“Monaco is a classic race, unique in that the track surface and the demands from the car are completely different from anywhere else”
-Damon Hill
Monte Carlo is one of the few tracks that demand the experience of race engineers and the intelligence of the drivers. The boats and yachts dock weeks before the Formula 1 weekend for what is called the Monaco Grand Prix
The Monaco GP is the epitome of motorsport, rivaled only by Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500.
Ayrton Senna remains the undisputed champion of the Monaco Grand Prix, winning a record six times. Let us look at the 5 best races that Monte Carlo has ever witnessed.
1996 Monaco Grand Prix
The 1996 Monaco GP was an eventful one. It was a wet weather race, one Olivier Panis won for the last time for his team Mugen Motorsport. As of today, this is the most recent race won by a French driver and the race to witness the fewest number of cars (3) at the chequered flag.
The race started with 21 cars, as Andrea Montermini’s Forti-Ford could not be repaired after a warm up crash. Michael Schumacher crashed into Ste Devote as a series of collisions already started at the back of the grid, so only 18 cars completed the first lap.
The wet weather seriously affected the race, and only 11 cars remained on the track by lap 11, which was further reduced to four cars with Hill and Badoer retiring and an unfortunate collision between Irvine, Mika Salo and Hakkinen.
All the three cars including Olivier Panis, David Coulthard and Johnny Herbert finished the race except Frentzen who pulled to the pits on the penultimate lap.
David Coulthard wore a little bit of Michael Schumacher’s luck that day as he borrowed the legend’s helmet just before the race.
1982 Monaco Grand Prix
The 1982 Monaco GP saw only one of the classified podium finishers actually taking the chequered flag. This was also the first race following the death of Gilles Villeneuve at the Belgian Grand Prix; consequently Ferrari entered only one driver, Didier Pironi.
The race looked normal until Alain Prost and Riccardo Patrese had a one on one and Alain trying to push too hard lost the momentum in a crash with Armco Barriers in the wet race resulting in a DNF for both.
On lap 75 Patrese spun off at Loews ending the race for both of them. Last lap of the race became interesting when Didier Pironi and Andrea de Cesaris ran out of fuel and Patrese having his car restarted, took the chequered flag just when James Hunt commented:
"Well we've got this ridiculous situation where we're all sitting by the start-finish line waiting for a winner to come past and we don't seem to be getting one!"
1992 Monaco Grand Prix
The 1992 Monaco GP was won by the Formula 1 legend Ayrton Senna, withstanding stiff competition from Nigel Mansell.
The race was predicted to be overcast, but in the end was warm and dry.
Mansell had started from pole position and had been in first place from the start until lap 71 when he had to stop for a new set of tyres after a suspected puncture to his left rear tyre. Mansell proved to be faster during the race, and was on course for a comfortable victory before his pitstop.
Later Michael Schumacher would finish fourth due to a collision with Jean Alessi’s Ferrari, which forced Alessi to retire. Schumacher’s teammate, Martin Brundle would finish fifth despite having to pit for a new nose cone and tyres after a crash at the Nouvelle Chicane.
After having to pre-qualify on Thursday morning, Bertrand Gachot finished sixth in the final points and scored Larrousse's first and only point of the 1992 season.
Mansell expressed his disappointment at not winning the race after the race.
2004 Monaco Grand Prix
It is remembered as a great race from Jarno Trulli who held and fought for his position over the 77 laps race.
Jarno Trulli started the race on pole, with BAR's Jenson Button following him.
His teammate Fernando Alonso, and Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher occupied the second row. After two aborted starts, which included Olivier Panis stalling his Toyota and Trulli's Renault coolant leaking onto the track, the SC lap began. Panis stalled again and started the race from the pits.
As the race began, BAR's Takuma Sato made an excellent start, moving from eighth to fourth in seconds. On the third lap, smoke became visible from Sato's engine and eventually it exploded spectacularly releasing an enormous cloud of smoke.
Distracted by which Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella collided with McLaren’s David Coulthard and overturned. Both drivers left unhurt but out of the race. Safety car was deployed until lap 8, when race restarted; Jarno Trulli set three fastest laps in continuance.
Over the course of the race, Trulli received tough competition from Schumacher and Alonso but after Schumacher’s retirement and Alonso’s inability to make a maneuver on the narrow circuit, Jarno Trulli saw the chequered flag and his victory that he had been seeking for a long time.
1984 Monaco Grand Prix
Alain Prost won the 1984 Monaco GP after it was stopped halfway due to bad weather conditions. According to some sources, there were debates if the GP should have been stopped, as Ayrton Senna or Stefon Bellof could have won the race.
Niki Lauda requested Bernie Ecclestone before the race that the wet tunnel needed to be flooded to preserve tyres. Ecclestone went with the situation and ordered a fire truck to do the same.
Prost started building the lead in the race from the first corner. As Senna was a rookie at the time, it was his first street circuit race but he showed his determination by lapping with a fastest time even after starting from the 7th row of the grid.
Senna was not the only new driver to run near the front. Stefan Bellof, running in the only naturally aspirated car in the race, finished third and had been closing on both Senna and Prost even after starting from 20th grid.
But nothing could match the fearless German with peculiar car control and a quick response on the track, though Prost finally won the race.
Bellof was later disqualified for having a turbocharged engine.
Monte Carlo has always produced maneuvers, legendary race winners and exciting action. see what the 2016 GP brings this Sunday.
