Stars & Cars at Monaco Historique GP

Star quality in the Monaco Historique Grand Prix. We had Charles Leclerc on track, Max Verstappen in the paddock, Jacky Ickx behind the wheel and tons of action you could admire up close. This was the 13^th Monaco Historique Grand Prix.

The Automobile Club de Monaco had opted to use driver themes, like Chiron, Fangio, Hill, Vittorio Marzotto (for the fifties front-engined sports cars), Stewart, Lauda, Villeneuve and Senna to represent the different classes. The focus lay firmly on single-seaters, but we saw some great sports cars as well. In the prestigious setting of Monaco, anything looks good. But hearing and seeing for the first time a DFV Cosworth fly through the tunnel, we can now say we witnessed something truly special. Oh, and we won’t hear anything for weeks to come, but it was worth it.

Leclerc

The big talking point was of course Charles Leclerc’s incident. The Monegasque Ferrari driver hit the barrier at Rascasse on a demo lap in a Niki Lauda Ferrari 312B3 (1974). It was a very unfortunate event, as quickly it turned out suffered from a brake problem. More than making jokes about Leclerc’s legendary misfortune at his home circuit, we should count ourselves very lucky his brakes did not fail at the exit of the tunnel.

Leclerc was visibly shaken by the whole thing and how it reflected on him. We would like to salute Jacky Ickx, who took Leclerc under his wings as they got out of the car and comforted him with ‘it’s nothing’. Which is exactly what this was: nothing.

Lotus wins

Ah, a Ferrari incident. What does that remind us of? Oh yes, last year’s controversial incident involving Jean Alesi – in a Ferrari 312B3, different chassis though – and Marco Werner in a Lotus 77. Werner was, incorrectly, punished and stripped of his victory.

This year, the three-time Le Mans winner had his revenge, dominating in Class G in the Chrome Cars-entered Lotus 87. His teammates Nick Padmore (Lotus 88B) and Michael Lyons (Lotus 92) made it an all black and gold podium.

Full results can be found here.

The next historic GP at Monaco will take place on 10 – 12 May, 2024.