Taylor Barnard had no time to feel nervous, apprehensive or agitated. In a few flashing seconds he was in the car and making an unexpected Formula E debut.
The NEOM McLaren team had prepped for the worst-case scenario before arriving in Monaco - with Barnard having done pretty much the same simulator prep as Sam Bird and Jake Hughes.
Yet, the drama of what transpired on an otherwise sleepy Saturday morning proved to be the ultimate test of both Barnard and McLaren.
This is the diary of a Monaco sink-or-swim scenario for a 19-year-old who one moment thought he’d be watching the Monaco E-Prix and then within 45 minutes was actually entering its white heat.
Saturday 27th April
07.51am
The chain reaction begins
Sam Bird's gearing up for a fast lap in his McLaren as he goes through the crucial preparation phase for building towards 350kW qualifying sim runs in practice.
Entering Saint Devote, Bird locks his fronts and misses the turning into the corner. It looks just like one of the hundreds of trips down the escape road moments seen at that precise place on the Monaco circuit.
But as he decelerates and appears to be choosing to either spin the car around or start a three-point turn to re-join he snags the outer wall, just as it changes from grey Techpro to a belt-contained tyre wall.
YELLOW FLAG