The
Monaco Grand Prix is 7PM Saturday (Thai time). We will watch from True Visions OR Internet feed if necessary. It's the shortest race on the F1 circuit, so everyone should be able to watch the race and get home before curfew. In tribute to
Aryton Senna, who won at Monaco an astonishing 6 times, and died 20 years ago last week, we'll be eating and drinking Brazilian style Saturday and Sunday.
See page 59 of this thread for details.
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I found the following interesting facts:
• Racing first took place on the streets of Monaco in 1929 and the circuit also hosted the second round of the inaugural Formula One World Championship in 1950. That race was won by Juan Manuel Fangio in an Alfa Romeo. However, there was then a four-year gap before Formula One racing returned to the Principality in 1955. The Monaco Grand Prix has remained on the calendar ever since.
• The temporary nature of the Monaco circuit means that an extraordinary amount of equipment is required to turn the streets into a race track. Included in that list is 33 kilometers of safety rails, 20,000 square metres of wire catch fencing, 3,600 tyres for tyre barriers and 1,100 tonnes of grandstand seating for spectators. Some 650 marshals are also stationed around the track on a race weekend.
• The circuit has seen several revisions since its Formula One debut in 1950. Amongst the most notable were the changes to the Swimming Pool section and the introduction of La Rascasse corner and Anthony Noghes corner ahead of the 1973 race. Since then several corners - including the harbour-side chicane and Swimming Pool - have been tweaked as the circuit (and city state) evolve.
• Ayrton Senna holds the record for the most wins in the Principality - six, including five consecutive victories from 1989 to 1993. He would have seven had he not crashed out of the lead in 1988…
• Before Senna, Graham Hill earned the nickname ‘Mr Monaco’ because of his five victories between 1963 and 1969. Michael Schumacher also has five Monaco wins to his name and is the all-time lap leader, having spent a total of 435 laps at the head of the field.
• Six of the current grid have won in Monaco - Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen have all won once, and Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber twice. Webber has also scored more points at Monaco than any other driver in history, although revisions to the points-scoring rules have helped his cause greatly.
• Alonso has stood on the podium (or to be exact, steps) in Monaco on four occasions - the most of any current driver, but four behind Senna’s record. If Alonso wins in 2013 he’ll become the first man to have done it with three different teams.
• Rubens Barrichello holds the record for the most Monaco podiums without a win - five. Double world champion Jim Clark holds the record for most Monaco pole positions without winning the race - four.
• McLaren have claimed the most victories of any constructor in Monaco - 15 - but Ferrari have scored the most podiums - 48 in total. Ferrari have not won in the Principality since 2001.
• Michael Schumacher holds the Monaco lap record - 1m 14.439s set in 2004 for Ferrari.
• History shows that pole position is not nearly as important as you might imagine in Monaco - the race has been won by the pole man 26 times in 59 races. Olivier Panis won the race from 14th on the grid in 1996 - the lowest any winning driver has started.
• Two drivers have represented Monaco in Formula One history - Olivier Beretta and Louis Chiron.
• Williams’ Valtteri Bottas is the only one of Formula One racing’s five rookie drivers to have never raced in any category at Monaco before.
• On average, a driver changes gear 62 times per lap at Monaco. The longest period they spend at full throttle is around 7.5 seconds (going through the tunnel).
• Turn 6 - the hairpin - is the tightest, slowest corner on the F1 calendar and is taken at around 50 km/h in first gear.
• At just 3.34 kilometers, Monaco is comfortably the shortest circuit on the calendar.
• If McLaren and Ferrari score in Monaco this weekend they will extend their runs of consecutive points finishes to 64 and 54 respectively.
• Should he finish in the top ten in Monaco, Kimi Raikkonen will achieve his 23rd consecutive points-scoring result. That would then give him the chance of equaling Michael Schumacher’s record of 24 consecutive points finishes at the Canadian Grand Prix…
The Monaco Grand Prix has played host to a fair number of milestones:
- Juan Manuel Fangio, Maurice Trintignant, Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme, Patrick Depailler and Riccardo Patrese all scored their maiden Formula One wins in Monaco. Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Olivier Panis and Jarno Trulli all scored their only career wins at Monaco.
- Lotus scored their first win as a constructor in Monaco in 1960, although it wasn’t by the factory team but by Sterling Moss in a privately-entered Lotus 18.
- Eight drivers claimed their maiden Formula One pole positions on the tricky street circuit: Juan Manuel Fangio, Tony Brooks, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, John Watson, Didier Pironi and Jarno Trulli.
- Bruce McLaren celebrated a centenary of world championship starts at Monaco in 1970. Graham Hill started his 150th race in the same place three years later. Rene Arnoux, Rubens Barrichello and Johnny Herbert also all hit 100 race starts in Monaco, with Herbert also going on to celebrate 150 starts whilst in the Principality. Michael Schumacher followed his lead a year later in 2001.
- Giancarlo Fisichella and David Coulthard - two of only 13 drivers to have started 200 or more Grands Prix - both achieved the milestone in Monaco.
- Fernando Alonso claimed McLaren’s 150th Formula One race victory in Monaco in 2007.
Race fan or not... Come Join Us this weekend... and take a break from the coup!
Bubba and Jun
Every day I wake up is a good day.