This weekend sees the Monaco Grand Prix and many racing fans believe this race has no place on the racing calendar. I think as a spectacle with the beautiful contrast with the track being right next to the sea it offers a different type of experience for those watching on television. The rich and famous with their large boats in the marina offering another vantage point, but as a race this is a damp squib. This is a big bucks weekend for anyone visiting and enjoying the hospitality.
The hospitality packages on offer are crazy priced which includes boat viewing decks from the marina at far higher prices and are all sold out. This above example is a restaurant high above the race track which will offer glimpses of cars streaming by and hence the television. In theory you are paying for the noise and experience and are as seeing the same race as we are watching on our television sets at home.
Monaco was the original street circuit using the public roads that have always been there as the track. The problem with this is the track can never be widened and instead of having safety run off areas you have barriers. Most racing tracks have a width of roughly 10 -12 meters and then a run off area much larger than the track, but Monaco has an average width track size of 8-10m and in some places as narrow as 7 meters. Some corners require a full steering lock in the lowest gears and is the total opposite of speed.
As you can see by the above graph overtaking is not easy and over a race consisting of 78 laps there have been years of zero overtakes and many races having less than double figures. The rain spices things up and crashes would be expected so there is some hope. This is not really a race and is more of an advert for Monaco showing postcard type images to viewers around the world of how the rich and famous live. Over 40% if it's residents are millionaires with an average wealth of $20 million. Monaco is a tax haven and why the rich are attracted to this stamp sized country. Monaco has a resident population under 39K and is the second smallest country in the world after the Vatican.
Race week means big yachts will arrive berthing at pre booked spots in the marina costing hundreds of thousands of dollars for a few days. The small ones will be kicked out for the 3 or 4 days to accommodate the bigger boats.
The chance to overtake another car is very limited due to the straights not being straights and they have kinks in the layout. The best place for this race is to win qualifying and start out in front because the chances are if you start in first place you will win this race.
A good example was Daniel Riccardo winning the Monaco Grand Prix in 2018 even though his energy recovery systems malfunctioned which resulted in a 25% loss of power. Even though his car was slower than the other cars he placed his car in the middle of the track and no one could over take.
The problem is that over the years the racing cars have got much bigger and have moved from 1.8m in width to the current 2m and the length of the car has stretched out to around 5.6m in length. This is for downforce and aero dynamics so having a wide car on a narrow track is like parking a bus in the middle of the road which blocks those behind.
Nothing has changed since 1975 with the track except the cars have got much bigger. The race offers residents and race fans a unique experience being in close proximity to the race cars.
You may think 2 cars side by side is only 4m and that leaves plenty of room which is true except driving off the racing line is high risk. The track is rubbered in by all the other race cars in other events plus the practice sessions and qualifying. This results in rubber marbles gathering off the racing line and anyone driving there will lose grip and control of their vehicle and is bit like driving on ice. This is just too risky considering you have barriers literally a couple of meters away and chances are you will crash.
There is one other way of overtaking and that is the undercut when doing pit stops and can be a gain by as much as two to three seconds. This is when you come into the pits before the car in front does and have one lap on fresh rubber which will allow you to jump ahead of the front car when they come and pit. Safety cars are another opportunity that can create havoc, but again these are external influences and not direct racing on the track.