The Monaco Grand Prix. Ask anyone with a remote interest in Formula One to name its most prestigious event and this one will come out on top. Set amidst a stunning backdrop of the Monte Carlo harbour and rising cliffs, the circuit winds around the narrow and twisty streets of Monaco and plays host to round six of this years World Championship this weekend as Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel continue their increasingly fascinating dual for the title.
Monaco just adores being different. Unlike all other races, here free practise takes places on Thursday as opposed to Friday, and rather than a designated podium to crown the winner, this takes place on the steps approaching the royal box of Prince Albert II. Many of the drivers live in the principality too, making it the local race for plenty on the grid. Throw in the slowest corner on the calendar, the famous tunnel section and the glitz and glamour, and Monaco really is set apart from anywhere else the Formula One circus visits throughout the year.
Its challenges of a narrow track, unforgiving barriers that hug the entire circuit and a lack of straights makes this one of the most unique venues on the calendar. Yet it is for precisely these reasons that many question the existence of the Monaco Grand Prix in the modern Formula One era. Simply put, overtaking at the Monaco Grand Prix is nearly an impossibility. With such little room for manoeuvre and barriers awaiting to punish even the smallest of errors, many Monaco Grand Prix's develop into little more than a follow the leader procession. Qualify on pole and convert that into the race lead after the first corner, and the race is effectively yours with 78 laps still to run.
There have been exceptions of course, including last year's race which kept everyone guessing to its conclusion, but these are usually livened up thanks to the climatic elements rather than any thrilling on track racing. With cars now wider than they have been for a while and tyres adapted to last longer, the expectation is that overtaking this year will become tougher still. Yet there remains something endearing about this famous old street circuit, something that no other circuit can offer.
With Formula One now under new ownership, and a determination to create a more audience friendly sport both for those trackside and those watching at home, you would expect to see changes catering to those needs. But to remove the Monaco Grand Prix would be a big break from a Formula One tradition that dates back to 1955, with the event being a permanent fixture on the calendar ever since. Despite its drawbacks of processional racing, this Grand Prix offers the driver's a challenge so far removed from anything else and is a circuit that has always separated the great from the good.
Between 1984 and 1995, only Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost won the race, three of Formula One's greatest ever drivers. More recently, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, the three golden racers of the current generation, have taken five of the last eleven races between them. It is a circuit that pushes a driver's ability to its limit, tests nerve and concentration like nowhere else. One slight mistake, one slight drop of concentration and you're in the armco, your race finished. No other track punishes so heavily as Monaco.
Driving a Formula One car around the streets of Monaco has often been compared to riding a bike around your living room, as a circuit simply unsuitable to accommodate modern Formula One cars. But no one wants twenty Grand Prix's taking place on twenty similar circuits each year. Different circuits ought to produce different challenges, different racing. If the Formula One World Championship is all about pushing the limits of the great drivers, then the Monaco Grand Prix is crucial in testing that ability.
Admittedly, more could be done to spice up the racing in Monaco, introducing more pit stops to create greater unpredictability and encourage differing strategy (Monaco is usually a one stop race) is one possibility. But for all its drawbacks, the Monaco Grand Prix weekend remains an important fixture on the Formula One calendar, for its history, for its uniqueness. No race weekend is quite like a Monaco race weekend.
