5 Worst F1 Wrecks Ever!

#3 - Tabac Wave, Monaco 1950

One of the first F1 races still stands out because of this strange accident.

This is, without doubt, one of the most peculiar crashes in F1 history, and it occurred in just the second ever championship race. On the first lap, while the cars were going through the fast Tabac corner, a freak wave deluged the corner from the Monaco harbour.

In those days, cars had treaded tyres in the dry, but this wasn't enough to prepare most drivers, who were caught out by the strange occurrence. Farina, Fagioli, Rosier, Trintignant, Schell and more were all caught up in the sudden lack of grid and retired because of the incident.

Monaco's narrow streets were even tighter in the '50s than nowadays so, like 23 years later in the UK, there was nowhere for these drivers to go. Thankfully, nobody was seriously injured because of the low speed of the crash, however, Jose Froilan Gonzalez did suffer burns when his car caught alight the following lap after sustaining damage on his Maserati.