Jacky Ickx was in a no-win situation at Monaco 1984

[Yoong Montoya]

Here's the options that Jacky Ickx, director of the 1984 Monaco race could have taken:

OPTION A: Stop the race as soon as he thought conditions were too dangerous, and he did so on lap 31 - but was accused of deliberately stopping the race to ensure Prost won.

OPTION B: Stop the race on lap 39 when full points could be awarded - but he would have been accused of deliberately stopping the race to ensure Senna won. (Bellof and Tyrrell were DQ'd later in the season for a fuelling irregularity, so he wouldn't have won Monaco anyway.)

OPTION C: Let the race run to the 2 hour limit - but he would have been accused of putting everyone's life in danger by letting the race go on too long.

So he would have been accused of race fixing whichever of these options he would have choosen! I can't say I blame Ickx for red flagging the race when he did. The circuit was nearly undrivable by lap 31, and safety for everyone comes first, no matter who is leading.

One more question - if you were in Ickx's position at Monaco 84, which option would YOU have chosen?

[Lee Janotta]

I'd have told that damn meddling Balestre to shove it, and let the race go on. Bring out the safety car if there's a big shunt, but in my opinion, the real racing doesn't start until the pavement's soaked, and I'd never have stopped the race, unless the surface started freezing over.

I mean, jeez... If you really want to be called one of the best drivers in the world, you _need_ to be able to drive in the rain!

Plus, if Belloff had won, and then been DQ'd, the public outcry would have been overwhelming, and the FISA would have paid dearly for their overt persecution of the Tyrrel team.

That wouldn't have even been on my mind, though... I'd have been screaming and cheering every time the top 3 cars went by, watching what would have been one of the greatest races ever, not one of the greatest controversies.

I don't blame Ickx for the outcome of that race... He honestly did what he thought was best... I'd have just made different decisions.

[BootsOntheSide]

In fairness they didn't have the safety car system in 1984, that was something borrowed from US racing some years later. Also I think a mistake was made at the time where the chequered flag was shown in addition to the red flag, which made it illegal to restart the race.

I'm one of the conspiracy theorists who thinks this decision was very suspicious. Prost had a Porsche engine in the McLaren, and Ickx drove for Porsche in Sportscars at the time. What's mroe, the rain wasn't as heavy as it had been earlier, and the track surface wasn't as trecherous, which both Prost and Senna agreed after the race.

Letting the racing go on until lap 39, or at least waiting to see what it was like at that point, has to have been the right decision. The ruling he did impose was unfair not only on Senna, but also on the rest of the Toleman teamm, not to mention viewers all over the world who must've been thrilling at Senna's majestic Monaco debut, which surely has to be the best ever.

[paulzinho]

Actually AFAIK the first safety car was used in the 1970's at some point.

My take on this is that the chequered flag should NOT have been shown, I may have let the race run a little longer, Senna and Belloff were showing that the circuit was driveable. The most controversial thing about this incident appears to have been the timing of it. It doesn't make sense to stop a race when conditions have improved...

[Jordi]

But the Safety Car rules were a bit anarquical back then, it was not really clear.

I would have let it run till the 2 hour limit, as there weren't as much cars anyway by that point.

[R]

The "establishment" which favoured Prost back in those days shot themselves in the foot on that occasion. He might have "won" that race, but if the race had lasted eight laps longer, Prost would have been World Champion that year, even if he had only finished 2nd in Monaco.

[BootsOntheSide]

Yeah of course the fact that winning the race basically cost him the title is one of the great ironies. My guess is that on the track Bellof would ahve passed his as well, so it would've come down to the retrospective exclusion of the Tyrrells.