The Monaco Grand Prix

The Encounter Down Under ii www.encounterdownunder.com The Encounter Down Under The Encounter Down Under iii The Encounter Down Under iv www.encounterdownunder.com The Encounter Down Under The Encounter Down Under An alternate version of the 1994 Formula One season By Christiaan W. Lustig v The Encounter Down Under You are free: • to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: • Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they en- dorse you or your use of the work). • Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial pur- poses. • No Derivative Works. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. • For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. 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Read the full Legal Code on http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- nd/3.0/legalcode vi www.encounterdownunder.com The Encounter Down Under Table of contents Table of contents....................................................................................vii Part II: the Fight-Back..............................................................................1 Chapter 5: The Monaco Grand Prix.................................................... 3 Chapter 6: The Spanish Grand Prix ................................................. 19 vii The Encounter Down Under viii www.encounterdownunder.com The Encounter Down Under Part II: the Fight-Back 1 The Encounter Down Under 2 www.encounterdownunder.com The Encounter Down Under Chapter 5: The Monaco Grand Prix The jewel in the crown that is Formula One was next on the F1 calendar, the Grand Prix de Monaco. But this year the tragic events in Italy, a fortnight earlier, cast a shadow over the race. Roland Ratzenberger had been buried under massive media attention, and with many Grand Prix drivers, past and present, as well as representatives from the FIA and the Formula One Constructors’ Association (FOCA) attending. Since the last race, the FIA had ordered an inquiry into the death of Roland Ratzenberger. Italian magistrates had ordered a post-mortem on the killed Austrian, while also confiscating Ratzenberger’s Simtek-Ford and all available video footage of the accident. Prosecutors, meanwhile, informed the managing director of the Imola track, Federico Bendinelli, that he is under suspicion of culpable homicide. On the Tuesday before the Monaco Grand Prix, Damon Hill called for action to reduce the dangers of Grand Prix racing after the death of Roland Ratzenberger and the severe crashes at the San Marino GP, amongst which that of his Williams teammate Ayrton Senna. Hill said that the structure of cars was such that drivers were unable to survive the shock of high-speed crashes. “Drivers will drive in the most perilous conditions, because com- petition is stupendously fierce and there are any number of hopefuls ready to fill the void.” Jean Alesi returned to the wheel for the Monaco Grand Prix. Expecta- tions for him were high, because his substitute, Nicola Larini, had man- aged to qualify the Ferrari in seventh and sixth, and had finished second to Michael Schumacher at Imola. For Monaco, the FIA decided to leave the first grid position empty, painting an Austrian flag on the tarmac in honour of Roland Ratzenberger. The late driver’s team, Simtek, ran a single car in the streets of Monte Carlo, for regular David Brabham. 3 The Encounter Down Under On Wednesday morning, Ayrton Senna gave his first interview after his San Marino accident. “I am very happy to be here again,” said the Bra- zilian to a gathering of newspaper journalists, magazine writers, and tele- vision reporters, “especially after my crash in Imola. It was a heavy impact, which knocked me unconscious, but professor Watkins and his team worked hard to help me. On the Wednesday after the race, I was released from the hospital by doctor Fiandri — whom I would like to thank for eve- rything that she and her team have done — and I travelled by car back to my apartment, here in Monaco. There I recovered and worked on my physical condition, trained my neck muscles for the next race and so on.” Senna also talked about his discussions with old rival Alain Prost over the San Marino Grand Prix weekend: “Since Alain retired, we often spoke on the telephone, usually about safety. We had a conversation on the Fri- day, and I saw him again on the Sunday morning. I would like Alain to keep involved with safety in Formula One. We were going to speak again the following week, but since I was in hospital, that has not happened yet. But we will meet again here in Monte Carlo.” Lastly, Senna extended his condolences to the Ratzenberger family: “It was a very sad weekend in Imola, because we lost Roland. My thoughts are with those he left behind, and I pray to God that we, in Formula One, learn from this, and that Roland will not have died for nothing.” History The Monaco Grand Prix was the seventh oldest GP, after the French, Italian, Belgian, British, Spanish and German races. It is still considered one of the three most important races in the world, together with the Le Mans 24 hours race, and the Indianapolis 500. Held on a narrow circuit through the streets of Monte Carlo, and with its many elevation changes and tight turns, the race was one of the most demanding on the Formula One calendar. The first Monaco Grand Prix, held in 1929, was won by Brit- ish expatriate William Grover-Williams in a Bugatti. For the ‘33 event, starting grid positions were decided by practice time for the first time, 4 www.encounterdownunder.com The Encounter Down Under rather than a ballot. The race was a round of the European Drivers’ Cham- pionship in ‘36 and ‘37. After the Second World War, in 1946, the newly formed Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), established Formula One regula- tions, to which the Monaco Grand Prix was first run in ‘48; the race was won by Italian Nino Farina. In ‘50, the race through the streets of Monte Carlo was included in the new World Drivers’ Championship. Juan Manuel Fangio took his first Championship victory that year. After having been run to Sports Car rules in 1951 and ’52, the race had been a continuous part of the World Championship since ‘55. That year, double World Cham- pion Alberto Ascari spectacularly crashed his car into the harbour. Ten years later, Briton Paul Hawkins’ Lotus ended up in the water, too. A simi- lar incident was included in the 1966 film Grand Prix. The only native to ever win the Monaco Grand Prix, was Louis Chi- ron, who took victory for Bugatti in 1931. In the World Championship era, he came third in 1950, while in 1955 he came sixth, missing out on a point, but, at 55, becoming the oldest driver to compete in a Grand Prix. In 1958 he entered his home race for the last time, but the then-58-year-old failed to qualify. Graham Hill won the Monaco Grand Prix a record five times in the 1960s and became known as “Mr. Monaco”. That record was only broken in 1993, when Ayrton Senna lifted his sixth Monte Carlo victory, and his fifth consecutive on the streets of the principality. The previous nine races, only the Brazilian and his life-long rival Alain Prost had taken the honours. The former team-mates had taken McLaren into shared first place with most victories in Monaco, at 9 each. However, Ferrari had achieved those from 1952 through 1981, while McLaren had taken only 10 editions to do so, losing out only once, ironically to a Lotus-Honda driven by Ayrton Senna. Thursday practice and qualifying 5 The Encounter Down Under As per tradition, the first practice and qualifying session for the Mon- aco Grand Prix, are held on the Thursday prior to the race. This allows for the public to be out and about again on Fridays, while the racing drivers and team members mingle at social events. Another tradition, is the fact that the race always starts at half past three — ninety minutes later than most other Grands Prix. Returning to the car in the competitive arena for the first time since his crash at Imola, Ayrton Senna recorded the fastest time in Thursday morning’s practice. He was followed by Michael Schumacher, almost a second adrift, and Martin Brundle, who was a further second behind. Tyr- rell-driver Mark Blundell surprised with fourth spot, ahead of equally as- tonishing Érik Comas, for Larrousse. Mika Häkkinen led Gerhard Berger and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, while Damon Hill and Jean Alesi completed the top ten. J.J. Lehto was twelfth quickest, while Rubens Barrichello had to settle for fifteenth spot. Late in Thursday morning’s practice session, however, Karl Wendlin- ger had a major accident at the Nouvelle Chicane. While exiting the tunnel, the Sauber driver braked as much as thirteen meters later than on his previous lap, sliding the car with its nose pointing left, past the chicane’s turn- in point, and sideways towards the barrier. Wendlinger hit with the wall, which had a façade of impact-absorbing plastic, with the right sidepod, at close to 280 km/h. The enormous forces caused the Austrian to lose con- sciousness, while the car quickly slid to a halt, just right from the barrier, on the escape road.

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