Formula 1’s governing body has provided details regarding the events which took place at the start of the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix and has defended the handling of the evenit in Monte Carlo, after the weather conditions led to a delay of about one hour and a crash then caused another long stoppage.
Many fans on social media were surprised and questioning why Formula One drivers were not allowed to start the Monaco Grand Prix despite the rain which hit the track just moments before the scheduled start. Fans also recalled previous races on the streets of Monte Carlo held in torrential rain.
Mercedes’s seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton, who had said after Saturday’s qualifying that he hoped rain would mix things up, said he had wanted to go racing.
“We are Formula One drivers, so that is definitely not a good reason,” the Briton said when told the delay was because there had been no practice running on wet tyres earlier in the weekend. I was, like, let’s go when it was just drizzling a little bit at the beginning. We will talk about it in the drivers’ briefing but we should have started the race,” he added.
A spokesman for the governing FIA explained that the long second delay was in fact caused by a power outage which affected the start systems. As a result, the call to hold rolling starts, instead of standing ones, was because some drivers would have been disadvantaged by wet asphalt when others were on the dry.
The stoppage after Ferrari junior Mick Schumacher crashed was for safety reasons, as marshals were working hard to repair the barrier. This meant the Monaco Grand Prix had to be shortened to 64 laps from 77. Formula One has two race directors sharing duties after previous incumbent Michael Masi was removed following the controversial events which took place in the last round of the 2021 Formula One season, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, when Max Verstappen won the title in the last lap.
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On Sunday, drivers did two formation laps behind the safety car before red flags were waved and the cars returned to the pits.
“It’s raining like crazy,” Scuderia Ferrari driver and home favourite Charles Leclerc said over team radio just moments before the race director decided to stop the event. The start was originally scheduled for 1500 local (1300GMT) but the formation lap was delayed to 1509, when the rain was not heavy, and then 1516 behind the safety car as conditions deteriorated.
The race finally started at 1605 local, with the field doing another formation lap behind the safety car.
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