The
Monaco Grand Prix ( ) is a Formula One race held each year on the Circuit de
Monaco
. Run since 1929, it is widely considered to be
one of the most important and prestigious automobile races in the
world alongside the Indianapolis 500
and the 24 Hours of Le Mans
(with which it forms the Triple Crown of
Motorsport). The circuit has been called "an exceptional
location of glamour and prestige."
The race
is held on a narrow course laid out in the streets of Monaco
, with many
elevation changes and tight corners as well as a tunnel, making it
one of the most demanding tracks in Formula One. In spite of
the relatively low average speeds, it is a dangerous place to
race.
The first
race in 1929, was organised by Anthony Noghès under the auspices of the
"Automobile Club de Monaco", and was won by William Grover-Williams driving a
Bugatti
. The event was part of the pre-
Second World War European Championship
and was included in the first
Formula One World Championship in
1950.
Graham Hill was known as
"
Mr Monaco" due to his five Monaco wins in the 1960s.
Brazil's
Ayrton Senna has won the race more times than
any other driver, with six victories, winning five consecutively
between 1989 and 1993.
History
Origin
Like many European races, the Monaco Grand Prix predates the
current
World Championship. The
principality's first
Grand
Prix was organised in 1929 by
Anthony Noghès, under the auspices of
Prince Louis II, through
the
Automobile Club de
Monaco (ACM). Alexandre Noghès, Anthony's father, was founding
president of the ACM, originally named
Sport Vélocipédique
Monégasque. The ACM made their first foray into motorsport by
holding the
Rallye Automobile Monte
Carlo in 1911. In 1928 the club applied to the
Association
Internationale des Automobiles Clubs Reconnus (AIACR), the
international governing body of motorsport, to be upgraded from a
regional French club to full national status. Their application was
refused due to the lack of a major motorsport event held wholly
within Monaco's boundaries. The rally could not be considered as it
mostly used the roads of other European countries.
In order
to attain full national status, Noghès proposed the creation of an
automobile Grand Prix in the streets of Monte Carlo
. Noghès obtained the official support of
Prince Louis II. Noghès also gained support for his plans from
Monegasque
Louis Chiron, a top-level
driver in European Grand Prix racing. Chiron thought that the
topography of the location would be well suited to setting up a
race track.
The
first Grand Prix Automobile
de Monaco was an invitation only event, but not all of those
invited decided to attend.
The leading Maserati
and Alfa Romeo drivers decided not to
compete but Bugatti was well
represented. Mercedes sent their leading driver,
Rudolf Caracciola, to drive a
Mercedes SSK. Caracciola drove a
fighting race, bringing his SSK up to second position at the end of
the race, despite starting in fifteenth.
The race was won by
"Williams" (pseudonym of expatriate
Briton
William
Grover-Williams) driving a Bugatti
Type 35B painted in what would become the famous British racing green. Another
driver who competed using a pseudonym was "
Georges Philippe", the
Baron Philippe de Rothschild. Chiron
was unable to compete, having a prior commitment to compete in the
Indianapolis 500 on the same day. However, Chiron did compete the
following year, finishing second, and took victory in the
1931 race driving a Bugatti. As of
2008, he remains the only native of Monaco to have won the
event.
Pre-war
The race quickly grew in importance.
Because of the large
number of races which were being termed 'Grands Prix', the AIACR
formally recognised the most important race of each of its
affiliated national automobile clubs as International Grands Prix,
or Grandes Épreuves, and in 1933 Monaco was ranked as such
alongside the French
, Belgian
, Italian
, and Spanish
Grands Prix. That year's race was the first Grand
Prix where grid positions were decided, as they are now, by
practice time rather than the established method of
balloting. The race saw
Achille Varzi and
Tazio Nuvolari exchange the lead many times
before being settled in Varzi's favour on the final lap when
Nuvolari's car caught fire. The race became a round of the new
European
Championship in 1936 and 1937, and both races were won by
Mercedes-Benz before the
Second World War ended organised
racing in Europe until 1945.
Formula One
Racing in
Europe started again on 9 September
1945 at the Bois de Boulogne
park in the city of Paris
, four months
and one day after the end of the war in Europe. In 1946 a
new premier racing category,
Formula
One, was defined by the
Fédération
Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the successor of the
AIACR, based on the pre-war
voiturette
class. A Monaco Grand Prix was run to this formula in
1948, won by the future world
champion
Nino Farina in a
Maserati 4CLT. Although the 1949 event was
cancelled due to the death of Prince Louis II, it was included in
the new World Drivers' Championship
the following year.
The race provided future five-time
world champion
Juan Manuel Fangio
with his first win in a World Championship race, as well as third
place for the 51 year old Louis Chiron; his best result
in the World Championship era. However, there was no race in 1951,
and in 1952, a year in which the world drivers' championship was
run for less powerful
Formula Two cars,
the race was run to
sports car
rules instead and did not form part of the World Championship.
Since
1955 - when Chiron
again scored points and at 56 became the oldest driver to compete
in a Formula One Grand Prix - the Monaco Grand Prix has
continuously been part of the Formula One World Championship.
It was not until
1957, when
Fangio won again, that the Grand Prix saw a double winner. Between
1954 and 1961 Fangio's former Mercedes colleague,
Stirling Moss, went one better. The
1961 race saw Moss fend off three
works
Ferrari 156s in a year-old privateer
Rob Walker Racing Team Lotus 18, to take his
third Monaco victory.
Britain's
Graham Hill won the race
five times in the 1960s and became known as "King of
Monaco" and "Mr. Monaco". In the
1965 race he took pole position and
led from the start, but went up an escape road on lap 25 to
avoid hitting a slow backmarker. Rejoining in fifth place, Hill set
several new lap records on the way to winning. The race was also
notable for the debut of
Honda in the World
Championship, and for
Paul
Hawkins' Lotus ending up in the harbour. A similar incident was
included in the 1966 film
Grand
Prix.
By the early 1970s, as
Brabham team owner
Bernie Ecclestone started to
marshal the collective bargaining power of the
Formula One Constructors
Association (FOCA), Monaco was prestigious enough to become an
early bone of contention. Historically the number of cars permitted
in a race was decided by the race organiser, in this case the ACM,
which had always set a low number, around 16. In 1972 Ecclestone
was starting to negotiate deals which relied on FOCA guaranteeing
at least 18 entrants for every race. A stand off over this issue
left the 1972 race in jeopardy until the ACM gave in and agreed
that 26 cars could participate - the same number permitted at most
other circuits. Two years later, in 1974, the ACM managed to get
the numbers back down to 18.
Because of its tight confines and punishing nature, Monaco has
often thrown up unexpected results. In the
1982 race René Arnoux led the first 15 laps,
before retiring.
Alain Prost then led
until four laps from the end, when he spun off on the wet track,
hit the barriers and lost a wheel, giving
Riccardo Patrese the lead. Patrese himself
spun with only a lap and a half to go, letting
Didier Pironi through to the front, followed
by
Andrea de Cesaris. On the last
lap, Pironi ran out of fuel in the tunnel, but De Cesaris also ran
out of fuel before he could overtake. In the meantime Patrese had
bump-started his car and went through to score his first Grand Prix
win.
In 1983 the ACM became entangled in the disagreements between
Fédération
Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) and FOCA.
The ACM,
with the agreement of Bernie Ecclestone, negotiated an individual
television rights deal with ABC in the United States
. This broke an agreement enforced by FISA
for a single central negotiation of television rights.
Jean-Marie Balestre, president of FISA,
announced that the Monaco Grand Prix would not form part of the
Formula One world championship in 1985. The ACM fought their case
in the French courts. They lost the case and the race was
eventually reinstated.
For the decade from 1984 to 1993 the race was won by only two
drivers -
Frenchman Prost and Brazilian
Ayrton Senna. Prost, already a winner
of the
support
race for Formula Three cars in 1979, took his first Monaco win
at the
1984 race. The race
started 45 minutes late after heavy rain. Prost led briefly
before
Nigel Mansell overtook him on
lap 11. Mansell crashed out five laps later, letting Prost back
into the lead. On lap 27, Prost led from Ayrton Senna's
Toleman and
Stefan
Bellof's
Tyrrell. Senna was
catching Prost and Bellof was catching both of them. However on lap
31, the race was controversially stopped. Later, FISA fined the
clerk of the course,
Jacky Ickx, $6,000
and suspended his licence for not consulting the stewards before
stopping the race. The drivers received only half of the points
that would usually be awarded, as the race had been stopped before
two thirds of the intended race distance had been completed.
Senna holds the record for the most victories in Monaco, with six,
including five between
1989
and
1993, as well as eight
podium finishes in ten starts. His
1987 win was the first time a car
with an active suspension had won a Grand Prix. His win was very
popular with the people of Monaco, and when he was arrested on the
Monday following the race, for riding a motorcycle without wearing
a helmet, he was released by the officers after they realised who
he was.
At the 1992 event Nigel Mansell, who had won
all five races held to that point in the season, took pole and
dominated the race in his Williams
FW14B-Renault
. However, with seven laps remaining, Mansell
suffered a loose wheel nut and was forced into the pits, emerging
behind Ayrton Senna's McLaren
-Honda. Mansell, on fresh tyres, set a lap
record almost two seconds quicker than Senna's and closed from 5.2
to 1.9 seconds in only two laps. The pair duelled around Monaco for
the final four laps but Mansell could find no way past, finishing
just two tenths of a second behind the Brazilian. It was Senna's
fifth win at Monaco, equalling Graham Hill's record. After Senna
took his sixth win at the
1993
race, breaking Graham Hill's record for most wins at the Monaco
Grand Prix, runner-up
Damon Hill
commented that "If my father was around now, he would be the first
to congratulate Ayrton."
The
1996 race saw
Michael Schumacher take pole position
before crashing out on the first lap. Damon Hill led the first
40 laps before his engine expired in the tunnel.
Jean Alesi took the lead but suffered suspension
failure 20 laps later.
Olivier
Panis, who started in 14th place, moved into the lead and
stayed there until the end of the race, being pushed all the way by
David Coulthard. It was Panis' only
win, and the last for his
Ligier team.
Only four cars finished the race.
Seven-time world champion Schumacher would eventually win the race
five times, matching Graham Hill's record. As of 2008, he also
holds the current lap record with a 1:14.439, according to the
official Formula One website. In his last appearance, at the
2006 event, he attracted
criticism while provisionally holding
pole
position with the qualifying session drawing to a close, by
stopping his car at the Rascasse hairpin, blocking the track. A
result of this was that yellow flags were waved, so that
competitors were obliged to slow down, thus meaning they would not
be able to beat Schumacher's lap time. Although Schumacher claimed
it was a genuine accident, the
FIA
disagreed and Schumacher was sent to the back of the grid.
Circuit
The famous harbour
The track map from above with streets added
The
Circuit de Monaco consists of the city streets of Monte Carlo and La
Condamine
, which
includes the famous harbour. It is unique in having been held on the
same circuit every time it has been run over such a long period —
only the Italian
Grand Prix, which has been held at Autodromo
Nazionale Monza
every year except 1980 and 1921, has a similarly
lengthy and close relationship with a single circuit.
The race circuit has many elevation changes, tight corners, and a
narrow course that makes it one of the most demanding tracks in
Formula One racing. As of 2008, only two drivers have crashed and
ended up in the harbour, the most famous being
Alberto Ascari in
1955. Despite the fact that the
course has had minor changes several times during its history, it
is still considered the ultimate test of driving skills in
Formula One, and if it were not already an
existing Grand Prix, it would not be permitted to be added to the
schedule for safety reasons. Even in 1929, 'La Vie Automobile'
magazine offered the opinion that "Any respectable traffic system
would have covered the track with <<DANGER>> sign posts
left, right and centre".</<DANGER>
Triple Formula One champion
Nelson
Piquet was fond of saying that racing at Monaco was "like
trying to cycle round your living room", but added that "a win here
was worth two anywhere else".
Notably, the course includes a tunnel. The contrast of daylight and
gloom when entering/exiting the tunnel presents "challenges not
faced elsewhere", as the drivers have to "adjust their vision as
they emerge from the tunnel at the fastest point of the track and
brake for the
chicane in the
daylight."
Organisation
The Monaco Grand Prix is organised each year by the
Automobile
Club de Monaco which also runs the Monte Carlo Rally and the
Junior Monaco Kart Cup.
It differs in several ways from other Grands Prix. The practice
session for the race is held on the Thursday preceding the race
instead of Friday. This allows the streets to be opened to the
public again on the Friday. Until the late 1990s the race started
at 3:30 p.m. local time - an hour and a half later than other
European Formula One races. In recent years the race has fallen in
line with the other Formula One races for the convenience of
television viewers. Also, earlier the event was traditionally held
on the week of
Ascension Day. For many
years, the numbers of cars admitted to Grands Prix was at the
discretion of the race organisers - Monaco had the smallest grids,
ostensibly because of its narrow and twisting track. Only 18 cars
were permitted to enter the
1975
Monaco Grand Prix, compared to 23 to 26 cars at all other
rounds that year.
The erecting of the circuit takes six weeks, and the removal after
the race takes three weeks. There is no
podium as such at the race. Instead a section of the
track is closed after the race to act as
parc fermé, a place where the cars are held
for official inspection. The first three drivers in the race leave
their cars there and walk directly to the
royal box where the 'podium' ceremony is held,
which is considered a custom for the race.
Fame
The
Monaco Grand Prix is widely considered to be one of the most
important and prestigious automobile races in the world alongside
the Indianapolis
500-Mile Race and 24 Hours of Le
Mans. These three races are considered to form a
Triple Crown of
the three most famous motor races in the world. Graham Hill is the
only driver to have completed the Triple Crown, by winning all
three races. The practice session for Monaco overlaps with that for
the Indianapolis 500, and the races themselves sometimes clash.
As the
two races take place on opposite sides of the Atlantic
Ocean
and form part of different championships, it is
difficult for one driver to compete effectively in both during his
career. Juan Pablo
Montoya, who won the Monaco Grand Prix in 2003 and the Indianapolis
500 in 2000, is
the only driver still racing in 2007 who has won two of the three
races and thus is the closest to completing the Triple
Crown.
In awarding its first Gold medal for motor sport to
Prince Rainier III, the
Fédération
Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) characterised the Monaco
Grand Prix as contributing "an exceptional location of glamour and
prestige" to motor sport.
It has been run under the patronage of three
generations of Monaco's royal family: Louis II, Rainier III and Albert II, all of whom have
taken a close interest in the race. A large part of the
principality's income comes from tourists attracted by the warm
climate and the famous casino, but it is also a
tax haven and is home to many millionaires,
including several Formula One drivers.
Monaco has produced only three native Formula One drivers,
Louis Chiron,
André Testut and
Olivier Beretta, but its tax status has made
it home to many drivers over the years, including
Gilles Villeneuve and
Ayrton Senna. Of the
2006 Formula One contenders, several
have property in the principality, including
Jenson Button and
David Coulthard, who is part owner of a
hotel there. Because of the small size of the town and the location
of the circuit, drivers whose races end early can usually get back
to their apartments in minutes. Ayrton Senna famously retired to
his apartment after crashing out of the lead of
the 1988 race.
Winners
Multiple winners (drivers)
Embolded drivers are still competing in the Formula One
championship
| # Wins |
Driver |
Years Won |
| 6 |
Ayrton Senna |
1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 |
| 5 |
Graham Hill |
1963, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1969 |
| Michael Schumacher |
1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001 |
| 4 |
Alain Prost |
1984, 1985, 1986, 1988 |
| 3 |
Stirling Moss |
1956, 1960, 1961 |
| Jackie Stewart |
1966, 1971, 1973 |
| 2 |
Juan Manuel Fangio |
1950, 1957 |
| Maurice Trintignant |
1955, 1958 |
| Niki Lauda |
1975, 1976 |
| Jody Scheckter |
1977, 1979 |
| David Coulthard |
2000, 2002 |
| Fernando
Alonso |
2006, 2007 |
Multiple winners (constructors)
A pink background indicates an event which was not part of the
Formula One World Championship.
A cream background indicates an event which was part of the
pre-war European
Championship.
Embolded teams are still competing in the Formula One
championship
| # Wins |
Constructor |
Years Won |
| 15 |
McLaren |
1984,
1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991,
1992, 1993, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007,
2008 |
| 9 |
Ferrari |
1952 |
1955, 1975, 1976, 1979,
1981, 1997, 1999, 2001 |
| 7 |
Lotus |
1960,
1961, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1974, 1987 |
| 5 |
British Racing Motors |
1963,
1964, 1965, 1966, 1972 |
| 4 |
Bugatti |
1929, 1930, 1931, 1933 |
| 3 |
Mercedes-Benz |
1935 |
1936, 1937 |
| Alfa Romeo |
1932, 1934 |
1950 |
| Maserati |
1948 |
1956, 1957 |
| Cooper |
1958,
1959, 1962 |
| Tyrrell |
1971,
1973, 1978 |
| Williams |
1980,
1983, 2003 |
2
|
Brabham |
1967,
1982 |
| Benetton |
1994,
1995 |
| Renault |
2004,
2006 |
By year
A pink background indicates an event which was not part of the
Formula One World Championship.
A cream background indicates an event which was part of the
pre-war European
Championship.
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