Malcolm Folley - Monaco: Inside F1s Greatest Race

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Epub ISBN: 9781473537736

Version 1.0

Published by Century 2017

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Copyright Malcolm Folley 2017

Cover picture credits Getty Images (Stirling Moss at the Monaco Grand Prix, 1955 and Nico Rosberg during practice for the Monaco Grand Prix, 2016)
Design by Natascha Nel

All images courtesy of LAT Photographic LAT Photographic

Malcolm Folley has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

This book is a work of non-fiction based on the life, experiences and recollections of the author. In some cases names of people, places, dates, sequences or the detail of events have been changed to protect the privacy of others. The author has stated to the publishers that, except in such respects not affecting the substantial accuracy of the work, the contents of this book are true.

First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Century

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9781780896168

To all my old sports editors who paid for me to travel the world for four decades send more money! Importantly, thank you all for your unwavering faith.

HE IS DRESSED behind the wheel in an unbranded polo shirt and a pair of chinos, but he is still trim enough to fit into the racing suit he discarded eight years ago, after leaving the paddock in So Paolo as a Formula One driver for ever.

His right foot instinctively entices maximum torque from the Mercedes engine at his command on the piece of tarmac that is the startfinish line for the Monaco Grand Prix, which has been staged each year since 1955. To trace the winners, from Fangio and Moss, to Hill and Stewart, is to follow a lineage of motor-racing aristocracy which runs through the labyrinth of these streets to the barons of the sport these past forty years: Lauda, Prost, Senna, Schumacher, Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel and Nico Rosberg.

Having made his home in Monaco since 1994, David Coulthard is the perfect guide to these streets. His authenticity to act as our chaperone is reinforced by the fact that Coulthard has won the Monaco Grand Prix twice, an accomplishment that will not be diminished by time. While the Mercedes power unit under his control may not be delivering the 825 horsepower that was in the back of his McLaren MP4-15 when he won here for a second time in 2002, he manages to tease his Smart Brabus into effortlessly shadowing the racing line as buses, trucks, cars, even a motorised tourist train, jostle for position around us.

It is beyond dispute that the Monaco Grand Prix is unique, a race that would never be sanctioned today; yet it is also a race that Formula One relies on to be the centrepiece of the world championship because of its history, because of a harbour that sparkles diamond-bright in the sun, because of its glamour, and because of the privilege of witnessing the spectacle and the spectacular provided by the greatest drivers in the world racing on narrow, unforgiving streets normally governed by a 50kph speed limit, or less.

Coulthard was instantly addicted to the challenge of Monaco, a place where pain and pleasure can be experienced within the confines of one qualifying session; a place where a drivers aggression has to be tempered by a tenderness of feel and touch. I know a lot of tracks very well in my mind, but this one I know particularly well because it is such an intimate driving experience, says Coulthard, as we gently slipstream a white van on Boulevard Albert 1er, which still shows the faint outline of the grid markings from the last Grand Prix. If you dont feel at home on the streets of Monaco you will never perform, says Coulthard. You become incredibly tuned into your environment, your senses are heightened. You have to feel you own the road. You have to take ownership of this space, know every inch in the same way as you know, if the power goes out in your house, how many steps it is to the door handle, and where every cupboard is located, so you can successfully find your way around instinctively.

Coulthard is giving us a close-up and personal tour. My head will be down where your belly button is below the top of the Armco barriers, he says, looking across at me in the passenger seat of the Smart car. You dont need to see the scenery. All you need to see are your braking points and your apex points. It is a matter of having total focus. What you cant do on this circuit is look away and look back up again. At Silverstone, for example, you can switch off at 200mph on the Hangar Straight. Here you cannot switch off for a second.

It is a very short run to the first corner, Sainte-Dvote. What you dont see on television is the way the road rises to the first corner. That rise helps you under braking. One of the things I tell all young drivers, including Sebastian Vettel in his first year racing here with Toro Rosso in 2008, is a simple message: Dont get greedy braking into Turn One. Instead get on the brakes early; because otherwise if you make a mistake you will be in the barrier or be going down the escape road. In my opinion, you never drive at 100 per cent at Monaco. I understand that purists will look at laps by Ayrton Senna, especially his astonishing pole-winning lap here in 1988, when he was 1.4 seconds faster than the second-placed driver, Alain Prost, his McLaren team-mate, and go: Well, theres a lap at 100 per cent. I am not going to have an argument with anyone by disputing that. But I had a very reasonable level of success here, and its about knowing where you can push, and its about trying to maximise braking, hitting the apex and making a good exit from the corners. You do have to compromise into Sainte-Dvote. Out of that right-hand corner, you are heading up the hill in the middle of the road, more or less, to a blind crest at Massenet at 275kph. The point where you brake for the entry to Casino Square is where you just come over the rise in the road before the pedestrian crossing. You use engine braking, shifting down in the middle of the circuit, just rolling the car left, rolling the car.