MONTE CARLO, Monaco — Grand Prix cars have raced around the streets of Monaco since 1929. In that time the cars, the principality itself and the rest of the world have changed dramatically, yet somehow the tradition of racing the fastest automobiles on the planet around one of the tightest circuits anywhere in the world has endured.
The Monaco Grand Prix has disappeared from time to time. There were no races held in Monaco between 1938 and 1947 due to World War II; the 1949 event was cancelled out of respect for the passing of Prince Louis II of Monaco; a disagreement over the sport’s regulations saw no F1 races between 1951 and 1954 (although a race was held in 1952 to sports car regulations) and more recently the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the race going ahead in 2020. Yet as long as the world kept turning, it seemed the long-term future of the event was not in doubt. Until now.
As F1 expands its brand around the world, its most famous race circuit is looking increasingly antiquated. The track is too narrow to allow the latest generation of cars to overtake, the hospitality facilities are too small to comfortably accommodate the teams’ sponsors and guests, and the money Monaco contributes to F1 looks in race fees like small change compared with events in the Middle East.
What’s more, it hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“I think that if Monaco was a new circuit coming onto the calendar now and they said, ‘Well, you’re going to have the lowest fee of every single circuit, you’re going to go there and you can’t overtake’ it would never be accepted onto the calendar,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said at F1’s latest addition to the calendar, the Miami Grand Prix.
“So we accommodate Monaco because of its heritage and because of its history. That’s it.
“I think that you’ve got to evolve. If you stand still, then you’re going backwards, and I think that applies to all aspects of this sport.”
All of which has led to the question of whether F1…
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