Tripletta da tris all’italiana: ne ha fatto le spese Gaillard
Translated by this website
Principality of Monaco: the curtain falls on the Monaco scenario with the award ceremony, at the end of the gala dinner in the presence of all the pilots invited after their efforts. Jackie Stewart did the honors, who has been working hard these days for American television which sends him to follow all the grands prix. Among other things, he also made a truly live video, slipping inexplicably in the middle of the lot during an official practice session, at the wheel of a Tyrrell 008 equipped with cameras installed behind him. Stewart naturally introduced Depailler, who has now taken his place in the Tyrrell team, but perhaps due to fatigue at the prize-giving he forgot to call Elio de Angelis to collect his prize for winning the F3 race.
Among other things, De Angelis immediately had to get into the car to race at Fiorano for the Chevron tests with the F2 “Dino” engine which he probably won’t take to Pau, for the next race of the European championship, to better be ready for the first Italian race of the series which will take place at Mugello on the 28th of this month.
Monte Carlo – A blue hat-trick made all (many) Italians present in the principality proud. As in 1975 for Zorzi and in 1976 for Giacomelli, the anthem of Mameli greeted the victory in the G.P. of Formula 3 of a pilot of our house, author of a performance of great importance. Elio de Angelis, twenty years old from Rome, who returned to F.3 for the occasion with his Chevron from last year, won the Monegasque race, expressing a clear superiority over the entire lot of opponents. Already in qualifying De Angelis had shown his possibilities by detaching everyone by more than a second and in the race, having freed himself with authority from the group’s quicksand, he was able to chase Stohr and Gaillard, with exceptional skill. The standard-bearer of the Everest team (which among other things was “arguing” with a car unbalanced by a blow from Warwick at the start) leapt to the lead with an overtaking that will cause much discussion, entering a gap that Gaillard had opened with too much determination at the curve of the old station, but the superiority shown during the comeback seems to us to be a worthy credential to celebrate him as champion as every year happens for the winner of this prestigious race.
Gaillard, French, but with a lot of experience in English racing, fought excellently even if, towards the middle of the race, he seemed less fast than De Angelis. Unfortunately for him, however, the race finished prematurely, but circuits such as Monaco, which practically eliminate the possibility of overtaking even for those who are clearly faster (and at that moment De Angelis was), are necessarily harbingers of “misfortune” like that.
Siegfried Stohr was simply magnificent. He admitted at the end of the race that he could not give his best due to lack of training on such demanding circuits and lack of habit in such long races, Stohr can however consider himself satisfied with his performance, at the end of which all the observers agreed in predicting him a great future.
And what about Albertin? The Venetian finally found a good day and got on the podium of a race, competitively and technically, truly exceptional. He fought like a lion Olofsson and, after the spin, recovered well until he regained the very important third position. Behind him was Alain Prost with the official Martini Renault. Tico Martini’s chassis had won last year in Monaco (second was De Angelis) with Didier Pironi driving.
This year fourth place rewards Prost’s good race but also shows that the Renault engine is still in pursuit of the performance of the Pedrazzani brothers’ Toyota. Behind Prost, the Dutchman Lammers, the Frenchman Schlesser, the other Dutchman Rothengatter, and Pardini fought vehemently to finish an honest race. The Tuscan would certainly have deserved more from this weekend (and his time in practice attests it) but the battery problems prevented him from acquiring a decent starting position in the final.
Finally, a few words about Teo Fabi, brilliant winner of the first heat and then forced to retire due to a mysterious breakdown (apparently ignition) in the final. The Milanese seemed very downcast after his retirement (and we understand that) but he showed his “potential”. He will have many opportunities to make up for it. A hat-trick, therefore, and a success that restores some morale to De Angelis who, when the Ferrari program in F2 is experiencing so many problems, really needed it.
Delamont had asked for De Angelis to be disqualified
The ineffable Delamont could be shortlisted for a special “Friend of the Italians” award. The chaos he caused in the British grands prix against the Italians is recent history and it’s not worth telling. Here in Montecarlo he contested the incident between De Angelis and Gaillard demanding the disqualification of the Italian. They had to show him the slow motion of the accident six times before he understood that Gaillard had moved to the right, leaving the road clear, then closing.
© 1978 Autosprint • By Vittorio Gargiulo • Published for entertainment and educational purposes, no copyright infringement is intended
