Monaco Forgettable, Enter Full Throttle’s Wayback Machine
Well, that was a um… a race.
Monaco went pretty much went as expected except for someone, who shall remain nameless, who thought it “could be a really exciting Monaco race.”
Silly wankers aside, unless something drastic happens the Dear Boy and Brawn has it all going their way and the season is becoming somewhat of an anticlimax.
In that light why bother with a race recap, I’ve opted to send you all into FT’s wayback machine to a time when men were men, race cars were as fragile as GrandMa’s best china and race commentator Jim Palmer looked to be 15 years old.
Included are six video segments of the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix.
2009 Drivers’ championship
Jenson Button 51
Rubens Barrichello 35
Sebastian Vettel 23
Mark Webber 19.5
Jarno Trulli 14.5
Timo Glock 12
Fernando Alonso 11
Kimi Raikkonen 9
Lewis Hamilton 9
Felipe Massa 8
Nico Rosberg 7.5
Nick Heidfeld 6
Heikki Kovalainen 4
Sebastien Buemi 3
Sebastien Bourdais 2
Kazuki Nakajima 0
Giancarlo Fisichella 0
Nelson Piquet Jnr 0
Adrian Sutil 0
Robert Kubica 0
2009 Constructors’ championship
Brawn 86
Red Bull 42.5
Toyota 26.5
Ferrari 17
McLaren 13
Renault 11
Williams 7.5
BMW 6
Toro Rosso 5
Force India 0
The 1961 World Championship - with its new 1.5-liter formula - did not start until mid May. Cooper retained the 1960 driver lineup of Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren while Ferrari stayed with Ritchie Ginther, Phil Hill and Wolfgang Von Trips. Jo Bonnier and Dan Gurney had transferred from BRM to the Porsche F1 team with Hans Herrmann, while BRP had lost Tony Brooks to BRM and Olivier Gendebien to the new Equipe Nationale Belge which had a pair of Emeryson-Maseratis. John Surtees had transferred from Team Lotus to drive a Reg Parnell Racing Cooper.
Practice saw Jim Clark crash his Lotus heavily at Ste Devote and Lotus’s woes continued when Innes Ireland crashed in the tunnel during the final session, destroying his car and breaking his leg. Moss took pole in his Rob Walker Lotus with Ginther’s Ferrari and Clark’s Lotus sharing the front row. Graham and Phil Hill shared the second row.
At the start Ginther took the lead from Clark and Moss but Jimmy soon had to pit with fuel pump problems and so Bonnier and Gurney took third and fourth in their Porsches.
On lap 14 both Moss and Bonnier were able to pass Ginther and 10 laps later Phil Hill passed both his team mate and Bonnier to move into second but there was no way he was going to catch Moss, who was driving one of the greatest races of his illustrious career. Towards mid-distance Ginther fought back, passing Hill for second and chasing after Moss, closing the gap to just three seconds. Moss responded and won a magnificent victory despite an enormous power disadvantage. Hill finished third and Von Trips was classified fourth despite crashing on the last lap.
Ah how can I remain nameless if in the next sentance you label me a silly wanker?
Ok, so it wasn’t the most exciting race but there was more action in the mid pack then you see at most Monte Carlo events. Webber, Massa, Vettel, Alonso & Rosberg all provided some entertainment.
Did you notice that cryptic comment Brundle made about Alonso going to Ferrari next year. My read on the “But who woould he replace?” comment is that it could be either driver. ITV’s guys are claiming it is a done done deal & Fred will be in red overalls next year.
Good question Peter, one that I take the Fifth Amendment on and won’t incriminate myself in answering.
I didn’t here the Brundle non-sense as I watched the SpeedTV feed vice the BBC’s but sure did hear Nelsino whine and cry about “young F1 drivers” after he got punted in the ass by Beumi.
The nerve! The unmitigated audacity!
Piquet is the last one to talk. Buemi has achieved more in 5 races than Piquet F1 career. Piquet’s one podium was pure luck.
Great videos Marc, we appreciate your research. I especially marvel at the bicycle tires (with treads!) and the foot operated air pump in the first segment.
But have no illusions, passing during the “Glory Years” was as difficult then as it is now, albeit there were no aero losses trailing other cars. Reliability, tire management (pit stops not required) and ultimately driver cojones, determined the winner.
The driver cojones part was referencing the risks drivers took. As Sterling Moss once said, if Fangio committed as many errors as Schumacher he would have been dead a long time ago.
Ase your write up acknowledges, if they made a mistake they usually were severely injured or worse.
Thanks George, not much research involved, the wonders of the internet and all.
In reality other than Piquet’s dumb remark there wasn’t much to write about.
Before Peter has a chance to skewer me “Arse” should have been “As”.
No worries, I’ll just ban Peter and send him to your place to raise hell.
Fine by me, I will darken your monitor no more. LOL