried to squeeze through a gap alongside teammate Pierre Gasly leading to a five-place grid penalty at the next race in Canada in two weeks.
The legendary Ayrton Senna said when a driver fails to take a gap he is no longer a racing driver, but Ocon may find himself without a car to drive after an extraordinary outburst from test principal Bruno Famin.
A furious Famin told French television, “It’s sad, this kind of incident. It’s exactly what we don’t want to see and there will be appropriate consequences.”
Some pundits believe this could mean the sack for next season although that is unlikely considering F1’s ability to move on to the next race just as quickly.
The Monaco Grand Prix itself proved to be what it almost always is, a procession of 1000-horsepower machines unable to pass each other on the twisting circuit around the streets of the principality.
It is a race in two-parts, or a high-speed chess game, according to F1 pundit and former driver Martin Brundle.
The first part is the opening move, the start of the race where polesitter Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari had the advantage.
The second is strategy in tyre management, pit stops and racecraft.
For Leclerc, a Monagasque it was a flawless execution of all these aspects and a dream come true.
His father was a hairdresser and a former racedriver whose memory was in his son’s thoughts as he finished the last laps of the race in front of Oscar Piastri.
The Melbourne driver and Leclerc share a joke about being related, or Piastri being at least part of the family.
What we do know is that Piastri grew up in Oakleigh and said at the Chinese Grand Prix this year that he might be part Chinese through a great-great grandfather.
The Oakleigh boy would have been on pole at Monaco if his best sector times in qualifying been joined.
Of course, that is not how it works, but in the event Piastri, was less than two tenths behind Leclerc on the grid and might have snatched the lead near the tunnel.
He saw a gap but decided it was too narrow. “My car was too wide,” said Piastri, with a grin.
Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari was third on the podium after getting a second chance in the race when he was able to pit with a puncture when the race was red flagged and Lando Norris in the second McLaren was fourth.
Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian driver replaced by Piastri at McLaren, finished 12th, once again behind Visa RB teammate Yuki Tsunodo, who was in the points.
The question is will Ricciardo keep his seat having been told he needs to consistently finish ahead of the Japanese driver.
Ricciardo, who has won eight Grand Prix, including Monaco in 2018, has instead been the dominated driver.
Tsunoda has found his mojo alongside Ricciardo after finding himself losing a tenth or more by losing focus during bleeped outbursts of temper in past seasons.
In the background to all this is former Australian driver Mark Webber, a nine-times Grand Prix winner and near world champion, who manages Oscar Piastri.
Webber has proved himself as successful a manager as he was a driver. Alpine tried to hold Piastri to a contract last year that he said he never signed.
The FIA agreed, which put Piastri alongside Lando Norris at McLaren. The 23-year-old is as cool off the track as he is on it, even taking a nap at the press conference race on Sunday while waiting for Leclerc to turn up.
The laid-back Piastri said he got more sleep then than the night before the race.
How cool is this guy?
Results of the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix
26th May 2024
| POS | DRIVER | CAR | TIME |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charles Leclerc | FERRARI | 23:15.6 |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | MCLAREN MERCEDES | +7.152s |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz | FERRARI | +7.585s |
| 4 | Lando Norris | MCLAREN MERCEDES | +8.650s |
| 5 | George Russell | MERCEDES | +13.309s |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | +13.853s |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | MERCEDES | +14.908s |
| 8 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB HONDA RBPT | +1 lap |
| 9 | Alexander Albon | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | +1 lap |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly | ALPINE RENAULT | +1 lap |
| 11 | Fernando Alonso | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | +2 laps |
| 12 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB HONDA RBPT | +2 laps |
| 13 | Valtteri Bottas | KICK SAUBER FERRARI | +2 laps |
| 14 | Lance Stroll | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | +2 laps |
| 15 | Logan Sargeant | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | +2 laps |
| 16 | Zhou Guanyu | KICK SAUBER FERRARI | +2 laps |
| NC | Esteban Ocon | ALPINE RENAULT | DNF |
| NC | Sergio Perez | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | DNF |
| NC | Nico Hulkenberg | HAAS FERRARI | DNF |
| NC | Kevin Magnussen | HAAS FERRARI | DNF |
PETER COSTER is a former editor and foreign correspondent who has covered a range of international sports, including world championship fights and the Olympic Games.
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