1982 Monaco Grand Prix

The **1982 Monaco Grand Prix**was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on 23rd May 1982. It was the fifth race in both the 1982 Drivers' Championship and the 1982 Constructors' Championship.

## Background

Following Vivaldo Margheriti's near fatal accident during the Belgian Grand Prix, rumors had been spreading throughout the paddock that the newly-formed GPDA would boycott the race in an attempt to force the FIA to take a closer look at the safety standards of both the circuits and the cars, which were lapping 10 seconds a lap faster thanks to the introduction of ground effect in 1977.

Moments prior to Saturday's qualifying session, the Smythe team announced that they were forced to pull out of the race. Rumors ran amok, with the most accepted story being that team owner and driver William Worchestershire-Smythe had bet away the team's two cars at the Casino de Monte-Carlo after going bust at the roulette table.

## Qualifying

Chuck Dingley scored his 3rd pole position of the season, a tenth quicker than Fabiano Margheriti, who barely edged out teammate Stefan Van Damme to start on the front row of the grid.

Williams reserve driver Sid Donnelly impressed in 4th place, while teammate William O'Conner struggled throughout qualifying and was only able to manage 7th.

Post-qualifying it was announced that GPDA members Santiago Reyes, Gyozo Szel, Pietro Martins, Jurg Scheller and Connor Burns had all opted to boycott the race, with co-founder Mick Ashcroft criticising the four drivers for boycotting, saying: "*This is not what the GPDA is about. This is one of the slowest circuits on the calendar. Absolutely no need for it*."

## Race Summary

Following the boycott, Formula One saw it's smallest grid in years, as only 11 cars lined up on the grid after Mick Ashcroft's engine failed during the pre-race warmup session.

Polesitter Chuck Dingley maintained his lead over Fabiano Margheriti into Sainte Devote, while 5th place qualifier Skylar West had an atrocious first lap, dropping to 9th.

The opening laps of the race were relatively quiet, as every driver was trying to save their tyres in order to forego a pitstop which would cost them valuable track position around the streets of Monte Carlo.

On lap 10, race leader Dingley lost the rear of his McLaren entering the swimming pool chicane, puncturing his right rear tyre and being forced to limp back to the pitlane. After a lengthy pitstop, Dingley merged in 8th place behind the Ligier of Ronnie Anderson, overtaking him shortly after on lap 12.

Meanwhile, Skylar West had recovered back to his qualifying position of 5th after his poor start, but was stuck behind the other Ligier of Reinaldo Molina. Molina's staunch defense meant that even after 5 laps of relentless attacking, West was unable to find a way past. On lap 15, West made a desperate dive into the Nouvelle chicane. Molina hadn't seen the Renault's dive and turned into the corner normally, colliding with the Renault and pushing both off the track, which allowed Dingley to overtake both of them and move into 5th. Molina's race only got worse, as a few corners later he spun West into La Rascasse, allowing William O'Conner past and into 6th. Molina outbroke himself again into Sainte Devote behind O'Conner, spearing into the Williams and breaking his front suspension after a promising start to the race. O'Conner was luckily able to continue, but the contact had allowed West to re-overtake after recovering from his spin.

Williams' race continued to go downhill shortly after O'Conner's incident, as third place runner Sid Donnelly was called into the pitlane by his team to put on a fresh set of soft tyres, thinking they had the gap to merge ahead of Dingley's hard charging McLaren. Donnelly merged directly behind Dingley, but was unable to challenge him due to his cold tyres, and was forced to watch as a debut podium slipped from his grasp.

The Ferrari duo of Fabiano Margheriti and Stefan Van Damme drove a perfect race following Dingley's incident. They crossed the line to take the checkered flag in formation, with Fabiano winning the race by less than a second over Van Damme. Dingley's fresher soft tyres allowed him to close within five and a half seconds of the Ferrari duo, but he was forced to settle for the final step on the podium after starting on pole. Donnelly finished 4th on his debut a further five seconds back from Dingley, while Skylar West was able to hold onto 5th ahead of William O'Conner to score his first points of the season.

## Championship Standings

 2
 3
 4
 5

 2
 3
 4
 5

## Lap Leaders

Chuck Dingley (Laps 1-9)

Fabiano Margheriti (Laps 10-26)