by Alex Johnston For a few years now, Formula 1 fans have debated whether or not the Monaco Grand Prix is any longer deserving of a place on the ever expanding calendar. There are those who love it, saying it is still the ultimate test of a driver and those who hate it, calling it processional and lacking in entertainment.
Personally, I side with the lovers. Monaco is F1’s crowning glory. Every driver wants to win this race. Monaco is traditional, testing and a treat. watching drivers flirt with barriers and the narrow margins of the walls of the principality.
It’s part of racing’s ’Triple Crown’, a trio of races in three different series’ which is so highly sought after by lots of drivers. On the current grid, only Alpine’s Fernando Alonso is close, who has won in Monaco(2006, 2007), and in the prestigious 24h of Le Mans race(2018, 2019), but has failed to win the third, the Indy 500, with the IndyCar series win eluding him to date. To date, only one driver has won the ‘Triple Crown’ - Graham Hill, who completed the treble in 1972.
📸 Fernando Alonso on his way to victory in Monaco, 2006. So why do so many hate it? Mostly, people seem to dislike the fact the narrow nature of the circuit doesn’t allow for overtaking or very much wheel to wheel action. Some races in years gone by have been a little processional with many drivers managing to take lights to flag wins despite issues with cars, like Daniel Ricciardo’s ’redemption’ drive for Red Bull in 2018 which the Australian won despite losing power early in the race.
📸 Ricciardo held off Vettel’s Ferrari, despite losing power.
Another reason given is that the Monaco weekend becomes about which celebrities show up to the event, rather than focusing on the track action. The principality was always going to be about glitz and glamour, even without celebrities. This is a circuit that once saw the now defunct Jaguar team run a car with a $300,000 diamond on a front wing as a movie promotion for Ocean’s Twelve remember? That‘s a whole other story though; the diamond went missing after the car crashed.
📸 The ‘Ocean’s Twelve’ diamond on the Jaguar car.
If you’re just asking me, Monaco should stay, processional or not. The danger, the tradition, the precision, the excitement and the glitz is all a nice package that makes the Monaco Grand Prix F1’s greatest race of any year. I get the same level of excitement ahead of the race every year and it has come around again.
Roll on this weekend, and every single Monaco Grand Prix!
📸 Image credit(s): Formula Motorsport Limited, Alpine F1 Team Twitter
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