Flashback: The end of Johnny Cecotto's 1983 Monaco Grand Prix

For all its vitality and razzamatazz, Monaco can seem a solitary and hostile place. Particularly at around 8.30am on the first day of practice in 1983. As prequalifying got under way, I joined a handful of spectators by the wall overlooking Tabac. I was a motor sport reporter for a British newspaper and I needed to check the progress of Derek Warwick as he hefted the Toleman-Hart around the streets in an attempt to earn a place among the 26 cars allowed into official practice.

With only five cars running, there was not much action, either on or off the track. During one of the many periods of comparative quiet, I heard a distant karrumpff! With no mention of anything untoward from the track commentator, who would have been desperately searching for any incident of consequence, I thought no more about it.

Not long after, I happened to look round and saw Johnny Cecotto making his lonely way up Avenue JF Kennedy. It was the work of a moment to quickly raise the Sureshot and press the button.

This was a public area and yet, as the surprisingly desolate surroundings show, there was no one around to ask the former motor cycle world champion for his autograph. Which was probably just as well.

The faint sound I’d heard was the Venezuelan’s Theodore being dumped against the barrier at the exit of the tunnel. With no spare car available, Cecotto knew his Monaco weekend was over before it had scarcely begun. It was a heavy blow in every sense since this should have been his fifth race in Formula 1 with a struggling team formed through a marriage of convenience between Theodore and Ensign. (Cecotto had finished an excellent sixth on the streets of Long Beach. This would be his only championship point in a grand prix career that would be ended by broken legs sustained during a nasty accident at Brands Hatch 14 months later.)

Cecotto was about to meet Roberto Guerrero, hurrying back to the pits after stopping his Theodore with broken transmission on the climb to Casino and hoping to take over Cecotto’s car. Johnny’s angst would have been exacerbated by having to explain to his fellow South American why he, too, was creating a long shadow on foot at such an early hour.