Dangerous or not there are two drivers who threw caution to the wind and soaked up danger like no other dominating Monaco between the years 1984 and 1993 - Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.
Fierce and brutal competitors, they were immensely popular in Monaco. Senna’s popularity after winnig the 1987 race, was amplified when he was arrested for riding a motorcycle without wearing a crash helmet. He was immediately released after police discovered who their charge was.
A champion fighter through and through, Senna was a driver without limits and drove for Team Lotus from 1985 to 1987. He won Monaco more times than any other driver notching up six victories and winning five consecutive races between 1989 and 1993 while Michael Schumacher notched up five victories matching Graham Hill’s record. However, in 2006, Schumacher attracted widespread criticism when he spun his car deliberately blocking the track at La Rascasse, the slowest corner in F1 racing, thus preventing Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber - who were both following and on flying laps - from out-qualifying him.
It’s a famous corner and Miss X and I witnessed Schumacher’s shenanigans. We were dumbfounded that a driver of his calibre could do such an unsporting-like act. Yellow flags were waved but his competitors were not able to beat his time thereby handing him pole position. Though Schumacher claimed it was a genuine accident, the FIA disagreed and demoted him to the back of the grid.
La Rascasse itself takes cars into a short straight before the last turn of the Monaco circuit (the former ‘Gazometer’ turn) a few metres from the start-finish line.