Andrew Benson
Monaco is an event that delights and maddens in equal measure. For all that Formula One revels in the picture- postcard perfection of the boats floating in its harbour under a cloudless blue sky, there are constant grumbles about the problems caused by holding a race in a place that has more vertical bits than horizontal.
Sunday’s incident-strewn Grand Prix showed both sides of the coin. The Mediterranean tax haven has rarely looked so perfect, but the race was stopped on the first lap because of a typically farcical Monaco accident, when Alexander Wurz’s Benetton arrived at the grid with smoke pouring from a broken engine.
Then, as the cars set off on their first lap, a red abort-start signal flashed on the timing screens, by mistake as it turned out. But while the teams wondered whether to tell their drivers to stop, it took only a few seconds for the race to be stopped for real.
Towards the back of the field, the Arrows driver Pedro de la Rosa tried to pass Britain’s Jenson Button around the outside of the notoriously twisty track’s tightest corner. It was an optimistic move that was never likely to come off, and as the cars tussled the Spaniard stalled, completely blocking the track.
It is at times like this that the glamorous facade of Monaco wears a little thin. The sight of some of the stranded drivers running back in the hot sunshine, still in helmets and fireproof race suits, only added to the bizarre spectacle.
Not everyone made it back to the start- finish line in time, with many being forced to restart from the pit lane in a long queue behind Wurz’s Benetton. Even that is nothing unusual, for overtaking is such a problem at Monaco that drivers are used to being stuck in traffic like a motorway in rush-hour. Overtaking is almost impossible and the races, like Sunday’s, are often a crashing bore as a result.
So important is Monaco to the sport, though, that nothing much will change. The drivers love the challenge of the track, even if they know that its narrowness makes it more dangerous than most other circuits. Many of the teams hate Monaco’s topography, but they put up with it for what Monte Carlo brings to the sport.
Monaco’s facilities might not be up to scratch but its perceived glamour accounts for about 75% of the sponsorship income of each team, according to one insider, so all the problems are brushed aside. “It has survived for 50 years,” said the Jordan team’s commercial director Ian Phillips, “and it will survive for another 50.” In Formula One, nothing talks louder than money.
Andrew Benson is Grand Prix editor of Autosport magazine
ENDS