It’s tight, slow, boring, with very little overtaking. And yet, no race creates the sort of buzz the Monaco GP does. It’s the blue riband event of the F1 calendar and one every driver wants to win.
Part of the ‘Triple Crown’ of motorsport events alongside the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Sunday’s Monaco GP will also be the 75th edition of the race, an event that started way back in 1929.
The twisty track, which winds around the streets of Monte Carlo, is the shortest (3.37 km) and the slowest on the F1 calendar.
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If there is one race where pole position is paramount, it is this. The narrow streets offer very little chance for overtaking and a bad Saturday could mean a long (78 laps) and dreary Sunday.
So what makes the event tick? For starters, it’s a race where the driver’s influence is slightly higher than at other venues and can separate the wheat from the chaff.
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The tight confines demand tremendous precision. A driver must be brave, for the fastest way around is to be at the limit, often kissing the walls. And the walls have spared no driver, big or small.
Ayrton Senna was the undisputed king of Monaco, winning it six times, but his 1988 experience illustrated how even the greatest can only master the circuit to a point. He out-qualified his McLaren-Honda teammate and later-to-be-four-time-champion Alain Prost by a whopping 1.4 seconds and dominated the race, leading at one point by 50 seconds. But he crashed out on lap 67 after Prost put in a few fast laps, handing the race to his arch-rival.
So distraught was the Brazilian that he parked his car and walked to his apartment. That is the other aspect that makes the race special for drivers. The principality is a tax haven with a lot of F1 drivers making it their residence. So an early end to the race means a quick trip home.
And if you are not a resident, you can always saunter to your boat in your overalls, like Kimi Raikkonen famously did in 2006 after his McLaren broke down, and watch the race unfold with a drink in hand.
The event is unique in many ways, from being the only one that doesn’t pay for the privilege of hosting a race to having the top three drivers park on the main straight unlike at other tracks. F1 is seen as a glitzy, glamorous and expensive sport, and no race justifies that billing like the Monaco GP.