The start of the Monaco Grand Prix was initially delayed by the race director, Eduardo Freitas , due to the rain that was falling at the time and its expected increase in intensity.
When it was announced that there would be a formation lap behind the safety car, all teams were forced to fit extreme wet tyres.
Tires need to be mounted five minutes before the start, and some teams were less prepared than others for the late change. That caused another delay, to give them room to make the switch to rain tires.
The cars went two laps behind the safety car before a torrential downpour caused a red flag, without the race having officially started.
Adding to all of this were further delays as rain affected some of the electrical systems used by F1 and the FIA before the race finally got underway.
The teams were also confused by some non-standard messages appearing on the timing screens.
“I think it should be looked at a bit because it’s been a bit chaotic, with tires coming in and out of the grid,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner .
“It’s a pretty busy grid here already, and it’s always a bit dangerous trying to get ahead of the time.”
“You can debate it both ways. You could say we would have been better off starting the race and reacting to the downpour, and bringing out the safety car or stopping the race, but I think it needs to be looked at a bit after this weekend.” .
Asked by Motorsport.com about what appeared to be some strange decisions by race management, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto highlighted the delay that allowed teams to fit the extreme wet tires within the mandatory five-week window. minutes before departure.
Ferrari was one of the teams that managed to meet that requirement without the extra time.
“You call it [that] yourself, weird decisions,” he said. “But I can only say that we were a team that was fully prepared on the grid. We had the extreme rain tires fitted to the cars in time.”
“And I think at that point, we were certainly in a strong position, and it’s good for us to show that we were at least organized, showing that we have great ability as well.”
“And sometimes we are going the right way to, let’s say, make the right decisions, but unfortunately the race management decided to also postpone the start of the test. Now, why is it necessary? I’m not sure. I think We should ask them why.”
However, Mercedes director Toto Wolff believed that delaying the start when the rain was heavy was the right decision.
“I think the rain at the beginning was torrential, I don’t think you can start the race with thunderstorms coming to Monaco like that,” he said. “So I don’t have a problem with the start being delayed multiple times.”
“And you have to give Freitas and the race directors credit that it’s been a very difficult event to manage. I would have expected an earlier start when it dried up, but I think there was a connectivity issue with Biggin Hill [the digital headquarters]. of F1]. And that’s why they couldn’t get it going.”
“So, overall, the format as it was, it was more of a football game, so you could go get hotdogs and beer in between. But I think at first you couldn’t do anything else.”
McLaren boss Andreas Seidl supported the decision to delay the start, citing the need to reduce the risk of accidents in the budget cap era.
“I would say that in the end it was the right thing, what the race director decided,” said the German. “I think there was no need to start the race knowing what the weather forecast was like and to rush, because it just doesn’t make sense to end up risking a lot of accidents, especially on this track, so from this point of view everything has been done right, safety comes first.
“I support the decisions that have been made. It makes no sense, knowing what the weather forecasts were like, to take these big unnecessary risks, and in those conditions you couldn’t run,” he added.
“The cars were aquaplaning everywhere. Visibility was poor. From a team point of view, to be honest, knowing how short we are on parts this year because of the cost cap, one of the positives of this race is that the two cars are still in one piece”.
“For our part, it was also clear from the weather forecast that continuous rain was expected, and so we simply had to wait until the window opened again where the rain got lighter or stopped.”
