Preview of the Monaco Grand Prix

It Happened in Monaco

The 1950 Monaco Grand Prix marks Ferrari’s debut in Formula One, with the Italian team having chosen to participate in a Formula 2 race in Belgium, which offered more attractive prize money, rather than the opening round of the brand-new championship. However, this first edition is especially remembered as the first victory for Juan Manuel Fangio (Alfa Romeo) as well as the first hat-trick in Formula One, after the Argentine also secured pole position and led every lap. The future five-time world champion was indeed relieved of his teammate, and closest rival, Giuseppe Farina, right from the first lap, as the Italian caused a pile-up involving 9 drivers—out of 19 starters—by losing control of his car in the tobacco shop corner, made slippery by water splashes caused by the crashing waves.

It would nevertheless take until 1955 before F1 returned to Monaco, where one of the most famous episodes in the championship’s history would take place. Although the victory went to Maurice Trintignant—who won his only two career victories on the streets of Monaco—the race was especially marked by Alberto Ascari’s plunge into the harbor aboard his Lancia, following the engine explosion of Stirling Moss, who was leading at the time. The double world champion emerged unscathed but had unknowingly just competed in his last Grand Prix.

The following year, despite a chaotic start to the race and a spectacular comeback at a pace of 2 seconds per lap, Juan Manuel Fangio could not prevent Stirling Moss from claiming victory at the wheel of his Maserati 250F.

In 1958, Monaco, then the first Grand Prix of the season, marked the debut of two future Formula One legends: Team Lotus, which won the first of its 7 victories in Monaco in 1960 with the indomitable Stirling Moss; and Graham Hill, the future master of the Monaco circuit. But this 5th edition was also the stage for the fleeting Formula One career of Bernie Ecclestone as a driver, the Briton failing to qualify in his own Connaught, thus understanding that if he had a talent to exploit in Formula One, it would probably not be behind the wheel.

The following year, Jack Brabham secured his first career victory in Monaco, even though he had won the Silverstone International Trophy, a non-championship race, a few weeks earlier.

In 1962, Jim Clark secured his first pole position in Monaco. However, he never triumphed there, despite achieving 4 pole positions, the most emblematic being in 1966 in a Lotus from the previous season. Indeed, thereafter, the Briton always had to retire or fell victim to mechanical failures.

In 1963, Graham Hill achieved the first of his five victories in the principality (1963, 1964, 1965, 1968, and 1969). History will remember that the Briton was the only one to achieve the triple crown by winning in Monaco, then at the Indianapolis 500 in 1966, and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1972. A few months before dying in a plane crash in November 1975, Hill had ended his racing career after the affront of not qualifying on the streets of Monaco with his own car. The key to Graham Hill’s success on the streets of Monaco mainly lay in his ability to handle events skillfully.

In 1967, Denny Hulme’s first victory was overshadowed by the death of Lorenzo Bandini. On the 82nd lap, the Italian, chasing behind Hulme, hit a straw bale at the exit of the harbor chicane. His Ferrari instantly caught fire and overturned. It took the bravery of a track marshal and Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma to free Bandini from the burning wreckage before it exploded a second time. With third-degree burns on 70% of his body, the Italian succumbed three days later. Attributed to fatigue, Bandini’s accident forced the race management to reduce the length of the Grand Prix from 100 to 80 laps. It remains to this day the only fatal accident to have occurred on the streets of Monaco, although in 1994, Karl Wendlinger had a career-ending accident at the same spot after nearly three weeks in a coma.

In 1970, Jack Brabham was heading for victory when, in the last corner, he missed his braking and ended up in a hay bale. At the finish line, the Grand Marshal, who was expecting to see Brabham’s BT33, did not lower the checkered flag when Jochen Rindt’s Lotus passed, despite him having just added the most prestigious victory to his record.

At the start of the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix, Emerson Fittipaldi (Lotus) took off from pole position, ahead of Jacky Ickx (Ferrari), Clay Regazzoni (Ferrari), and Jean-Pierre Beltoise (BRM). But in a torrential downpour, Beltoise propelled himself into the lead while Regazzoni led Fittipaldi and Ickx into the escape road. Beltoise then navigated through the raindrops and debris to claim victory for the first and only time in his career. Twenty-four years later, another Frenchman would experience the same adventure in a Ligier, under roughly similar conditions.

In 1979, after retiring prematurely from the Monaco Grand Prix, raced in an uncompetitive Wolf, James Hunt announced his immediate retirement after only seven races that season.

In 1982, the Monaco Grand Prix was set to experience a Hollywood-worthy finale when rain made its appearance in the last laps of a race that had been led until then by Prost. Two laps from the finish, the Frenchman’s Renault crashed into the rail at the chicane, handing the lead to Riccardo Patrese. But the Italian spun at the Loews hairpin, allowing Pironi, De Cesaris, and Derek Daly to pass. However, both Pironi and De Cesaris stopped a few hundred meters further, running out of fuel, and Derek Daly entered the final lap in the lead when his gearbox forced him to retire, propelling Riccardo Patrese to his first Formula One victory.

Two years later, the rain was again set to disrupt the running of the Grand Prix. After temporarily relinquishing the lead to Nigel Mansell, who crashed out on the 16th lap, Alain Prost reclaimed his position under treacherous conditions. The Frenchman was ahead of his teammate, Niki Lauda, and the surprising Ayrton Senna in his Toleman. The young Brazilian had carved his way from 13th on the grid to overtake the Austrian on the 19th lap and began a furious charge toward the Frenchman, who had a comfortable lead. Behind them, Stefan Bellof, who had started last, found himself in 4th position and quickly overtook René Arnoux for 3rd place, gaining on Senna, who was also closing in on Prost. But on the 31st lap, Jacky Ickx, the race director at the time, decided to stop the Grand Prix and declared Prost the winner, much to his relief. Yet, the Frenchman would later regret it, admitting he would have preferred to finish the race with the six points from second place rather than winning pre-emptively and only earning half the victory points. Indeed, by the end of the season, the Frenchman lost the title to Niki Lauda by just one point.

Ayrton Senna, for his part, was furious, but he wouldn’t take long to set things straight in Monaco. After another podium, this time with Lotus in 1986, Senna won in the Principality for the first time the following year. The Brazilian would not let go of victory in the Principality, except in 1988. Yet that year, Senna was dominating the Grand Prix, with nearly a 50-second lead over Alain Prost. But the Brazilian, whose determination to win unconditionally is now legendary, continued to push until he paid the high price by crashing his McLaren into the Portier corner barrier, thus handing victory to his great rival.

Subsequently, while the Brazilian remained the undisputed master of Monaco in 1989, 1990, and 1991, it was quite different during his victory against Nigel Mansell’s Williams in 1992. Senna indeed took advantage of a puncture on the Williams driver’s car to seize the lead of the Grand Prix before fending off the British driver’s assaults at the end of the race, thus equaling Graham Hill’s record in Monaco, before surpassing it the following season by capitalizing on Michael Schumacher’s problems to claim his sixth and final victory. A year later, a few weeks after his passing, Ayrton Senna symbolically occupied the first position on the grid of a circuit he had come to dominate. Only Schumacher, who achieved his first career pole position that year, would come close to this record by winning five times in the streets of Monaco.

However, the last victory of the seven-time world champion in Monaco dates back to 2001, and since then, 8 different drivers have won at the foot of the steps of the princely grandstand.

WE WILL NEED TO FOLLOW THEM

**Bernd Maylander:** Of the 41 races with 6 or fewer drivers finishing, 11 were Monaco Grand Prix events, compared to 6 in the United States, the second country in this statistic. Worse, Monaco holds the record for the fewest number of cars finishing with 3 drivers in 1996 and also the second place with 4 drivers in 1966. This means many opportunities for the Safety Car driver, Bernd Maylander, to take to the track, and in 2010, it was just a matter of a few hectometers, and a subtlety in the regulations, for the German driver to have been the first to cross the checkered flag at the most prestigious Grand Prix on the calendar, as the race was neutralized following the spectacular accident of Jarno Trulli whose T127 had ridden over Karun Chandhok’s HRT.

The Monaco circuit is indeed a true challenge for mechanics, with the race cars being seriously put to the test between incidental bumps and curbs. As a result, there are many retirements due to broken suspensions or gearboxes.

And if sometimes the race there turns into a procession, thus shielding the drivers from any collisions, the 2011 regulations should still give Bernd Maylander a good chance to showcase his driving skills, especially since DRS will ultimately not be banned, at least outside the tunnel.

Paul di Resta: As will often be the case, Paul di Resta is, among all the rookie drivers, the one with the least experience on the circuits of the European calendar. Monte Carlo being what it is, it will be necessary to follow the Scotsman’s performance on a track where he has only raced once, in 2005, during his first season in the Formula 3 Euroseries. Engaged with Manor, he qualified in 8th position behind his teammate, Lucas di Grassi, while Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Sutil occupied the front row. He finished 8th in the first race and 6th in the second, before winning the championship the following season, but Monaco was no longer on the calendar.

The other beginners, who have followed a more classic path than the Scotsman in World Series by Renault or GP2 Series, consequently have more experience on Monaco’s streets. Pastor Maldonado has won there twice in GP2 and once in WSR. Sergio Perez won the first race in 2010, while Jérôme d’Ambrosio took victory in the second race the following day.

THE MYSTERY NUMBER

With 32,796 inhabitants, Monaco is the 190th most populated state in the world, and while it surpasses the principality of San Marino by about three thousand inhabitants, Monaco is currently the least populated country on the Formula One calendar. The princely microstate is also the smallest state on the 2011 calendar with an area of 2.02 km², much of which has been reclaimed from the sea: 192nd in the world ranking.

If Monaco is renowned for its tourism or its strength in real estate and banking, industry still accounts for 8% of the GDP and 9% of jobs.

But to learn even more about Monaco, we invite you to discover the mystery number. You have until the start of the Grand Prix to uncover it by asking us questions – to which we can only answer yes or no – and by avoiding using search engines. However, a first clue: the mystery number has nothing to do with F1 and is far too large to relate to the length of the Franco-Monegasque border.

The mystery number of the Monaco Grand Prix is 68