The main talking point of last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix has been the discussion regarding why race and championship leader Lewis Hamilton made a pit stop under the safety car, surrendering both first and second place to his chief championship rivals.
However, what should be of greater concern to Formula One is the reason the safety car was brought out in the first place – Max Verstappen’s violent collision with the barriers at Turn 1.
Thankfully Verstappen was OK, despite the high-speed impact with the wall. The Dutchman tore his left front wheel from his mountings in the act of attempting a pass on Lotus’ Romain Grosjean on the run down to the lap’s first 90-degree right hander.
While the 17-year-old is hardly the first driver to fall victim to Monaco’s treacherously tight layout, it was the nature of his accident that should cause concern for Formula One. Having impressed many commentators with his early season performances in 2015, including a seventh place finish in Malaysia, Verstappen has shown enormous potential and a willingness to take the race by the scruff of the neck to make things happen.
Several of the passes he has made, particularly at hairpin turns in Malaysia and China, have shown his extreme daring to stick his nose into apexes under braking, and his skill at getting the car stopped and turned has truly been a sight to behold. However, Monaco doesn’t reward bravery in the same way.
On the twisty circuits of the Mediterranean city, there are no expansive run-off areas, no chances to exceed the track limits, and no chances to miss braking points. For drivers, there is one word that best describes this circuit – unforgiving.
Verstappen’s lack of experience at the circuit didn’t seem to hold him back initially, as the Dutchman drove with great intent in the race’s early stages from tenth on the grid. He maintained good pace for most of the race, and put the foot down as the race passed lap 50.
Having been lapped, he then came up with the idea of surprising his fellow backmarkers by exploiting blue flags shown to the leaders and passing the unsuspecting slower cars. It’s this kind of creative race craft that has him hallmarked by many experts as a future world champion.
On a track like Silverstone or Monza, this manipulation of blue flags is a brilliant idea. In Monaco, however, it’s a recipe for disaster.
When Grosjean was cunning enough to hold up the Toro Rosso driver and stop his newly-found, free-pass technique, Verstappen had to revert to pure speed. Watching the race, you couldn’t help but sense something serious was about to happen. About four laps before the inevitable I said to my dad, “Verstappen is going to cause a serious accident if he keeps this up”.
And he did.
After hounding Grosjean for a few laps, Verstappen embarked on one of his trademark ambitious late-braking moves, on this occasion into the Sainte Devote corner, when it all went horribly wrong.
As Grosjean hit the brakes, Verstappen stayed on the throttle looking for the inside line and a chance to outbrake his opponent. He couldn’t get enough room and went careering into the Lotus’ right rear tyre, with his front wing, suspension and wheel disintegrating, and dooming him to meet the Armco barrier with a powerful, head-on thud.
Drivers can get away with such a move on tracks with large run-off areas of Abu Dhabi or Bahrain, but in Monaco, drivers have to be extremely skilled to make a gamble like Verstappen’s pay off.
The skills needed to complete a move like that only come with practice, and Verstappen shouldn’t have been so aggressive in his first race around the circuit. According to Williams’ driver, and veteran of 216 Grands Prix, Felipe Massa, Verstappen’s lack of experience was a major player in the race-changing Monaco incident.
“It shows that maybe experience counts in Formula One and I think they need to teach about this type of accident,” he told Eurosport.
“To be honest he was not even in a position to overtake… He just braked behind, much later and what happened was very dangerous.”
What is most concerning about the move is how dangerous it was. Yes, Formula One is a dangerous sport and all of the drivers acknowledge that regularly. But Verstappen blatantly risked his own safety as well as those of the drivers around him, which drivers can’t afford to do in their dangerous profession, particularly at the brutal Circuit de Monaco.
Speaking at a Mercedes event in 2012, Michael Schumacher himself acknowledged how dangerous the Monaco race was when he said, “In a way, you could look at it with a big portion of irony with regards to the contradiction that, for so many years we have successfully campaigned for more track safety, and then we deliberately race in Monaco.”
The stewards did investigate the incident after the race, handing Verstappen a five-place grid penalty for the next race in Canada. Hopefully this will have the desired effect and force the teenager to consider his passing manoeuvres more carefully in future, without discouraging him completely.
However, if it doesn’t, and he continues to drive so recklessly, what will be the consequences for both Verstappen and Formula One?
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