Grapevine: Feature: Monaco's Allure is Undiminished

Wall-to-wall aggravation was how one team owner, standing on the deck of a luxury boat as the sun set over the harbour, summed up Sunday's Monaco Formula One grand prix.

But most fans, who do not have to worry about the cramped and crowded garage conditions, the business meetings and logistical headaches of a race weekend in Monaco, would disagree. There is nothing like Monaco for sheer sensation, the thrill of getting close up to speeding cars muscling around the streets of the Mediterranean principality.

Nowhere else in Formula One do racing drivers skim over manhole covers, skirt trees in the narrowest of pitlanes and flash past shops full of designer clothes and makeshift stands perched on the harbourside. Few races are as glamorous or give a driver as much satisfaction as winning here either.

"Monaco can be a real pain in the ass but to go there and have success and to win it gives you more pleasure than anywhere else," says Austrian Gerhard Berger. "It's such a thin line that you walk on. For a driver it's really very, very challenging."

Monaco has many levels, accommodating the world's billionaires as well as Ferrari's flag-waving footsoldiers arriving by train from nearby Italy and the hordes of celebrity watchers. This year there is an added contrast, with the talk of cost cutting and of teams struggling to stay afloat jarring against the backdrop of conspicuous wealth.

Sporting Drama

But the sporting drama is the biggest draw and the best way to appreciate it is to walk around the track, taking in the steepness of the inclines and the tightness of the corners and cambers. Stand on the tunnel sidewalk as Ferrari's Michael Schumacher comes through flat out and, even with earplugs, the compression is a painful experience.

The racing line is marked by rubber debris on the asphalt, and spectators who get too close can be showered with tiny pellets or 'marbles'. The barriers bear witness to countless scrapes, not all of them accidental.

"At most circuits there is precision but if a driver goes six inches wide he can usually recover it," says Williams technical director Patrick Head. "At Monaco, on a qualifying lap, very often I've seen our drivers using a light bump off the Armco as a mechanism to control a slide.

"It's a race of immense precision and the difference between a perfect lap and being a hero and being an idiot is a cigarette paper."

This year sees World Champion Schumacher as both hero and villain, the German seeking the team's 150th win in a race he has won five times previously. But he arrived with the boos and jeers of Austria ringing in his ears after Ferrari controversially called team orders and made Rubens Barrichello gift him a win.

There have been a few token gestures but Monaco, a millionaires' playground where neatness and order reign, is not a natural backdrop for protests.

One German fan was seen wearing a shirt protesting against "Scuderia Mafia" and there have been bumper stickers declaring "I don't brake for Schumacher" but the vast majority of fans were simply enjoying the sunshine.

A banner was displayed at the first corner on Friday declaring: "Fangio did not need team orders", a statement flying in the face of history given that the great Argentine famously benefited from them. Otherwise Monaco is still the same.

"I love the sea, I love boats, I like a bit of razzmatazz. There are a few pretty girls to look at there as well," commented Head before the weekend. "I have to say, I like Grands Prix to be different."