The 55th Monaco
Grand Prix
Bridgestone tread
the unknown as drivers play ball in Sponsor’s
Paradise.
"For the first time a fast race
has just taken place on a track right in the heart of
town. It is the Principality of Monaco with its Grand
Prix which has taken this initiative. The race
circuit, laid out entirely within the Principality,
between Monte-Carlo, the Condamine (Port) and Monaco
proper, works out to be just over 3 kilometres. It
goes without saying that the track is made up
entirely of bends, steep uphlll climbs and fast
downhill runs. Any respectable traffic system would
have covered the track with ‘Danger’ sign
posts left, right and centre. It is on a 100 laps of
this circuit that the first Grand Prix ran..."
So said La Vie
Automobile on 25 April 1929. And what do you
know, it was won by a Williams. The car was
blue, but it was a Bugatti 35B and it was driven by
an Englishman by the name of William
Grover-Williams over the 3.18Km circuit at an
average speed of 80.10 kilometres per hour, setting
the benchmark for one of the most exciting races in
the Formula 1 calendar.
Monte Carlo,
the smallest European state after The Vatican has
become the playground for the rich and famous and
specifically the Principality of Monaco is the
hub, where money sparkles like a golden fountain and
drops from millionaires’ manicured fingers at
the Casino, valueless, like empty peanut shells. It
is the summer playground for the fantastically rich.
The Grand Prix circus is totally in its element
amongst the celebrity tax-exiles and rent-a-Royals,
who overcrowd the woefully inadequate pit lanes,
basking in the reflected machismo that only Formula 1
can bring.
Corporate sponsorship
is at it’s craziest height and is a logistical
problem for all the teams’ Public Relations
personnel. To hire a hotel room or an apartement here
with a view of the race track - and there are many -
will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and
everyone wants a bit of the action, wants a bit of
the glamour to rub off into their corporate grey
existence. Businessmen who don’t know the
difference between Airforce and downforce, who think
ride height is something that truckers are privileged
to, and who think that McLaren is a baby carriage.
Being there is the thing. Drinking the good life
champagne if only for an expenses paid day and being
party, just for a microsecond, to the greatest
spectacle of overindulgence masquerading in the name
of sport, is their only concern. Blink and
you’ve missed it and many do but, ‘check
out that babe over there with that Verscasse bit of
flimsy falling off her shoulder, I do think
she’s giving me the eye! Now that’s
what I call motor racing!’
Of course the teams
have to come, they have to hurtle their fabulously
expensive projectiles around a street circuit, inches
away from concrete walls and metal barriers, at over
147 Kms per hour. They have to suffer the madness of
Ste-Devote the first corner chicane that has seen
more shattered metal and carbon than any other corner
on the Grand Prix calendar, they have to endure the
mad scrabble for places for service vehicles and
corporate hospitality tents. In short, it’s a
bun fight-no one likes doing it, but they all do.
With minimal space
available along the harbour, only the top five teams
usually have the chance to locate their trucks
between the water and the circuit. Teams in the
‘second division’ take up the first two
levels of the multi-storey car park a good fifteen
minutes walk away. Battle for space is even fiercer
this year, because of the increase in the number of
trucks required to carry extra spares. The pits are
located on the other side of the harbour, which means
mechanics need to transport everything across by
truck and unload on the other side. Once there, they
have no garage from which to work. Instead, there is
a small ‘lock-up’ area where cars are kept
and work on the car has to be done in the pit lane.
But, hey, the drivers,
to a man, love it. They love the satisfaction of
completing a race here, driving on an eleven tenths
adrenaline rush. The proximity of the gates of heaven
(or hell) to their flailing tyres is but the
thickness of a chequered flag or a one thousand
dollar bill and the exhibition of driver skills is
dependent on the degree of concentration they can
achieve whilst they try to catch their breath on the
short sharp straights between tight hairpins and fast
left/rights. The bigger your balls the faster you go.
Jacques Villeneuve having watched his grow,
since his debut debacle last year at Monaco, will
tell you ‘It’s fun.’ What he
means is, that given a well balanced, neutral car, he
can fly as close to the ragged edge as possible,
without getting his knuckles grazed on the concrete
and, well, if he does, he does. It’s OK.
Even at speeds of 80
Km an hour it has always been the same. On a circuit
notorious for lack of overtaking opportunities, Achille
Varzi and the great Nuvolari in 1932,
traded the lead over twenty times, sliding their
great big supercharged monsters through the likes of
Loews (station) Hairpin, their skinny balloon tyres
squealing and leaning crazily from the cockpit of
their cars pushing opposite lock to prevent the rear
of the car, carrying all the fuel, from crashing into
a wall. The following year Nuvolari driving his Alfa
for a young team boss by the name of Enzo Ferrari,
suffered an engine explosion and was disqualified
trying to push the smoking wreck across the line. The
race gained in reputation when 54 year old Louis
Fagioli crashed and died in the tunnel section in
1952. Lorenzo Bandini died crashing into the
chicane exiting the tunnel in 1967 and even Ascari
had the ignominy of driving into the harbour and
having to swim to safety. There were also the Glory
Years, Ayrton Senna winning the race 6 times
at the end of the ‘80’s and the fantastic
battle between Nigel Mansell and Senna in 1991
when, Mansell leading, had a puncture in the closing
laps. His race back to second place behind the
McLaren and his audacious but ultimately unsuccessful
attempts to pass the Brazilian, were nothing short of
awesome.
The traditional
advertising landscape for the tobacco barons has its
roots in the Monaco Grand prix. It was conceived in
1929 by cigarette manufacturer Antony Noghes
now President of the Grand Prix, but then, President
of the newly formed Automobile Club de Monaco.
In order to expand the club and have it recognised
internationally, an automobile sports event had to be
organised on its own territory. Noghes proposed the
creation of an Automobile Grand Prix which would take
place in the streets of the Principality. Being a
close and personal friend of Prince Louise ll, Noghes
brought his influences to bear and realised his
personal ambition, the first race taking place on
April 14th 1929 under the Prince’s royal
patronage.
The circuit
hasn’t changed a great deal since the ‘ideal
topography of a natural race track’ was
drawn up in the 20’s. During the 50’s
modifications to the Ste Devote bend led to the
shortening of the circuit to 3.14 km and it was not
until 1973 that the layout underwent further changes
with another 135 metres of track being added due to
the construction of the new Swimming pool. This
section was also the centre of controversy earlier
this year when much to the drivers’ dismay the
corners were altered further in the interests of
safety. From the original 100 laps, the race now, is
run over 78 laps on the 3.328Km circuit.
In the wet last year,
Monaco was no less controversial with only four cars
making it past the flag and in excess by a few
seconds of the ‘two hour’ rule. Michael
Schumacher took a first lap dive into the Armco
at Portier before the tunnel entrance continuing Ferrari’s
early season embarrassment. Damon Hill on a
comfortable lead had an unusual Renault engine
failure, handing the lead to Jean Alesi, who
promptly went out with suspension failure. A rather
surprised Olivier Panis in the admired but
underachieving Ligier Mugen-Honda took the win
to the delight of the predominantly French crowd.
Panis stands an even
better chance of winning this year if the rains come.
Inspiration will of course play it’s part but
not nearly as much as the Bridgestone tyres
whom everyone is expecting to outshine the Goodyears
on a slippery circuit. Bridgestone are taking four
different types of wet weather tyre to compliment the
two dry compounds. 1220 in all seems a bit overkill
but with so little knowledge of the circuit they
cannot afford to make any mistakes. Hirohide
Hamashima Technical Director for Bridgestone
Motorsport commented, "We have no experience
of Monaco, so we are making a big effort to use
simulations to gain usable data. Now we must hope
that the tyre specification we have chosen will work
well there. At Monaco our main problem is the
unknown..."
As regards race
strategy Trevor Foster Race Director with Jordan
Peugeot said, "Of all the Grands Prix
this is the one where qualifying is most important.
There are three places where overtaking is (just)
possible-at the Loews Hairpin, at Mirabeau and Ste
Devote- but it is extremely difficult. Race strategy
is more important than ever as the timing and number
of pit stops can have a huge impact on where the
driver finishes. We look at the different possible
permutations of fuel loads and pit stops and how they
might affect the teams outcome in the race. It is
then up to us to decide what effect ‘external
factors’- such as driving style or the weather
may have. Monaco is a slow speed circuit with maximum
downforce and driver skill is at a premium."
Damon Hill went
out of last year's Monaco GP with engine failure
Which is where we came
in. Heinz Harald Frentzen found his virility
enlarged at Imola and Villeneuve is desperate,
especially after last year, to prevent emasculation
setting in. In fact no one except Panis and David
Coulthard who finished second in the McLaren
can do any worse. Hill’s blown engine might just
have been a deja vu. However he knows the
circuit well and if the Yamaha holds out for
12 quick laps on Saturday qualifying, the circuit
could give him a grid position within the top ten.
It’s probably asking too much for the poor boy
to grab a point let alone finish the race, but if the
car does let go again, I feel that he will become
more than just the occasional dinner guest at McLaren
Boss, Ron Dennis’ table. Yes. rumours are
flying as to who will take him next year. With Adrian
Newey, Hill’s close friend and ex-Williams
technical guru on board this August, and David
Brown his old mechanic filched to work for
Coulthard last season, it could be home from old home
for Hill. Both current drivers’ contracts expire
this year and despite Mika Hakkinen’s
turn of speed and regular points finishes, he has yet
to deliver paydirt. This could prove to be
Hill’s salvation. However he isn’t German
and it’s widely understood that Mercedes, McLaren’s
engine supplier, would like a fellow countryman to
power them to victory. Again, all the Germans seem to
be tied to contracts right now, so how many more can
the F1 fraternity take? It all remains to be seen.
But not by many of the
suits that sip their fizz beneath the ornate
splendour of guilded chandeliers, staring out big
hotel windows at the colourful blur of buzzing
machinery. The Rothmans sponsors may have a bigger
room than the Mild Seven chaps and the Danka sponsors
might be on the top deck of a bus drinking brown ale
but probably their collective concern rates less than
zero regarding the machinations of Formula 1. "Pass
the canapés, oh, yes I’ll have another glass,
err... d’you think I can get this programme
signed by Jacques? It’s not for me you
understand..." Of course it’s not, its
for the boys back at the office, a trophy of
jolly’s having been had and if someone else buys
the drinks, tall tales to be told down the pub.
Whilst corporate
sponsorship pays for our enjoyment of sport in
general, motor races like the Monaco Grand Prix and
the historic race of Ferraris held this weekend in
the Principality, to celebrate the 50th anniversary
of the famous racing marque, bring home the fact that
it is a stratospherically isolated sport and the
circle in which it operates is pitifully small. The
real enthusiasts pay for the privilege of
sitting 500 metres away in the drizzle for a fleeting
glimpse, once every minute or so, of a dream. Not for
them the fine cuisine and the expensive hotels.
It’s a day trip to the principality or a tent 20
miles away, but it’s always them that make the
races and it’s what makes the drivers race. All
the money in Monaco wouldn’t do that. At the end
of the day it’s who’s on Pole, ‘yes,
it’s me in front of all these people!
They’re cheering ME! Therefore I
must have the biggest balls. Now, get out of
my way!’
Chris Richardson
