From the Pulpit

The Formula One circus is descending en masse on the small principality of Monte Carlo and, as ever, you can forget about the yachts and the parties and the beautiful people - although that side of Monte Carlo is fun, too, admittedly. Rather, for those who really know and/or love Formula One, the Monaco Grand Prix is all about racing fever.

Only at Monaco can a daring 21st-century Grand Prix driver muscle a 21st-century Grand Prix car over bumps and yumps to a lap time that is significantly better than that achieved by his less intrepid opponents.

And it's great to see, and to see at close quarters, which, again, is something you can do at Monaco and Monaco alone.

For the drivers, it's an exhilarating experience - as they readily and excitedly admit. For spectators, too, it's thrilling - but, more than that, it's almost primordially appealing, if a sport barely 100 years old can justify the use of such an adverb. But I think it can, because the concept of racing - and, it therefore follows, of motor racing - has its roots in hunter-gathering just as surely as NASCAR has its roots in runnin' hooch.

Felipe Massa at speed during the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix © LAT

On the other hand, so romantic and dewy-eyed do F1 fans become when describing Monaco - and the above paragraph is a prime example of that, I'll admit - that there's a bit of iffy mythology about it, too.

Yes, Monaco is mega. Yes, only brilliant drivers with big balls can do well there. Yes, it's a great place to watch modern F1 cars on the limit.

But one of the aspects of it that has passed into Grand Prix folklore is the unique sound of the place - "engines echoing off the buildings, exhausts cackling on the overrun", blahdy-blahdy-blah.

In fact, putting Monaco aside for a moment, a lot of noise is made about noise in F1, most of it noisome.

During last year's Turkish Grand Prix weekend, I interviewed Flavio Briatore, and one of the points Flavio was keenest to stress was that F1 should be, above all, a show - and a TV show, at that.

"F1 is like Hollywood," he explained. "Both are about a dream, and that's why I say F1 should be all about, or more about, entertainment.

"Even Hollywood needs top-class engineers and cameramen and sound men and lighting men and special effects men and so on. But they aren't what Hollywood is about, are they? They just make it happen.

"There are good, senior people at Renault who make it happen in the same way. But, unfortunately, in some other teams, the very most senior people started as engineers. And engineers don't care about making F1 a successful business. No, they care about achieving their own personal happiness from finding a new aerodynamic step or something.

"So, yes, technology is important in F1; and, no, I'm not trying to get rid of it; but, yes, the people in charge should be businessmen, as they are in Hollywood, not ex-engineers. Because nothing costs more money, and delivers less entertainment, than hidden technology. And that's what engineers love most of all."

It's an argument that, following Max Mosley's and Burkhard Goeschel's recent 'regulation framework' document, sent to senior representatives of the F1 manufacturers in the lead-up to the Spanish Grand Prix, will be chewed over in pit garages, in bars, in restaurants and on yachts all over Monte Carlo this weekend.

But let's go back to noise. In Turkey, Flavio also poured scorn on the views of "a senior F1 engineer" - he wouldn't say which one - who had complained to him (Flavio) in late 2005 that the then-upcoming 2.4-litre V8s would lack the aural appeal of the 3.0-litre V10s they were about to replace.

Exhaust detail of the Toyota V8 © XPB/LAT

"I mean, that's crazy," said Flavio, shrugging and chuckling. "Totally mad."

Clearly, there's no right or wrong answer here - because noise, and specifically (in the case of F1) engine noise, is a subjective matter. But long before the 3.0-litre V10s had developed their loyal following of aural aficionados, F1 purists were slagging them for not sounding as good as the 3.5-litre V10s and, especially, V12s that came before.

And I well remember, as a boy, in the 1970s, going to British Grands Prix and tests at Brands Hatch and Silverstone, and listening to the Ferrari flat-12s, BRM V12s, Alfa flat-12s and Matra V12s, and being surprised that, despite what was always written by the reporters of the time in Autosport and Motoring News, they didn't sound that much better than the Ford Cosworth DFV V8s that were being run by everyone except Ferrari, BRM, Brabham-Alfa and Ligier-Matra.

Besides, every sensible person - fans and insiders alike - who attends this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix, will wear earplugs when trackside.

In other words, experience tells us, empirically, that the current 2.4-litre V8s, far from being aurally too tranquil, are still unpleasantly loud for comfort and, of course, for health and safety.

It therefore follows, axiomatically, that the aural appeal of a Grand Prix would be diminished not one jot if F1 cars' engines were a little quieter. Or, to put it another way: when watching the 2.4-litre Ferrari V8-engined Scuderia Toro Rossos of Tonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed this year, have you really missed the aural appeal of the 3.0-litre Cosworth V10s they (uniquely) ran last year? No, I thought not.

Besides, as Bernie Ecclestone knows better than anyone, and Flavio emphasised in Turkey last year, F1 is above all a TV show. Yes, trackside fans are vital; and, yes, F1 must be an exciting TV show; and, yes, there are areas in which it could be improved. We all know all of that.

So let's hope that Max and Burkhard get it right - and that they listen like hawks to any constructive criticism that comes their way, from whatever quarter.

But the fact is that the overwhelming majority of fans experience F1 on sofas in front of TV screens, and it's essential to the continued rude health of the sport that they should continue to enjoy doing so.

It therefore follows that TV viewers' rights and interests are overwhelmingly more important than those of any others.

And it's undeniable that engine noise makes considerably less of an impact on TV viewers than it does on trackside viewers. And it always has done. You want proof? You've got it: view Gilles Villeneuve's and Rene Arnoux's magnificently heroic and legendarily stirring dice in the French Grand Prix of 1979.

Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari) and Rene Arnoux (Renault) battle at Dijon in the 1979 French Grand Prix © LAT

You'll notice that the noise of Villeneuve's 3.0-litre Ferrari flat-12 and Arnoux's 1.5-litre Renault V6, described as so different by the magazine reporters of the time, are more or less indistinguishable.

Moreover, both engines appear quiet, drowned as they both are by the chatter of the one 'n' only Murray Walker.

But does the lack of exciting sound and loud noise - Murray aside - diminish the appeal of watching Dijon 1979 again after all these years? Of course it doesn't. QED.

Don't get me wrong: there are sacred cows in F1 - and Dijon 1979 is full of 'em. Arnoux's ballsy late-braking; Villeneuve's even ballsier and even later late-braking (and consequent tank-slapping lock-ups, smoke pouring off his tortured Michelins); Rene's opportunistic re-overtaking; Gilles's even more opportunistic re-re-overtaking; both men's unflinching readiness to run-wheel-to-wheel on the ragged edge; it's all wonderful stuff, and it's all essential to what Max's and Burkhard's document refers to as "the awe of F1".

But the extreme loudness, the precise decibel level, of 21st-century F1? Is that really a sacred cow? No, I don't think so. F1 purists love the idea of the loudness, but they don't love the loudness itself. In other words, the noise of F1 engines could be quieter, and no-one would mind, not even F1 purists.

If that were not the case, (a) purists wouldn't wear earplugs trackside, and (b) they'd find YouTube clips of Dijon 1979 boring.

Enjoy Monaco. I will, standing trackside at the Swimming Pool and at Casino Square, thrilling to the close-up sight of the ballsy artistry of the quick guys. Oh, and I'll have my earplugs firmly inserted.