Majesty of Monaco belongs in the past

THE Monaco Grand Prix is best viewed on YouTube, while wearing rose-tinted glasses. That’s where you’ll get the fullest sense of its majesty and why it commands the status that it does.

Its glamour is more firmly rooted in its past than in its present. That’s not to say it doesn’t have glamour now, more that it’s the glamour of a Eurotrash variety. Garish more than glitzy. In your face more than understated cool. Kim and Kanye more than Steve McQueen.

With its mega-yachts and billionaires and celebrity hangers on, Monaco just ain’t what it used to be off the track and that’s equally the case on it. The sport has out-grown the streets of Monte Carlo.

The cars are too powerful and have too much grip. The safety requirements are such that the barriers dominate the whole affair. The challenge remains – the tiniest mistake will be punished, skill is rewarded – but it’s less a race than a procession.

You’ll easily knock more enjoyment out of a seven minute clip on YouTube of a classic Grand Prix – the 1962 event won by Graham Hill has some spectacular footage – than an entire modern Grand Prix on the streets of the principality.

With the on-board footage you can see the drivers really sawing at the steering wheel, struggling to tame the horsepower at their disposal. There’s little or no concession made to safety.

As they race down the harbour front there’s nothing between them and the drink –Alberto Ascari famously ended up in there in 1955 (and, yes, you can watch it on YouTube). Bonkers, yes, but gloriously so. Unlike today.