Lucas Di Grassi bumped into Kimi Antonelli at a restaurant, says Monaco street circuit was falling apart during F1 race

Like several other racing drivers from Formula E and motorsport enthusiasts, Lucas Di Grassi also watched the famous Monaco Grand Prix last weekend. The Lola Yamaha ABT driver shared a video talking about the F1 race and everything that went on during the weekend. From noticing the growing American interest in F1 to bumping into Kimi Antonelli at a restaurant and identifying a common problem with the Monaco track, Di Grassi shared it all in the video.

When Lucas Di Grassi bumped into Kimi Antonelli at a Monaco restaurant

Lucas Di Grassi shared how he spotted a few too many Americans at the Monaco Grand Prix. He further spoke about his chance meeting with Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, who won the Monaco Grand Prix.

Opening up about it, Di Grassi said, “I took my daughter to school and went to lunch at a restaurant next door, and who was at the restaurant? At a table there, alone, no one else, Kimi Antonelli, and I knew Kimi by sight, but I had never exchanged a word with him. I sat there with him, we had a chat, the guy was very nice, very down-to-earth, calm. Usually during race week, as the championship leader, you're tense, you don't want to talk. He seemed to be on holiday, sitting there, chatting, and obviously this shows in the result on the track.”

He went on to show his son the cars in the Ferrari paddock since he is friends with Ferrari's second-in-command, Jerome D'Ambrosio. “I had never seen the inside of this hybrid package before, of the engine, where the hybrid part is, all the details of the car. It impressed me a lot, obviously, all this engineering cohesion, where all the elements are, and I found it very interesting. I was also very impressed with the evolution of the technology,” he said about the new F1 cars.

Lucas Di Grassi says Monaco street circuit was falling apart during Monaco Grand Prix

Speaking about the Monaco Grand Prix, Lucas Di Grassi said, “I found the race here in Monaco, for these cars, limited, but within that, I think it was interesting.”

Sharing another issue that caught his attention, he said the track was falling apart. “In Formula E, we deal with this directly because our races are on street circuits, so as a driver you have to know that when the track is falling apart, the pebble that comes loose becomes very round. It's an asphalt pebble, and it sticks very easily to the tyre, so any run-off there is practically impossible to recover from and you will end up in the wall. This is the reality of racing on a street circuit.”

Pointing to an incident, he added, “So when Stroll made a mistake, I thought it was a strange mistake, and then Leclerc's mistake there, I think no one expected the Monaco track to fall apart. But considering that, it's a mistake that you can avoid by turning into the apex a little earlier and sacrificing a little time, rather than risking driving over these pebbles and having what happened.”

Also read: Taylor Barnard shows how a track walk in Monaco is different and difficult: “They don’t close the roads”