Martin Brundle leaps to defence of Monaco GP with ‘very careful’ F1 request

Henry Valantine 26 Dec 2023 10:45 AM

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton on track at the Monaco Grand Prix. Monte Carlo, May 2023. Monaco GP

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton on track at the Monaco Grand Prix. Monte Carlo, May 2023.

Martin Brundle has acknowledged that F1 has got “many jewels in our crown now”, but the Monaco GP has still got its place within the sport.

Having been raced since 1929 and a fixture of the Formula 1 calendar since 1950, concerns have grown about the Monaco Grand Prix as time has worn on due to how much the cars have grown over the years, making overtaking increasingly difficult on the already tight streets of the Principality.

Qualifying around Monte Carlo remains one of the highlights of the season for a pure driving challenge, though, with Max Verstappen’s final sector on the Saturday at this year’s edition of the race proving both thrilling and pivotal to the eventual outcome.

Martin Brundle explains defence of Monaco GP in response to fan question

Monaco GP organisers agreed a new deal to keep the race on the calendar until the end of 2025, meaning that questions surrounding the future of the race are likely to crop up once again in the near future.

The glamour of Monaco is still at the pinnacle of the sport, with the view of the harbour and the sporting challenge still at the peak of what the drivers have to deal with, but the lack of wheel-to-wheel racing is the continuous drawback associated with the event.

When asked by a fan if track modifications are needed in Monaco in order to preserve the status of the race on the calendar, Brundle believes Formula 1 should “think very carefully” before making any changes or dropping the race entirely.

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“I think we’ve got many jewels in our crown now,” Brundle wrote in a Sky Sports Q&A.

“When I used to race, Monaco was the only jewel, and now you’ve got these incredible venues like Singapore and Abu Dhabi and Jeddah and Bahrain and Miami and Vegas and so on and so forth.

“Whereas it was Monaco versus grey flat Hockenheim, Silverstone and what have you.

“I think you need to balance the history and heritage of Formula 1. We’ve got 73-year-old heritage and you can make as many new tracks as you like, it will be so long before they have this sort of archive of a Spa, Monza, Suzuka, Silverstone kind of thing.

“So I think there’s room for both, Monaco being another one.

“Sometimes you get a wet race at Monaco or a Safety Car or a red flag that completely energises that race, but I do get that it can be boring on race day, so qualifying is more exciting.

“I think Formula 1 does and should think very carefully before it would drop Monaco.”