What might happen to F1 race in Monaco?
With Formula One’s surge in growth the past several years, its new ownership has been putting less emphasis on the traditional aspects of the sport, and instead focusing on developing new high energy, fast-paced events to continue to capture the attention of their young fans.
This has caused some heated debate between the sport’s long-time enthusiasts and its new arrivals, such as those introduced by the Netflix show “Drive to Survive”, with a prime topic being “is Monaco the worst race on the calendar or one of the highlights of the year?”
And it’s not just the new fans who have their problems with the Circuit de Monaco. Lewis Hamilton has talked about the lack of excitement for fans watching the race. And following the 2018 event Fernando Alonso said the race was “extremely boring. I mean, this is probably the most boring race ever.”
McLaren boss Zak Brown said that, "You do need to take into consideration history, but then I think you (also) need to take into consideration how is the show that it puts on.”
Haas principal Guenther Steiner, while not exactly disparaging the event, was reserved in his opinion. He told an interviewer: “Monaco is obviously a classic, and it has been there forever. It’s one where we enjoy going to as well, but there are a lot of events that are going in different directions. I always say different directions are better because then fans can look forward to different specialties. Monaco is one of those specialties in the calendar.”
The main issue, of course, is the inability of cars to pass one another on track during the race. This problem has been compounded in recent years by the modern yacht-sized cars running through the narrow, twisting streets of the city which are temporarily transformed into a racecourse for the event.
The last four F1 Monaco Grand Prixs have featured a grand total of nine overtakes – and that’s not overtakes for the lead, it includes the entire field, and culminated with zero overtakes in the 2021 event.
In 2018 Daniel Ricciardo won the event with a car that had lost approximately 25% of it’s power on Lap 28, but was able to prevent any of the full-strength cars from getting past him for the remaining 50 laps.
Drivers like Hamilton have suggested “improving” the race, but the confines of downtown Monaco limit the scope of what can be changed, particularly without sacrificing safety.
With the series now owned by Liberty Media, the future direction of the sport is in the hands of corporate executives who are located mainly in the United States - not who you’d expect to be a force for preserving tradition, particularly at the cost of sacrificing profits.
And profits have become a major part of this discussion. While the myth of Monaco paying nothing to F1 to host the annual event has been dispelled, the approximately $15 million sanctioning fee is a fraction of that paid by the newer venues on the calendar.
And while the event has previously been able to fall back on its position as a home for F1 to entertain its high rollers, limitations on available local accommodations have increasingly shifted that responsibility to new celebrity infused destinations like Miami and Las Vegas.
But before we rush to toss a venue that for so long shared an identity with international racing into history’s dustbin, perhaps it’s worth considering why so many long-time fans as well as those in the sport find it so iconic.
Of course, the streets that host the event still have the look, feel and much of layout that has challenged Europe’s top racing cars since 1929. While locations like Silverstone and Spa also date back decades, running through the streets of a historic European city has a unique ability to transport the viewer back in time to racing’s early days.
And while the Sunday race often lacks drama and excitement, Saturday’s qualifying certainly does not – not only because of the extreme importance of having a favorable starting position for the race, but the challenge to the drivers to get as close to the edge as possible without running afoul of the notoriously unforgiving turns. The qualifying laps done by masters of the circuit such as Ayrton Senna remain as important to the history of Monaco as the course itself.
And while the drivers may be aware of the inadequacies of the show presented to fans of auto-racing on Sundays, there is an unquestioned love of their opportunity to take part in the historic event (and not just because many of them live in the city).
Even while Liberty views the sport from the perspective of corporate profits, giving up Monaco entirely might not be as easy as they would like. The Global F1 Fan Survey, most recently taken in 2021 lists Monaco among the four events fans most viewed as “untouchable” (though there may be some bias in the survey toward fans who have been involved in the sport for a longer period and might be more likely to encounter the survey).
While most new fans would almost certainly be willing to put up with a single “boring” week during the year, the risk of alienating long time fans by removing the event is real.
Going forward, it seems unlikely we will see the disappearance of the classic circuit from the F1 calendar entirely. The possibility exists of an arrangement such as it sharing a spot with another event and only taking place on alternate years.
As the cars will not be getting any smaller or the track any bigger, we are unlikely to see any remarkable upswing on the race day excitement, barring a well-timed rain shower.
Nevertheless, if the young fans who are new to F1 fandom choose to stay tuned for the long haul, it’s quite possible they might learn to appreciate the history and value of F1 entry into racing’s “Triple Crown”, which along with Le Mans and Indianapolis connect today’s members of the racing fraternity with their compatriots of one hundred years ago.