The worst pit stops in Formula One

IF YOU watched last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, and you really should have given it was excellent, then your Aussie pride-filled heart probably splintered into a thousand pieces on lap 32.

It was then that race leader and all-‘round Aussie legend Daniel Ricciardo dived into the pits for new rubber, only to discover his team didn’t have his tyres ready.

It was a calamity. A disaster. An amateur mistake that cost Ricciardo almost certain victory and turned the world’s happiest F1 driver into an angry, tongue-biting storm cloud.

It was also a reminder that F1 pit stops don’t always go to plan. Here’s a look at some of the more explosive blunders experienced in pitlane.

1. Red Bull’s stuff up. Best to start with a reminder of how Ricciardo’s Monaco GP imploded. It still hurts to watch…

2. When Jos Verstappen turned into a human BBQ. This frightening incident occurred at the 1994 German GP. Luckily everyone escaped serious injury.

3. Kovalainen and Raikkonen get fiery in Brazil.

4. Nakajima flattens his crew at the 2007 Brazilian GP. Of all the ways for your first-ever F1 pit stop to go, this has to be one of the most painful. For the team, that is.

5. When David Coulthard didn’t even make the pit box. The Scottish ace was leading the 1995 Aussie GP when he ploughed into the Armco on pit entry. We reckon DC’s face is still burning with embarrassment.

6. D’Ambrosio spins. Belgian racer Jerome d’Ambrosio didn’t even make his pit box at a wet Hungarian GP.

7. Massa takes the refuelling rig with him in Singapore, 2008. And injures his crew in the process.

8. Mark Webber’s tyre nails a cameraman. As if losing a tyre in pit lane wasn’t painful enough for Webber, the rogue wheel went on to drop an unsuspecting cameraman too.

9. Hamilton, Rosberg and Raikkonen get it all wrong in Canada. Aren’t these guys meant to be the world’s best drivers?

10. That time Romain Grosjean forgot to brake. Says it all, really.