Every millimetre matters

Precision in the PrincipalityPrecision in the Principality

2026 SEASON

Few sights in sport are more spectacular than Formula One cars racing in Monaco. Overtaking can be difficult in the Principality, but the 2023 edition of this prestigious race – in which Fernando finished on the podium – proved that anything can happen around these famous streets.

Monaco is a marquee event. When many – if not most – people think of Formula One, the image that rises unbidden is of cars flashing past the yachts in Port Hercules – and the harbour is only part of the glamour in an event famed for its celebrity sightings, fashion and A-list parties.

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Massenet and Casino are difficult. All corners are difficult in Monaco. There's never enough grip.

Pedro de la Rosa – Team Representative

Circuit length
3.337km
Number of corners
19
Race distance
260.286km

NEED TO KNOW: MONACO GP

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Mastering Circuit de Monaco

Strategy Insights from Monaco

Ultimate Monaco Grand Prix facts

The essential Monaco travel guide with Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Part of the magic of Monaco is that everything within track limits is very, very accessible. The number of people who go to Monaco on Grand Prix weekend far outstrips the number of grandstand seats – and while many of the overflow will be watching the race from balconies or the decks of the yachts in Port Hercules, there's plenty who will simply be in the Principality to soak up the atmosphere, see the sights and do a little bit of people-watching.

Once the track activity is done for the day, the circuit opens to traffic – including, if you're careful, foot traffic. While walking the track, you can have a pizza in the famous Tip Top restaurant, following in the footsteps of Graham Hill, or wander down to Rascasse and join the party that spills out onto the track every evening.

Away from the harbour, Monaco is busy during race weekend. F1 tends to monopolise Place d'Armes, which is where a lot of the merchandising is set up – but it's also home to the stage, from which live music will pour forth, in between the appearances from various drivers. Elsewhere in the Principality's tangle of tiny streets, it isn't a great week to visit any of those haute couture boutiques – but it is a good one to go to a café or pizzeria, kick back with a demi-carafe of wine and watch the world go by – if you can find a table.

Of course, that's not everyone's speed. The residents of Monaco – including plenty of ex-F1 drivers – tend to make their excuses this week and leave town for somewhere quieter – but even if you only want a morning off, there's tranquillity to be found a short-ish walk away. Stroll west past Fontvieille and along the coastal path to Cap-d'Ail (or spend a couple of Euros for three minutes on the train – but the walk is nicer) and suddenly you're on the French Riviera at the start of summer with all the possibilities that entails. Sit in park; have lunch at an elegant shoreline restaurant, or go for a swim in the warm blue waters off Mala Beach. It's a nice way to spend a morning. It's an even nicer way to spend a day.

Mastering Circuit de Monaco

This isn't quite the same circuit that hosted the inaugural Monaco Grand Prix, though the majority of what remains today would be familiar to the drivers who raced here in 1929. Land reclamation has created a little more room in the Principality, though the track is a little more squeezed, which isn't a good thing for these wide, modern F1 cars – hence the metaphor of doing a lap here being like riding a bicycle in your living room.

The track has just the one DRS zone, between Antony Noghès (T19) and (Sainte-Dévote) (T1), but at 510m in length, it isn't really long enough to be of use. The better overtaking spot is coming out of the Tunnel (T9), under braking into the Nouvelle Chicane (T10). 'Better' is grading on a very shallow curve: it's still almost impossible to pass, and that's helped (or hindered) by the large bump coming down the hill that unsettles the cars and has led, over the years, to some heavy crashes at this corner. In common with the other venerable bumps around the circuit, successive resurfacing work attempts to flatten them out, but there's only so much the track authorities can do.

This is a circuit where Qualifying takes centre stage. A fully-committed lap of the Circuit de Monaco is always millimetres away from disaster. While the faster corners, through Tabac (T12) and the Swimming Pool (T13-T16) tend to catch the eye, it's the lower speed sections of track where the larger chunks of time are gained and lost. Teams will pile on as much downforce as they can find, because with less than 40 per cent of lap time at full throttle, carrying extra speed through the corners always outweighs the drag penalty.

Strategy Insights from Monaco

Monaco is a one-stop race. Degradation is very, very low, and in 2024, after the first lap red-flag and restart, most of the field completed the remaining 77 laps on whichever of the Hard or Medium tyre they hadn't had fitted at the original start. But, even were degradation not low, Monaco would still be a one-stop race. The pace delta needed to overtake is so high, there's just no strategy that makes more than the single, mandatory stop pay off.

In 2025, F1 tried something different. In an effect to inject a little more variability, the Monaco Grand Prix had a requirement for each driver to use at least two compounds – as usual – but also make at least two pitstops.

Ultimate Monaco Grand Prix facts

1 | The Monaco Grand Prix was first held in 1929. It appeared on the original Formula One World Championship calendar in 1950 and reappeared in 1955. Having since then missed only the 2020 season, only the British and Italian Grands Prix have appeared on the calendar more often, and only Monza has hosted more races.

2 | The 1950 Monaco Grand Prix holds the lowest average speed record for a non-interrupted race, with Juan Manual Fangio winning at an average of 98.701km/h (61mph). The 2023 edition (the last race without a Safety Car), raised that to 143.452km/h (89mph). In contrast, the next slowest circuit is Singapore at 182km/h.

3 | Because speeds in Monaco are low, the race is shortened. Every other grands prix is contested over 305km; Monaco drops this to 260km. This makes for a 78-lap race. In the early years, the race was held over 100 laps.

4 | Ayrton Senna is the most successful driver in Monaco, winning six times – one more than Graham Hill and Michael Schumacher.

5 | Loews Hairpin is the lowest-speed corner in F1, with speeds dropping below 50km/h. The steering rack of an F1 car often requires some adjustment to make the turn.

6 | Fernando has back-to-back victories here, winning in 2006 and 2007.

7 | Oliver Panis holds the record for claiming victory from furthest back, starting P14 in 1996. No one else has won from outside the top 10, and no one since Panis has won from outside the top three.

8 | Monaco's corner names tend to be quite literal. Sainte-Dévote passes by the Sainte-Dévote Chapel, Massenet references the bust of composer Jules Massenet, located outside the Opera House, Mirabeau was/is a hotel, Loews, which became the Grand Hotel and later the Fairmont was a hotel and casino. The Nouvelle Chicane is the new chicane that replaced the Chicane du Port, there was a tobacconist at Tabac and Rascasse goes around the Rascasse bar where the party goes on until the early hours. The one exception is Antony Noghès: the final corner is named in honour of the race's founder.

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Every millimetre matters

Precision in the PrincipalityPrecision in the Principality

The essential Monaco travel guide with Regent Seven Seas Cruises

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Ultimate Monaco Grand Prix facts

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