In Formula One, it doesn’t get bigger than Monte Carlo
Twenty-two men, carefully concertinaing their perfectly choreographed lap in their multi million-euro equipment. One of the world’s most affluent and picturesque places, the Circuit de Monaco is the zenith for any Formula One driver or fan.
It’s hard to think that the glamorous, playboy image the sport has cultivated for more than 60 years would be present without 78 laps around the Principality each year. Although the track has a contract with F1 until 2020, it’s unfathomable to think of a season in which a trip to the French Riviera does not feature. Having held it’s first Grand Prix in 1950, no track can match Monaco in terms of history, importance and prestige.
Certainly in an age when many of the glorious tracks from yesteryear have either been dumped for gigantic tracks in more remote places or made almost sterile for safety concerns, Monaco has remained for all intensive purposes unchanged.
Everywhere you look there is a famous moment, a picture of drama, victory or despair from years gone by.
Names become legends. Ayrton Senna, Graham Hill, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher’s wins here are almost held in the same regard as their championships. There are few better compliments in Formula One than to be known as the king of Monaco.
For drivers this is to scene to prove their worth, their talent and skill at a circuit that tests driver’s abilities more than any other. Several men in the past have had their career saved due to a stellar performance around the bumpy, narrow and relentless streets.
One good weekend can make a name and give you a sponsorship deal to last a season.
While the weekend is seen as a celebration of the sport the race itself is less of a party, in reality it is on of the most challenging physical and mental examinations a driver will face all season.
With the barriers hemming you in at each side, it’s no place for the claustrophobic. Three times World Champion Nelson Piquet once likened it to “driving your bike around your living room”. But unlike your living room one tiny mistake, one lapse in concentration around these streets and you will be in a metal barrier and out of the world’s most famous race.
A shame as you would be forgiven for taking your eye off the action to bare witness to the astonishing beauty that surrounds you or to take in the only tunnel in Formula One, the lone place to escape from this most luminous weekend. It goes without saying that it takes a very special type of driver to win in Monte Carlo and for those who do, they experience a victory and reward so much greater than the 25 points, trophy and bottle of champagne that goes with it.
Practically speaking Monaco shouldn’t be able to host a Grand Prix weekend due to its limited space and less than ideal conditions for teams. The mostly densely populated country in the world bursts to breaking point over the weekend but then again Formula One is rarely a sport that’s practical.
When teams turn up at the track they face a logistical nightmare. Space is a real premium and so mechanics, engineers and pit crew have to work in less than ideal conditions. Compromises are made, cars and other spare pieces of kit are stored a 1km walk up in the hills of Monaco.
The pit lane is by far the smallest in Formula One and with no real pit wall engineers and other technical staff find themselves in a diminutive room above the garage, racing up and down the stairs to communicate with their pit crews. Not exactly the height of glamour or functionality. Yet despite all of this many of the team crews would point to the above as the reason why Monaco is so special, and instead of complaining about the cramped environment they revel in it.
Another major variation is that the usual Friday practice sessions are instead held on Thursday to minimize traffic disruption. It gives the drivers the chance to become catwalk models and sponsorship fodder on Friday as they attended a range of parties on boats and 5 star hotels put on by those who lavish such hefty amounts of money to bankroll the sport.
And unlike any other track, Monaco returns to being a normal living, breathing street at night, with many of the fans taking to the streets to party, drink and eat at the restaurants and bars that edge out on to the circuit – meaning any of the information teams have learned about the track on Thursday is rendered almost useless.
For fans there is a taste of Formula One that you cannot get anywhere else in the world. The noise (well perhaps not so much this year), the smells, the emotions, a feeling that just cannot possibly be replicated at any of the other 18 circuits that play host to this traveling circus of a sport.
And even if you’re not one of the lucky fans to own a multi million euro home overlooking the track, or even if you’re not staying on a boat with models in the world famous harbour, Monaco still allows fans to get closer to the sport that can be so often inaccessible. To watch a driver face this track up close, threading the needle between the Armco is one of the most breathtaking feats of skill you are ever likely to witness.
It’s true that the race recently has failed to provide much of note, only two of the last five races have seen a single lead change which can mean some rather procession like races. But Monte Carlo is very rarely about passing and if you fail to take away joy from F1’s blue ribbon event than you are lacking in soul.
Named the world’s most marketable athlete this week, Lewis Hamilton, goes in to the race with a three point lead over Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg as he bids to become Britain’s first multiple world champion since Jackie Stewart. Hamilton has won the race once in 2008, the same year he won his solitary title and so should he find himself walking those hollowed steps to collect the winners trophy from Prince Albert in the royal box on Sunday afternoon, it would be wise to think he will be doing the same in the late November Abu Dhabi sunlight with title number two in tow.
Hamilton is the in form man coming in to the weekend having won four races in a row. No driver has ever won four races in a row without winning the title in the same year. The 29 year-old from Stevenage has also been the king of qualifying, taking pole in four of the five Grand Prix’s so far this season.
Monte Carlo is by far the most important qualifying session of the year as often the race is won on Saturday with pole — but should Hamilton find himself out of top spot today he can take heart in being the only driver in the past 10 years to win having not started on pole. Nico Rosberg, who started on pole and won last year (nearly 20 years to the day since his father Keke won at the circuit) will look to put a stop to Hamilton’s strong early season form and regain the top spot in the championship he lost last time out in Spain.
There is a fear that following four years of Sebastian Vettel’s dominance that we may be in for another era of supremacy with Mercedes. The last team to win the first six races of the season was the all-conquering McLaren Honda cars containing Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna in 1988. Between them they went on to win 11 in a row and 15 of the 16 races that season, a feat that the Silver Arrows are being tipped to possibly repeat such is there advantage so far this year.
Indeed Monte Carlo is where Hamilton and Rosberg call home but it could be the scene of this season’s first threat to their 100% start to 2014.
Red Bull and Ferrari have both talked up their chances of catching up with the run away leaders on a track that could limit some of Mercedes powers. Cars are only on full throttle for 54% of a lap that features the slowest corner in Formula One. Last season it was Red Bull who were in control of the sport when Nico Rosberg triumphed, could the opposite take place tomorrow? Thursday rain affected practice failed to give us a real accurate reading of the situation heading in to qualifying, but it is hard to look beyond the Mercedes though Monaco has in the past thrown up some rather ridiculous and surprising results.
And while championships and titles are not won on the streets of Monte Carlo, who ever leaves the world’s second smallest country on Sunday night as the winner of the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix will already feel like a champion and king.
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