It is time for Monaco to bend, for once in its proud life, to the overdue requirement to build an overtaking acre to preserve its status as the grand prix venue first among equals.
I speak as one of its friends. And had I never been to a race and could choose which to visit it would be here. It is a place of glamour, redolent of ghosts past, from Princess Grace, Her Serene Highness who added Hollywood glamour to its royal house, to stars such as Sir Stirling Moss and Graham Hill, aka Mr Monaco, and beyond to the cast of today.
Speaking of Hill, can it really be true he partied so hard at Rosie’s Bar that he got a champagne flute stuck in his leg, and raced the next day? Rosie Bernard, eponymous hostess, wrote a book about the place. It ran to 144 pages.
Some of this history was touched upon in an interview on Thursday in Monaco-Matin newspaper with of the grandest panjandrums in world sport: Michel Boeri.
For 53 years Me Boeri has served as president of the Automobile Club de Monaco. A Grand Officer of the Order of Grimaldi, he has no intention of seeking early retirement. ‘I don’t have the temperament to leave,’ the headline declared on his behalf. He is 86.
Me Boeri has achieved much. As Bernie Ecclestone, who cut the Principality a special, trifling hosting fee of £5million a year, opined: ‘Monaco gives Formula One more than we give it.’ He was speaking in terms of value to the brand. Ferrari was the other special case by the old reckoning.
The Monaco Grand Prix is one of – if not the number one – most iconic races on the F1 calendar
The principality’s glamorous setting has been burnished further by bygone stars like Princess Grace of Monaco (pictured in 1982)
But for all of its luxurious history, the race has lost its lustre and been labelled a procession
Well, in the old days cars were smaller and the chances of overtaking greater. Today’s beasts are too big for that. Hence a rule after last year’s tedium – a single overtake by one count – that a second pit stop has been mandated for this Sunday’s edition.
Too manufactured, allege the critics, of this additional jeopardy. Not much more, mind, than the regulations that dictate two different tyre compounds are used at each race.
But the second stop hints at the real problem. If you watch on TV you cannot see the cars dancing through the swimming pool complex, accelerating and decelerating as if in defiance of physics. All you see is a procession, unless rain, or a safety car, intervenes.
On Thursday, George Russell reported that his Mercedes engineers told him that he would need a 4.5sec advantage to have a 50 per cent chance of overtaking. He reckoned a 2.5sec differential is achievable if you are on new soft tyres and your prey on old softs.
So something must be done, and I don’t accept the refrain that a fractional remodelling of the track is impossible. Donald Trump has pledged to build a Golden Dome defence system, for heaven’s sake. Extending one area of the track could be found. Perhaps a couple of spots.
After all, Monaco has added to its tiny footprint for years by reclaiming land from the sea by inserting concrete blocks.
Revamping the track should have been part of Formula One’s renegotiation last year, along with the increased fee – now closer to a competitive £25m a year – to stage the race in a six-year extension until 2031.
Yes, there may be local objections, legal threats and planning problems. But insurmountable?
Michel Boeri has no plans to give up his long-held position at as chairman of the ACM
But change must come to the circuit and the remodelling of its track should not be impossible
No, Monaco bigwigs are being blinded by their often-justifiable hype at the exclusion of progress.
On site, you sense the thrill of 1,000bhp danger. For a worldwide public, it is not enough, and the crime is that the remedy is evident if only there were a will.
Smiles for Lewis – but not those of old
I wrote at the opening race in Melbourne that Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari contract – both his first and, surely, his last – carried the air of a farewell tour.
I hope I am wrong and that he can sign off with a logic-defying eighth world title in his early 40s, but his celebration of finishing a lucky fourth in Imola last weekend reinforced my assessment of his more breezy mood.
He started 12th, lost a place and made no real progress before safety cars did him a good turn. Fine. That is how it goes. But calling it one of the best races of his life, as he did, defies the streak of perfectionism that has defined him.
Yes, the romantic in him was delighted to imbibe the fervid Ferrari support for the first time. And he is always in markedly better spirits when he has finished in front of his team-mate.
But a lucky fourth, miles off the pace, however much he lit up his tyres in the end and Ferrari made some neat strategy calls, is not a scenario that would have thrilled Lewis at his most demanding.
Lewis Hamilton may have enjoyed a strong home run at Imola but the champion of old would have required a greater challenge for higher stakes
Benaud’s Beaulieu-sur-Mer
In the old days, a few of us journalists used to stay in Monaco for the grand prix. Just up from Casino Square next to a roundabout where the gendarmerie blew their whistles from before dawn until beyond dusk.
Room rates climbed until they would have bankrupted Fort Knox. I decamped to Beaulieu-sur-Mer just along the Med.
Turning to cricket, the first Test of the summer against Zimbabwe began yesterday, as, if on cue, a reminder of one of the place’s most famous residents.
Until he died 10 years ago last month, Richie Benaud and his English wife Daphne based themselves in the beautiful town for the European summer.
Hats off, in these more raucous broadcasting times, to the memory of Benaud’s measured mastery at the microphone.
A humble hometown hero
Charles Leclerc was the local boy winner here a year ago. He is the only Monegasque among all the Monaco-based drivers. Lest you think this marks him out as a silver-spooner, his background was once described to me as a family that services the rich – a garage owner and a hairdresser in his parents’ case.
Many of the home crowd will be cheering on their own returning champion in Charles Leclerc
Ferrari’s puzzle continues
The chances of a repeat Ferrari win in the Principality? Leclerc admitted it looks a remote prospect, saying: ‘We are not good on slow-speed corners and it is all slow-speed corners here.’
Asked when upgrades would put things right, he had no firm answer, adding forlornly: ‘What is wrong with this car? I wish I knew.’
Bon chance, Charles.
Verstappen an F1 no-show
Max Verstappen is the new Lewis Hamilton in that he can operate by his own rules.
That became apparent when the drivers were granted their first viewing of the pit-lane’s new Brad Pitt-starring movie, entitled F1, in Monaco on Wednesday night.
It’s a short hop from their sitting rooms to the Grimaldi Forum. There was a three-line whip to show up, cracked by chief executive Stefano Domenicali.
Max contends convincingly that new fatherhood after the birth of baby Lily will not emasculate his driving. The same does not apply to his movie watching.
Max Verstappen has been at the top long enough to write his own script – including skipping the movie’s
‘I notified everyone about not going, so they were well aware that I wasn’t going to be there,’ said Max. ‘I wanted to spend more private time.
‘I think it’s coming out in June. There was the opportunity to watch it but if doing that now or in three or four weeks is fine as well. I’m sure that it’s going to be exciting.’
Another absentee…
One other driver did not turn up for the premiere. Lance Stroll. ‘He had a team commitment but is enthusiastic about the film,’ explained a spokesman.
