Yahoo Autos There's Nothing Quite Like a Formula 1 Friday in Monaco
Formula 1 cars took over the usually sedate roads of the principality on Friday in Monaco.
Where else in the world do Formula 1 cars pass by someone’s apartment entrance?
And where else in the world does the race track itself turn into a dance floor each night as revelers spill out from the famous Rascasse?
There is no way Monaco would get added as a new event to the calendar. It shouldn’t work as an event—yet that is exactly the reason why it just does work.
Friday practice for Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix provided a timely reminder of F1 racing of days gone by.
Not since 2019 has Monaco’s Grand Prix existed in its finest form, with 2020’s race canceled, and 2021’s taking place under COVID restrictions that robbed it of its usual bounce.
Monaco is still like no other Formula host. Trackside marshals and fire workers erect tables for a spot of lunch under a gazebo shielding them from the searing heat of the principality. They come prepared: a cheeseboard, miniature grill, sandwich-making equipment.
The French—and by virtue Monegasques—know how to do lunch. Porters drag luggage to and from the Fairmont Hotel, around and under which the Circuit de Monaco passes, while waiters show expectant customers to their restaurant tables. An overlooking balcony on the many high-rise flats in the principality becomes a lucrative commodity for the weekend, as do the yachts, which in reality are floating palaces that line the latter parts of the circuit. From those yachts blasts an array of Europop music in an apparent competition to hear who has the loudest speaker system.
Then the green flag flies and Formula 1 cars take over.
Formula 1 drivers hurtle their cars around Monaco’s 3.3 km (2 miles) layout in just 75 seconds, flirting mere millimeters from the barriers, past the Valentino, Gucci and Hermes shops typically frequented by those for whom finances are never a worry.
The famous Casino and Hotel de Paris are flashed past in the blink of an eye for 2022-spec Formula 1 cars as the usually sedate roads of the principality become a playground for the 20 racers. It is mind-boggling how the drivers thread the eye of a needle and when it goes even ever so slightly wrong—as happened to Daniel Ricciardo right in front of this writer—the outcome can be violently destructive.
Formula 1 has visited the streets of many cities around the world but nowhere is as wonderfully mesmeric and purely mad as Monaco.
Yes, the race will likely be underwhelming (though current forecasts suggest rain could spice up matters) and yes, the current specification cars do at times appear more cumbersome and laborious than their predecessors, with their stiffer suspension particularly influencing slow-speed performance.
