Stories From the Outside: When Tony Rocked Monaco GP

One of the most enjoyable events we covered back in 2018 was, without a shadow of a doubt, the Monaco Historic GP, as seen through the lens of our very own Tony Hall.

This year it’s all gone to waste (because of this thing, you know what I mean) but the memory remains.

Monaco always earns it fair share of criticism I guess for just being Monaco! Either the circuit is not wide/modern enough or not suitable for car auto racing (good one) at all. I’m sure peeps used to tweet exactly that about Monaco way back in the 1950s or 1960s (smartphones were rather rudimentary more than half a century ago, hence no verified links to @therealjuanfangio9 or @ThatDennyHulme tweets, both of whom tweeted out some classic memorable tweets in defense of the race – internet was pretty slow, you see), and it didn’t stop F1 from coming to the principality all these years.

There’s nothing like Monaco! It’s a carousel of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch (don’t touch the cars though). That’s all you need as a human being. Perfect.

We asked Nick Padmore two years ago what does Monaco look/feel like from a driver’s perspective: “The view is amazing, I know it sounds crazy. Coming out of St Devote, the first corner, then running up to Casino Square, you’re in like a virtual tunnel all the way up. When you turn into Casino Square, it all opens up and the scenery is stunning. There’s that one, that’s very nice. Probably the most scary corner is the tunnel, people think because it’s dark, but no, forget that. It’s one of those corners that bends; as soon as you commit to the apex, you’re at the exit. I don’t know a corner like that, it’s so fast! Plus there’s a wall on the exit, so it’s very challenging. Swimming Pool, it’s all very good. Swimming Pool area is very quick through that flick. It’s a special place, you know. It’s not very physical, it’s just mentally draining because you cannot switch off for a second.”

Tony being Tony, the maestro of unexpected F1 portraits, much like Anne Geddes vs babies, his visit to Monaco’s pit lane resulted in many a great photo, such as my personal favourite of Adrian Newey looking pretty startled. The best.