This cringe-worthy incident happened after British driver Stuart Hall abandoned the race and one of the cranes placed around the track was tasked with lifting the car out of the way.
The title of this story is pretty self-explanatory. We don’t know why the car was dropped. It seems as though it may not have been attached properly, which either way would mean that somebody’s getting blamed for letting a perfectly good 70s McLaren F1 car fall to the ground.
In fact, the McLaren fell just as a group of cars was being released from behind the safety car, which made the situation even more stressful.
The reaction of the nearby crews is also understandable. They’re just as shocked as the commentators, and all the officials could do was to red flag the race so that the other cars would slow down enough by the time they reached Mirabeau corner.
Those of you up for a brief history lesson on the model should know that the M23 was powered by a naturally-aspirated 3.0-liter Ford-Cosworth V8 engine, with an output of about 490 BHP – which used to be beyond substantial in a car that weight just 575 kg (1,268 kg).
In terms of damage, it’s hard to tell what condition the car is in right now but the nose and the rear wing snapped right off – which for some classic F1 enthusiasts could be the equivalent of watching a painfully explicit accident.