Most F1 fans don't need directions, even if it is their first time in Monte-Carlo (LAT)
It’s always a wonderful experience arriving in Monaco each May, as the event remains my favourite. The place is so familiar not just from my many visits, since I first passed through on a family holiday in 1978, and attended my first GP in 1991. And before that I knew every inch of it from watching races on TV, and studying John Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix movie.
Tuesday night was a good time to walk the track and take it all in. It was surprisingly quiet given that first practice was less than 48 hours away, and indeed the word is that in the present climate, hotel bookings and so on are down.
Along with the familiar, there’s always something new to behold, as the construction never stops. This year they’ve finished the apartment block on the exit of the chicane. Where just a couple of years ago there was a cliff face, there’s now a gleaming modern building with stunning views across the harbour.
The inside of Portier, the corner before the tunnel, used to be a sheer drop into the ocean (that bit of track used to be a sort of bridge), but now there’s a building there. Meanwhile Monaco continues to expand into the sea as land has been reclaimed alongside the tunnel, although further development plans have been put on hold by Prince Albert pending a change in the global economic climate.
Since the first race was held 80 years ago, the corners have etched themselves into motor racing legend. The likes of Ste Devote, Tabac, Mirabeau were as familiar to racing folk two or three generations ago as they are to fans today.
Oddly, certain corners haven’t really made their mark. Few people remember that the lefthander which leads into Casino Square is called Massenet, or that the straight from chicane to Tabac is called Quai Etats-Unis. And few know that the last corner of the lap – the tight right hander where the cars flick their tails out – is called Virage Anthony Noghes.
So who was this Noghes fellow? In fact he’s the guy we owe the whole thing to; the man who came up with the idea of a car race through the streets of the principality.
Back in 1925 Noghes helped his father to set up the Automobile Club de Monaco. In October that year Anthony was asked to be the ACM’s envoy at a Paris meeting of the International Association of Recognised Automobile Clubs, a forerunner of the modern FIA. He was dismayed to find that this organisation felt that Monaco was too small to justify international status alongside the powerful French, German and Italian clubs. The Monte Carlo Rally – established in 1911 – was considered as a Europe-wide event, and thus not sufficient evidence. Noghes was fit to bust.
Some 50 years later he recounted what he said next: “To disprove your objections, I can inform you, Sirs, that next year you will be present at an international race which will be held on the territory of the principality and which will excite world-wide interest.” It was a spur of the moment statement, and he had no idea what it entailed. After catching his train south, he had plenty of time to think…
