The 1977 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on 22 May 1977. It was the sixth race of the 1977 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1977 International Cup for F1 Constructors.
The 76-lap race was won by South African driver Jody Scheckter, driving a Wolf-Ford. It was Scheckter's second victory of the season, and the 100th World Championship race victory for the Ford-backed Cosworth DFV engine. Austrian Niki Lauda finished second in a Ferrari, with Argentinian teammate Carlos Reutemann third.
Background The race weekend was sometimes rainy, with Saturday qualifying in particular being a wash. Between the rain and the increased admission fees, this year marked low numbers of spectators. Since the race weekend lasted from Thursday until Sunday (with Friday being a break for the teams), the casinos lost revenue as they were not accessible to tourists during the days of the race - the organizers tried to make up for these shortfalls by increasing ticket prices. The race marked the debut of Riccardo Patrese, who had been making a name for himself in Formula Two. Shadow's sponsor, grain magnate Francesco Ambrosio, gave Patrese Renzo Zorzi's seat, but neglected to tell Zorzi, who arrived at Monaco only to see Patrese's name on "his" car.
25 entries competed for 20 spots on the grid for this race. Brabham presented a new experimental rear wing design, nicknamed "the barn door" for its large, upright rear flap. The wing was also fitted with longitudinal ribs. The design appeared to have worked, with Brabham dominating practice and qualifying first and fifth. In other developments, three teams (McLaren, Tyrrell, and Lotus) were working together with Cosworth to develop a new, lightweight derivative of the DFV engine - this new variant weighed less and also produced two percent more power. Reportedly, Hunt, Peterson, and Andretti were given the new lightweight DFV engine for Monaco but they seem to have raced with the regular engine.Phipps 1977, p. 158.
Qualifying After the first timed session, Hans-Joachim Stuck and John Watson put the B in first and second on the grid. The second session rained out, but in the final (Saturday) qualifying session, Watson went even faster and secured pole position - for the first time in his Formula One career. Stuck's engine malfunctioned for this session and he could not better his time from Thursday and ended up starting in fifth.Phipps 1977, p. 157. Scheckter took second in the Wolf, with Reutemann third, Peterson fourth, and Lauda in sixth. Andretti proved unable to match his pace from recent races and started in tenth, stating that "the track was too narrow for the Lotus 78". Meanwhile, his teammate Nilsson qualified 13th on the grid.
Newcomer Patrese took the fifteenth starting position, while Jacky Ickx made a rare appearance. After having set a time on Thursday, Clay Regazzoni the rain precluded him bettering it on Saturday morning. He then flew to the United States to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 in a McLaren-Offenhauser for Theodore Racing (he had crashed in the previous week's session and only Saturday and Sunday remained available for setting a time). He did not make it in time, forcing him to stay in Indianapolis for Sunday as well. Ickx was hastily called up to take his seat, qualifying 17th on the grid, behind Laffite whose car was off the pace after a strong showing in Spain. The non-qualifiers included all four Marches and Harald Ertl's Hesketh.
Race
While there was rain in the morning, it had dried up by the time of the start. The teams had all readied rain tyres but those were never used during the race. At the start, first-time pole sitter Watson spun his wheels on the painted crosswalk at the starting line, allowing Scheckter to beat him to the first corner, with Reutemann running third. There were no retirements or serious incidents on the first lap, although Patrese rear-ended Nilsson's Lotus, damaging his nosecone and Nilsson's gear selector. Nilsson ended up retiring on lap 51 as a result of damage to his gearbox. The first three cars were followed by Stuck, Peterson, Lauda, and Hunt. A second pack of cars comprising Depailler, Andretti, and Mass rounded out the top ten a few laps into the race. Behind them sat a third group: Jones, Jarier, Nilsson, and Brambilla, followed by freshman Patrese and veteran Ickx who had a nearly race-long battle.
On the eighth lap, fifth-placed Peterson began slowing down, retiring two laps later with a complete loss of brakes. Fourth-placed Stuck had a small fire on lap 19 and also retired. With Stuck and Peterson out of the way, Lauda caught up to his teammate Reutemann and soon passed him for third place. A valve broke in Hunt's engine and he was out on lap 25, around which time Jarier pitted to change a punctured tire and dropped to last position as a result. About halfway through the race, Watson (in second place to Scheckter began slowing down as his brakes were becoming spongy. A little later, his gear shift began causing trouble, causing him to go off the track on lap 45. He rejoined, but as he was approaching the hill to Sainte Dévote on lap 48 the transmission jammed entirely, causing him to spin out and retire. This put Lauda in second, 14 seconds behind Scheckter and with Reutemann another thirty seconds behind.
Mass and Andretti were running fourth and fifth; Depailler retired with brake problems on lap 46, leaving Jones in the final, points-scoring position. After Nilsson retired on lap 51, Brambilla was in seventh and Laffite eighth; these standings remained until the end except that Laffite made his way around Brambilla after the latter's facemask shifted and obstructed his view. Scheckter's day was not perfect, though: his fuel pump was giving out and would starve the engine of fuel at times, allowing Lauda to catch up. This would have meant retirement if it had happened earlier, but as it were, Scheckter turned on the auxiliary fuel pump (used for starting) and left it on for the few remaining laps. Lauda's car, however, had begun to develop an oversteering habit in the closing stages, and since Scheckter's was once again back on pace Lauda had to be satisfied with second, with Reutemann completing the podium.
Shadow driver Riccardo Patrese made his first career start in the race, qualifying 15th and finishing 9th. Patrese would drive in a record 257 Grands Prix (256 starts) during his career which ended after the season, a career which included winning at Monaco for Brabham in . The race also marked the 100th Grand Prix win for a Cosworth-Ford-powered car, ten years after the DFV's first victory in 1967. Cosworth-Ford tried to bring a blue-and-white cake to the podium for Scheckter and Prince Rainier to celebrate, but between the crowd entering the track and overzealous police, the cake did not make it.
Classification
Qualifying classification Pos.DriverConstructorTimeNo1 John WatsonBrabham-Alfa Romeo1:29.8612 Jody ScheckterWolf-Ford1:30.2723 Carlos ReutemannFerrari1:30.4434 Ronnie PetersonTyrrell-Ford1:30.7245 Hans-Joachim StuckBrabham-Alfa Romeo1:30.7356 Niki LaudaFerrari1:30.7667 James HuntMcLaren-Ford1:30.8578 Patrick DepaillerTyrrell-Ford1:31.1689 Jochen MassMcLaren-Ford1:31.36910 Mario AndrettiLotus-Ford1:31.501011 Alan JonesShadow-Ford1:32.041112 Jean-Pierre JarierPenske-Ford1:32.321213 Gunnar NilssonLotus-Ford1:32.371314 Vittorio BrambillaSurtees-Ford1:32.401415 Riccardo PatreseShadow-Ford1:32.521516 Jacques LaffiteLigier-Matra1:32.651617 Jacky IckxEnsign-Ford1:33.251718 Emerson FittipaldiFittipaldi-Ford1:33.391819 Hans BinderSurtees-Ford1:33.491920 Rupert KeeganHesketh-Ford1:33.7820 Cut-off21 Arturo MerzarioMarch-Ford1:34.46—22 Boy HayjeMarch-Ford1:34.48—23 Harald ErtlHesketh-Ford1:34.74—24 Clay RegazzoniEnsign-Ford1:35.00—25 Alex RibeiroMarch-Ford1:36.62—26 Ian ScheckterMarch-Ford1:46.30—
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 20 Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford 76 1:57:52.77 2 9 2 11 Niki Lauda Ferrari 76 + 0.89 6 6 3 12 Carlos Reutemann Ferrari 76 + 32.80 3 4 4 2 Jochen Mass McLaren-Ford 76 + 34.60 9 3 5 5 Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 76 + 35.55 10 2 6 17 Alan Jones Shadow-Ford 76 + 36.61 11 1 7 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 76 + 1:04.44 16 8 19 Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford 76 + 1:08.64 14 9 16 Riccardo Patrese Shadow-Ford 75 + 1 Lap 15 10 22 Jacky Ickx Ensign-Ford 75 + 1 Lap 17 11 34 Jean-Pierre Jarier Penske-Ford 74 + 2 Laps 12 12 24 Rupert Keegan Hesketh-Ford 73 + 3 Laps 20 6 Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Ford 51 Gearbox 13 7 John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo 48 Gearbox 1 4 Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford 46 Gearbox 8 18 Hans Binder Surtees-Ford 41 Fuel System 19 28 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 37 Engine 18 1 James Hunt McLaren-Ford 25 Engine 7 8 Hans-Joachim Stuck Brabham-Alfa Romeo 19 Electrical 5 3 Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Ford 10 Brakes 4 37 Arturo Merzario March-Ford 33 Boy Hayje March-Ford 25 Harald Ertl Hesketh-Ford 22 Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford Left for the Indianapolis 500 9 Alex Ribeiro March-Ford 10 Ian Scheckter March-Ford
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Jody Scheckter 32 2 2 Niki Lauda 25 3 Carlos Reutemann 23 2 4 Mario Andretti 22 5 James Hunt 9Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 40 2 Wolf-Ford 32 3 Lotus-Ford 24 4 McLaren-Ford 15 5 Brabham-Alfa Romeo 8Source:
References