Monaco Grand Prix delayed after kitchen fire floods famous tunnel

We've all seen starts to a Formula 1 grand prix delayed, but has there ever been one quite as bizarre as 1981 at the Monaco Grand Prix?

The usual excuse for these can be quite mundane. Maybe there is a barrier out of place following a crash in a support race, maybe the threat of rain necessitates a delay - because we can't have starts like the 2007 European Grand Prix anymore (look it up, it's so so good).

But how about a kitchen fire causing arguably the most famous grand prix in the world to be delayed by an hour?

In 1981, drivers were all preparing for the 3.30pm dash around Monte Carlo when a bizarre incident which did not even take place in the F1 paddock kept racing under wraps for an hour.

ANALYSIS: Ferrari just chose their guy and it is not Lewis Hamilton

Fire at the Monaco Grand Prix

The fire had started in the Loews Hotel (now known as the Fairmont Hotel), which can be found on the tight hairpin (the one in the main image to this article) near the tunnel on the F1 track. This bit of detail is important.

Although fire crew were quick to put out the fire inside the kitchen of the hotel, the water used was never just going to sit around before evaporating, it of course did what water does and headed for the bottom.

This bottom just happened to be the tunnel on the Monaco track, meaning before the race start there was the prospect of a dry circuit and drivers on slick tyres heading into a flooded Monaco tunnel soaked in water.

If you ever watch the 1981 Monaco Grand Prix you will see that F1's idea of safety back then was to put retired cars off the racing line on the track and let drivers get on with it. This includes placing two cars behind each other in the run up the hill after Turn 1 at St Devote, and another on the run down the hill after Casino. Absolute madness!

And yet, despite this level of safety in F1 at the time, even they could see that F1 cars, dry tyres, tunnels, barriers and walls was a terrible combination to throw in with human bodies.

Who won the 1981 Monaco Grand Prix?

However, one hour later and at 4.30pm local time the race got under way... and it was worth the wait.

Nelson Piquet led much of the race from pole position in his Brabham but with just 22 laps of the 77 lap race to run he made a huge error.

Approaching the Tabac corner and a battling Eddie Cheever and Patrick Tambay, he veered to the dirty side of the track to overtake both - only to lock up and crash into the barrier and out of the race.

Williams' Alan Jones then took the lead but just over 10 laps later he started suffering terminal problems with his Cosworth V8 engine.

This was catnip for Ferrari's Gilles Villeneuve in second place who hunted down the Australian before zipping past him on the straight with just four laps to go.

From there the Canadian secured his first race win and podium since 1979, with Jones limping home in second and Jacques Laffite third for Ligier.

READ MORE: Where F1 drivers live, and why so many choose Monaco?

Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

View full biography

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