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In order to pay tribute to Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus, 40 years after his passing in 1982, the organizers of Grand Prix de Monaco Historique launched 34 cars of the legendary brand entered in this 13th edition, on Saturday, for a memorable lap of honour, after a photo shoot around Clive Chapman, Colin’s son, and several heirs of the most brilliant engineer in the history of F1.
It was a moment of grace, one more, on this circuit of Monaco where Lotus has so often triumphed: 7 wins in the most glamorous GP on the calendar, between the two initial successes of Stirling Moss (1960, 1961) and the ultimate triumph, achieved by the incomparable Ayrton Senna in 1987, with a Renault engine in his back. “It’s great to see how the Automobile Club of Monaco wishes to honor the memory of my father“, said Clive Chapman Friday in the paddock, in front of the tent sheltering his Lotus Classic Cars team.
There was no surprise and German Marco Werner, in his 1982 Lotus 87, took pole for Race G, in the “Ayrton Senna” series reserved for F1 cars produced between 1981 and 1985, but without turbo engines, too powerful and too complicated to manage on a weekend of historic races. A triple winner of Le Mans 24 Hours, Werner finally beat Briton Michael Lyons by one second, in his 1983 Lotus 92. Third place on the grid goes to David Shaw, in his 1982 Arrows A4 carrying the colors of Ragno Italian ceramics. American driver Ken Tyrrell, a namesake of famous “Uncle Ken” in the 70s, will start in the Top 10, at the wheel of his… Tyrrell 011 victorious in Detroit in 1983, with Michele Alboreto at the wheel.
He was the obvious favorite for pole in the F Series, but Michael Lyons was beaten on Saturday, at the last minute of qualifying, in his blue Hesketh 308 carrying the colors of Penthouse men’s magazine.
His best time, for most of the session, was eventually beaten by Miles Griffiths, in a yellow 1977 Fittipaldi: 1:30.653 (vs 1:30.820 for Lyons), on his last lap before the checkered flag for this high-flying session. The British drivers shone, as in Friday’s free practice. Behind Griffiths and Lyons, Michael Cantillon, 4th in his Tyrrell 010 ex-Alboreto, will be sandwiched on the grid, on Sunday, between two Williams cars, the FW06 of David Shaw (3rd) and the FW07 of Mark Hazel (5th).
Jamie Constable‘s American Shadow DN8 crashed into Frédéric Lajoux‘s Arrows at the start of the session, at La Rascasse. The Monégasque had to stop there and will start at the back on the grid on Sunday.
Surprise in the A2 Series “Juan Manuel Fangio”: Alex Birkenstock was expected at the wheel of the Ferrari 246, but Claudia Hürtgen replaced him at short notice and set the best time (1:52.421) of these qualifications to ensure a pole start on Sunday. In this series, a Ferrari – Maserati battle was an option, but Tony Wood drove his 1959 Tec-Mec F415 into second place, two tenths behind Mrs Hürtgen, ahead of Joaquin Folch-Rusinol‘s Lotus 16.
This great qualifying day, with 8 series on the menu, was launched by the B Series, called “Graham Hill” and divided into 3 classes. Mark Shaw, driving a Lotus 21, and Joseph Colasacco, who drives Lorenzo Bandini‘s Ferrari 1512, went head to head, flying above their class and the prancing horse single-seater was eventually the fastest car on track in 1:47.631 .
In the A1 Series “Louis Chiron”, we had to wait until the very end of the qualifying session to see Mark Gillies take pole position! The American pushed his 1934 ERA R3A to the limit and managed to edge out his little sister, the 1935 ERA R4A driven by Nicholas Topliss. We were expecting these two single-seaters at the top of the classification; it’s done ! See you on Sunday for the final duel.
It was the last session of the day and German Marco Werner, in a 40-year-old Lotus 87, finished at the top of the timesheets in the free practice session of the G Series, dubbed “Ayrton Senna” and reserved to F1s produced between 1981 and 1985, at the beginning of the era of turbo engines. Triple winner of Le Mans 24 Hours, Werner was almost two seconds faster than gentleman driver Christophe d’Ansembourg, at the wheel of a 1981 Williams FW07C, driven that year by reigning World Champion Alan Jones (2nd in Monaco). Werner’s great rival, Britain’s Michael Lyons, had to settle for 6th position, in his 1983 Lotus 92. Qualifying will start Saturday morning at 8:15 a.m. with the B Series opening another beautiful day on the Monaco Circuit.
Free practice for the F Series, at the end of the afternoon, allowed the British drivers to shine with a thousand lights: seven drivers of his Gracious Majesty in the Top 7, followed by Monaco’s Fred Lajoux, at the wheel of his black and gold Arrows, the one and only non-Brit in the Top 10.
Michael Lyons, in a blue Hesketh 308 carrying the colors of Penthouse magazine, was the fastest, in 1:31.265, while completing only 11 laps, ahead of the Tyrrell (ex-Alboreto) of Michael Cantillon, followed by Miles Griffiths, in a yellow 1977 Fittipaldi, and David Shaw in a 1979 Williams FW06, the year before Alan Jones won the world title. As for Nicolas Matile, the Monegasque florist, he took a very honorable 13th place on Friday the 13th of this 13th edition…
Stoffel Vandoorne (Mercedes-EQ) won the 5th Monaco E-Prix on Saturday, starting from 4th place on the grid and perfectly managing the incidents of an intense and thrilling race from start to finish, to beat under the flag Mitch Evans (Jaguar ), who started from pole position, and Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Techeetah), which allows him to jump in the lead of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.
The Belgian now holds 81 points, ahead of Vergne (75), Evans (72) and Frijns (71), after 6 rounds out of 16 scheduled this Season 8. This is Vandoorne’s third victory in Formula E, after Berlin in 2020 and Rome in 2021. Above all, it is the first victory for an electric Mercedes in Monaco, in the last season for the German brand in Formula E. And it allows Mercedes to retain the lead of the constructors’ championship with 120 points, ahead of DS Techeetah (105) and Jaguar (94). The situation is therefore in the process of settling in this Season 8.
At the start, Evans started ahead of Wehrlein, Vergne, Vandoorne, Di Grassi, Lotterer, De Vries and Frijns. Da Costa, last year’s winner, was the first to switch to Attack Mode to take 9th place, behind de Vries. In the lead, the waltz of passages to Attack Mode allowed Wehrlein, who had started alongside Evans on the front row, to take control and stay in the lead for a while. Halfway through the race, the German in a Porsche led the way, ahead of Vergne, Vandoorne and Evans.
When Wehrlein slowed down and stalled at the exit of the tunnel, the Marshalls of Automobile Club of Monaco (ACM), whose expert unit was founded 50 years ago by President Michel Boeri, swiftly pushed the Porsche towards the chicane, where he parked it for good. At that time, for maximum safety, the “Full Course Yellow”, triggered immediately by the race direction, forced all his rivals to drive at a maximum speed of 50 km/h. Too bad for JEV and Di Grassi, who had just chosen to use the Attack Mode and couldn’t take advantage of it, which served Vandoorne and Evans well.
The following incident involved the other Porsche of Andre Lotterer, pushed about the safety barrier at Sainte Dévote by the out of control Nissan of Oliver Rowland, under the eyes of a delighted Robin Frijns (Envision). Enough to cause the appearance of the Safety Car when Vandoorne had just activated his Fan Boost. There were only about ten minutes left when the race started again, with Vandoorne ahead of Evans, Vergne and di Grassi, followed by Frijns, Da Costa and Mortara. The race director then added four minutes, to take into account the neutralization by the Safety Car, and Evans used his last Attack Mode to go past Vergne and swoop down on Vandoorne, who resisted until the end to the New Zealander in a Jaguar.
So this was the composition of the final podium, ahead of Frijns, Da Costa and di Grassi, 6th, who saved the honor of Venturi, at home, while teammate Edoardo Mortara, once again cursed in the Principality, had finished the race in slow motion before parking for good. As for the day’s comeback, it was achieved by Seb Buemi (Nissan), winner of the first two editions (2015, 2017) and 9th under the checkered flag, although he started on the 22nd (and last) place on the grid.
“Monaco is one of the most special races you can win as a driver”, reacted Vandoorne, delighted, getting out of his electric Mercedes. He had already won in the Principality, in 2015, during the feature GP2 race (the old name of F2). “The luck finally turned in our favour, but I had an incredible feeling in the car, it was perfect, so a big thanks to the whole team,” the Belgian winner added.
Beaten but overall happy with his day, Vergne summed up the situation well: “It was a good race for us, but we were unlucky with the Attack Mode, we clearly wasted it with the Full Course Yellow. I would have liked to fight for the win today but I will be satisfied with these good points. We have to keep working and I am looking forward to continuing this season”. It will be in Berlin, May 14 and 15, for the 7th and 8th rounds of this wonderful Season 8.
Not only was he the very first winner of a Monaco E-Prix, but he remains the one and only double winner: in 2015 and again in 2017, Sébastien Buemi was untouchable in the streets of the Principality. The first time was historic, as the first ever race for Formula E in Europe, along Port Hercule, in a shortened version of Circuit de Monaco. That day, starting from pole position, Buemi (e.dams Renault) won after a race started by a pile-up at the first corner, between six cars. Two years later, still on a shortened circuit, Buemi again started on pole and again he won, after 51 laps, ahead of Lucas di Grassi (2nd) and Nick Heidfeld (3rd).
We are now in 2022 and the Swiss driver is less often at the forefront, because his Franco-Japanese team is not as efficient as before, but he is optimistic because he is back in Monaco: “We are coming out of two difficult years, and for us here it’s is closer to Mexico, with very fast corners, for FEs, and a softer surface, very different from Rome, so it should suit us better. FE is very tight now, so you have to score points all the time, even if you don’t win. The winner is the one who makes the fewest mistakes, and not necessarily the one who is the fastest, because it is very difficult to optimize the whole package. In fact, you have to be consistent all year round”.
A former FE champion, in 2016, a double endurance world champion, a three-time Le Mans winner, Buemi is well placed to judge the new regulations that are being put in place: “It’s difficult to get everything right with the regulations, because you have to make a compromise between technology, the show and the rest. In Europe, it’s cultural, we always want to have a lot of technology in the cars, whereas in Indycar it seems that they have had the same cars for 15 years”, Buemi smiles. “Before in FE, there were big gaps between the teams, but this year it’s very close in performance, only a few tenths between several teams,” adds Buemi. This is precisely what makes him optimistic for this weekend, because the famous cliché is “never two without three” and he feels that he has a chance.
Then remains the topic of the moment, the Gen3 presented on Thursday 28 April in Monaco as a world premiere: “The new Gen3 single-seater will correspond to a +step+ of a few seconds per lap, but it may be necessary to wait for another generation of cars until it really becomes impressive”, tempers Buemi. He continues endurance, with Toyota, but he still loves FE. He was entered in all eight seasons since the founding of the discipline (4-time vice-champion, in addition to his 2016 title), he won 13 times, he scored over 800 points, so he remains one of the benchmarks of the category: “It is progressing well, there is a much better brand awareness all round, but FE should never stop improving”, Buemi warns. He is as wise as he is lucid, and aware that the competition remains severe, from other categories. It’s up to the FE to play, again this weekend in Monaco, and then with the Gen3. Game on.
Formula E’s Gen3 all-electric race car was unveiled on Thursday at the Yacht Club de Monaco, ahead of the Monaco E-Prix race weekend. And everybody invited was stunned by the sheer beauty of the new car, set to race from Season 9.
The official unveiling was a very special event on the site of one of the most glamourous motor racing events of this world. A special event for manufacturers, teams, drivers, partners and VIP guests, but fans all over the world were also able to experience the show via the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship’s digital channels, in order to get a first in-depth look.
“Formula E’s Gen3 race car represents a leap forward for motorsport and electric mobility,” sayd Jamie Reigle, Formula E CEO. “Designed to demonstrate that high performance, efficiency and sustainability can be packaged together without compromise, the Gen3 car is our most powerful, lightest, and fastest race car to date. We are happy that we finally took the covers off the Gen3 in Monaco, a location steeped in motor racing history, and we are eager to see this car lighting up city streets around the world next season.”
While the world saw the Gen3 race car for the first time, on Thursday, Formula E has its sights further into the future of all-electric single-seater motorsport. In Monaco, Formula E and the FIA have also planned to host a roundtable event bringing together leaders from manufacturers across the automotive sector. This summit is designed to focus on potential innovations and technology roadmaps for the Gen4 era, as Formula E affirms its position as the pinnacle of electric mobility development and racing.
