Monaco is a little sort-of country in France, the kind of place that clings to a rock and it’s admired by everyone who has ever been there and not just for the racing. But for those petrol heads who love racing and travel at the same time, the Monaco Grand Prix is heaven on earth.
Just to clarify some things. The race track that you can find in Monaco is called Circuit de Monaco, and the F1 race held there is called Monaco Grand Prix. And it’s one of the most disputed race tracks in the F1 world. The view and the place is amazing, and it’s one of the most special race tracks ever. A big part of the route takes place on the streets of Monaco, at some points, you can even see crosswalks on the track. The point being here is, that because of this it’s really hard to overtake positions. When there is a race weekend, most of the streets are closed for vehicles.
Also, the Monaco race track is one of the oldest one, it has been there since the first race in Formula 1 calendar which took place 91 years ago now. But why do they organize races there if they don’t even have a proper race track?
The race track
The circuit, created in 1950 is almost identical since then. The race track is 3,340 km long and the main parts of the race track are named: Sainte Dévote, Casino of Monte-Carlo, Mirabeau, Virage Fairmont, and Anthony Noghes, then finally the line of the stands. The streets of Monaco have transformed annually into the amazing Circuit de Monaco. To reduce all the inconvenience they organize all the races there within 2 weekends one after another. This takes place in May and the races that took part there are the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix and Formula E ePrix (odd years) or Historic Grand Prix of Monaco (even years). They also have a Virtual Formula One championship, and one of the races is held in Monaco. But that’s a video game based race, that doesn’t affect at all the life there.
As I said in the first paragraph, it’s a really difficult race track, and with each year as the cars get faster and wider and the route is just getting harder and harder. So your starting position may define your position at the end of the race. Some people ask why they are still racing there because there is not much chance for overtaking. There are a lot of curves and the straight lines are narrow. So even if you’re in love with the place you can understand the people’s and pilots’ points of view why the Monaco Grand Prix should be canceled. But the place have something magical whitin, wich says “the show must go on”
The tourist experience
There’s no denying that the state of Monaco is a beautiful place. And I believe that most of y’all who are following the F1 championship live, are travelling a lot. So let’s talk a bit about how it feels to be a tourist in Monaco on a Monaco Grand Prix weekend and in general what you can see in Monaco. If you go there for an exclusive experience, you have two options: the Grandstand tickets which are like a VIP membership and the general ticket which can also be pretty exciting, and you have the chance to feel the whole atmosphere between the garages and preparations. But watching the race is on the house for the whole weekend.
On the race weekend, Monaco is totally transformed, and not just regarding the traffic. This is the only F1 race of the year that has offered a “Fan Zone ‘, which gives you access to watch the race without having a ticket. You just have to be on the streets of Monaco. Nonetheless, on Friday before the race, you can potentially meet drivers, watch a featured F2 race, and walk on the track afterward. It’s a great option for all fans out there, not to talk about the many beautiful places in Monaco, like museums, hotels, etc. Another of its big advantages is that you can easily visit France, usually, you can go to France with a half-hour train ride from Monaco (with train). So no wonder that most of the fans are loving the Monaco races and they wouldn’t cancel it for anything.
The casinos
And let’s talk about the trademarks of Monaco, the casinos. You can’t even spell Monaco without saying casino (actually you can, but you get the idea). Monaco is so strongly related to casinos that even one of the curves is named after a casino. That place has a center of elegant casinos. And just like in bigger cities you have a fast-food restaurant on every corner, in Monaco you almost have a casino on every corner as well. And yes, I know that Macau and Las Vegas are the biggest casino stations in the world. But, they can’t even be compared with Monaco, because that place has a history.
So you really can’t go to Monaco and not visit one of the casinos. If you worry about not knowing the games, you can just simply access a website or an app like Slotpark app, and exercise it until you fully understand the rules of each game. It would be a missed opportunity not to visit a casino while you’re there. As for the casinos, you have multiple options, not just the famous Monte Carlo casino(which was founded in 1863), you can have fun at the Sun casino or the Cafe de Paris too which are among the best places in Monaco.
