The tiny principality of Monaco hosts as Grand Prix which is often called 'the jewel in the crown of Formula 1'. Indeed, next to the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, it also form a third of the unofficial Triple Crown of Motorsport; leaving aside any focus on championships, this is an important race to win, one of the landmark achievements in the sport.
Since 1929, drivers have been threading their way between the narrow confines of Monte Carlo's streets. It is the street track that longer than any other, has survived. Despite the occasional ones who consider it an anachronism, it was always quite tight for a street circuit, even long ago. “But you can't race round there”, they decry. Yet to focus on a dearth of overtaking opportunities is to miss what makes the Monaco Grand Prix special: on the slowest of all tracks, Formula 1 arguably looks quicker than at any other time. The occasional sense the viewer gets from the comfort of a sofa that a Formula 1 car looks straightforward is quashed and replaced by astoundment at the skills of those in whose hands it is entrusted. Compare it to riding a bicycle around your living room, a penny farthing around your bathroom or trying to fit an American hummer in a British car parking space at high speed: as you watch drivers tackle the varied twists and turns of Monte Carlo, you are occasionally left stunned at how they skirt the barriers, rubbing the car on occasion with the Armco, point and squirt at an apex which is defined by the barrier that they see approaching and dance the car on the limit, left dizzy as you watch the buildings rush by and are occasionally reminded of the reality of it all as you pick out one of the supremely efficient Monaco marshals by the side of the track.
Be in no doubt at all. This is a drivers' track, one where fortune favours the brave and precise, a chance to stand out from your teammate and the rest, seize a magnificent Grand Prix result over an almost (and sometimes actually) 2-hour race and do it all in this glamorous setting on the French Riviera. This is the Monaco Grand Prix.
This was a track that I recall stirring the imagination when I was young. The sight of those Grand Prix cars “on real roads” really brought the spectacle to life for me and they looked supremely powerful around the streets.
On a circuit that was, on the whole, very similar to today's, the first Grand Prix took place in 1929. Having also helped to set up the *Antony Noghès, the son of the Automobile Club de Monaco's first president, having helped set up the Monte Carlo Rally, established the first Grand Prix, which would take place over one hundred laps and last just under four hours. There was no qualifying, but grid positions were instead drawn by a ballot. Brit William Grover-Williams won in his Bugatti T35B, followed by 1 minute 17.8 seconds later by Romanian Georges Buriano in his T35C and later by Rudolf Caracciola in his Mercedes-Benz SSK. The track
Bugattis dominated the field the following year with René Dreyfus of France winning, followed by Monaco's own Louis Chiron, before in 1931 sixteen out of the field of twenty-three cars were Bugattis. The Monegasque Chiron won the race, five minutes ahead of Luigi Fagioli in a Maserati 26M.
1932 was to be the final year that grids were to be decided by ballot (at least the early 2016 qualifying format didn't last as long, don't you think?), Tazio Nuvolari in his Alfa Romeo won the race by just 2.8 seconds from the privateer Alfa of Rudolf Caracciola, after the Italian great's car got fuel pick-up problems. By now the race time for the one hundred laps in dry conditions was down to three and a half hours.
The next year, practice times began to decide the grid, and after exchanging positions with Achille Varsi various times throughout the race, Tazio Nuvolari was beaten by the Italian on the last lap when his car caught fire because it was over-revving. He was then disqualified for receiving outside assistance for trying to push his car over the finish line.
In 1934, new Grand Prix regulations stipulated, among other things, that all Grands Prix were to be run to over 500km, but Monaco the first race under the new rules, was exempt, at just 100 laps (318km), such was the time taken to complete the race distance. An Algerian who had been newly recruited to Scuderia Ferrari, Guy Moll, in an Alfa Romeo, won his first race after joining the team, thereby also becoming the youngest driver, at 23 years and 10 months, to win the Monaco Grand Prix until Lewis Hamilton in 2008.
Mercedes-Benz took victory for the next three years, with Luigi Fagioli winning in 1935 and Rudolf Caracciola taking the spoils in the heavy rain in 1936 after an oil leak on one car led various accidents in the chicane after the tunnel. Manfred von Brauchitsch won in the final year before World War 2.
Monaco returned in 1948, with the formula for 1.5 litre supercharged or 4.5 litre normally-aspirated engines. Giuseppe Farina won in a Maserati 4CLT, with Monegasque Louis Chiron runner-up in a Talbot-Lago T26.
After no race the following year, Monaco hosted the second round of the first ever Formula 1 world championship in 1950, with Juan Manuel Fangio winning in his Alfa Romeo by one lap, from Alberto Ascari's Ferrari and Louis Chiron's Maserati, in a time of 3:13:18.7.
Again, the race was not held the next year, but came back in 1952 in the guise of a non-championship sportscar race, which Ferraris dominated and Vittorio Marzotto won. Luigi Fagioli suffered fatal injuries in practice.
After another two years with no race, Monaco returned in 1955 where it was to stay on the world championship until the present day, although that year it was in fact called the Grand Prix d'Europe. The Mercedes of Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss were dominating until the Argentinian retired with transmission failure, while Moss's engine blew on Lap 80. New leader Alberto Ascari crashed into the harbour and swam to safety. He was to be killed just four days later at Monza. Maurice Trintignant won, the first French Monaco winner.
Stirling Moss won for Maserati in 1956. Peter Collins, who had been second, handed his Ferrari to Juan-Manuel Fangio, who returned to the track in third, but fought back to second. He was 6.1 seconds behind Moss at the chequered flag.
Fangio won in 1957 from Tony Brooks, with Jack Brabham losing third place on the last lap due to an engine failure. He pushed the car over the finish line in sixth place. Maurice Trintignant took his second and only other Grand Prix victory here in 1958, the second consecutive victory for the privateer Rob Walker Racing Team. Bernie Ecclestone entered as a driver and failed to qualify his Connaught.
Jack Brabham, who went on to win three world championships, took his first ever Grand Prix victory at Monaco in 1959, as did the Cooper Car Company team. Moss won in 1960 in a Lotus-Climax from Bruce McLaren in a Cooper-Climax. It was the first Formula 1 win for Lotus.
1961 was the opening round of the world championship and saw the new 1.5 litre engine rules, with Stirling Moss winning in a Lotus-Climax from the Ferraris of Richie Ginther and Phil Hill. In 1962, Jim Clark took his first Formula 1 pole position but retired with clutch problems and Bruce McLaren won in a Cooper. BRMs took 1-2 in 1963, with “Mr Monaco” Graham Hill being followed home by Richie Ginther. It was the first of his five wins in the principality and of three in a row.
1966 saw Monaco again host the opening round of the world championship and the engine formula was changed from a maximum of 1.5 litres to a maximum of 3 litres. The McLaren team made its debut, painted especially in white and green to represent the fictional Yamura team in the filming of John Frankenheimer's film, Grand Prix. With new rules stipulating that cars had to complete 90% of the race distance to be classified, several cars officially retired despite still running, those of Guy Ligier and Jo Bonnier. It was a Grand Prix of attrition and Jackie Stewart in his BRM won, from the Ferrari of Lorenzo Bandini and the BRMS of Graham Hill and Bob Bondurant. These four were the only classified finishers.
Four months after the first round of the world championship in Kylami, the second round came in Monaco in 1967 and was won by Denny Hulme in his Brabham-Repco. Lorenzo Bandini was killed after an accident at the chicane and his car bursting into flames. Graham Hill won from pole in 1968, the race now taking place over only 80 laps. The following year, Hill took his final victory in Monaco.
1970 saw a dramatic finish, when on the last corner of the last lap, Jack Brabham, being chased by Jochen Rindt, locked his brakes and went into the barrier. The Australian reversed and finished runner-up, but the Austrian and eventual posthumous world champion Rindt took victory. Third was Henri Pescarolo in a Matra.
Jackie Stewart won in 1971 in his Tyrrell-Ford from Ronnie Peterson in his March-Ford. The following year Jean-Pierre Beltoise took his only and BRMs last Formula 1 win. 1973 saw a revised track layout which resembles that of today and the race distance was also reduced to 78 laps, like today. The new features included a longer tunnel, the Swimming Pool chicane and Rascasse. Stewart won from Fittipaldi and Peterson.
Ronnie Peterson won the Grand Prix in 1974, having started third. In 1975, in wet weather, Ferrari broke a 20-year victory drought at Monaco, with Niki Lauda. Fittipaldi was closing on Lauda near the end of the race, due to the Austrian's oil pressure weakening, 2.75 seconds behind with three laps left, whereupon the race was stopped at the end of that lap, reaching the two-hour limit. Extra attention had been given to installing more catch fending and guard rails, following the accident at Montjuich in the previous race,
In 1976, Lauda won again, beating the six-wheeled Tyrrell of Jody Scheckter. The South African turned the tables the following year, beating Lauda in his Wolf-Ford. 1978 saw Patrick Depailler's first win and in 1979, eventual world champion Scheckter won. 1980 is remembered for a spectacular crash at Sainte Devote in which Derek Daly flew over Bruno Giacomelli before taking out Jean-Pierre Jarier and Alain Prost. Carlos Reutemann won for Williams. After leading much of the 1981 race, Nelson Piquet spun off on Lap 53, New leader Alan Jones had a fuel feed issue and Gilles Villeneuve won for Ferrari.
1982 saw one of the most dramatic denouements to a Grand Prix ever. Early leader René Arnoux span off. With rain starting to fall, race leader Alain Prost crashed his Renault on Lap 74. Riccardo Patrese inherited the lead but spun at the Loews hairpin on Lap 75 and stalled. This handed the lead to Didier Pironi, who ran out of fuel in the tunnel on the last lap, Lap 76, before Andrea de Cesaris, who would have taken the lead also ran out of fuel. The next potential leader, Derek Daly, who had already lost his front and rear wing, had his gearbox seize up before he could start the last lap, leading BBC commentator James Hunt to explain that “we've got this ridiculous situation where we're all sitting about the start-finish line waiting for a winner to come past and we don't seem to be getting one”. Ricardo Patrese won the race, his first victory. Pironi and De Cesaris were classified as second and third.
Reigning world champion Keke Rosberg won in 1983. 1984 was contentious. While the rain fell, Ayrton Senna disposed of many drivers and climbed his way up through the field from his starting position of thirteenth in his unfancied Toleman. He was closing at a rate of knots on race leader Alain Prost had problems locking his brakes and waved to the stewards on Lap 29 to suggest the race be stopped. Clerk of the course Jacky Ickx red flagged the race on Lap 32. Driving for Porsche's factory sportscar team at the time and with Prost in a McLaren-Porsche, some viewed this as suspicious. As well as season debutant Senna making an impression in that race, as well as Nigel Mansell (who had led before spinning), Tyrrell's Stefan Bellof starred from 20th and last on the grid to come through and finish third.
Prost won the next two years' Monaco Grands Prix, before Ayrton Senna took the first of his record six wins in Monte Carlo in 1987. The following year, leading by 50 seconds from his McLaren team-mate Prost, Senna crashed into the barrier just after Portier and went back to his apartment, not seen until hours after the race. Prost won again. The Brazilian went on to win every edition of Monaco until 1993, but not before a tense scrap with Nigel Mansell in 1992 after the Williams driver, who had been dominating the season to that point, had to pit with a puncture and returned to the track all over the back of Senna's McLaren.
In 1994, with the changing of the guard, Michael Schumacher took the first of his five wins around the principality, also taking the victory in 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2001. 1996 was a crazy Monaco Grand Prix. Schumacher crashed on the first lap, Damon Hill and Jean Alesi both retired from the lead. Damon would never manage to emulate his father Graham with victory in Monaco. Olivier Panis, who had started 14th, and included an aggressive move on Eddie Irvine at the Loews Hairpin, won the race for Ligier Mugen Honda. There were only three cars running at the end of the race, a record, although seven cars were classified.
In 1997, Schumacher slipped up and narrowly avoided going out of the race at Sainte-Devote, taking to the escape road, which would have handed victory to the new Stewart-Ford team. Still, Rubens Barrichello's second place was an excellent achievement for the Milton Keynes-based team, which would become Jaguar and then Red Bull.
In 1998, the McLarens dominated, with Mika Hakkinen winning from David Coulthard. Alexander Wurz put in an excellent performance and refused to budge for Michael Schumacher at the hairpin and the damage to the German's car took him out of the race.
Coulthard sandwiched Schumacher's 2001 win with victory in both 2000 and 2002. Williams, who have never been particularly successful at Monaco, won in 2003 with Juan-Pablo Montoya, before Renault's Jarno Trulli, at the time competing quite well against the team's new star Fernando Alonso, took pole and the win, his only Grand Prix victory.
Kimi Raikkonen took what is to date his only win at Monaco in 2005, for McLaren, while Fernando Alonso won for Renault in 2006 and for McLaren in 2007. Alonso's teammate, newcomer Lewis Hamilton, was not happy at being instructed not to try to overtake Alonso, spending much of the race in close company with the reigning world champion. Hamilton won the race the following year, though, despite having to pit for new tyres early in the race when he hit the barrier at Tabac and while suffering a slow puncture at the end of the Grand Prix.
In 2009 Jenson Button dominated in his Brawn, before Mark Webber sandwiched Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel's 2011 win with victory in 2010 and 2012. Since 2013, Nico Rosberg has been the only victor in Monte Carlo, his home city. Last year, it seemed that Lewis Hamilton was going to win, but after the first ever virtual safety car came out following Max Verstappen's monster accident at Sainte-Devote, the gap and time to Rosberg was miscalculated and he was called into the pits for a precautionary stop, which dropped him into third place.
Last year, Sebastian Vettel led home the first Ferrari 1-2 since their controversial German Grand Prix victory in 2010 when Alonso had overtaken Massa under team orders. Vettel stayed out on track longer than Räikkönen and got the jump on him. Ricciardo had a brush with the wall but came out unscathed and completed the podium. Meanwhile, Jenson Button featured in a final outing in Formula 1 replacing Alonso, who was competing in the Indy 500.
This year, the hypersoft tyre makes its first appearance at a race weekend and Pérez’s lap record of last year may well be beaten.
Circuit length: 3.337km
Number of laps: 78
Race distance: 260.286km
Dry weather tyre compounds: Supersoft, Ultrasoft and Hypersoft
Lap Record: 1:14.820 (2017 – Sergio Pérez – Force India-Mercedes)
First Grand Prix: 1929
Constructors' Championship standings:
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2018/team.html
Drivers' Championship standings:
https://www.formula1.com/en/results....8/drivers.html
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