Monaco GP the jewel in the crown — despite its down sides: Burning rubber

Monaco. What is it about the Riviera hotspot's grand prix? What is its magic? Why is it so alluring?

After 30-odd years of journalistic duty, trekking there to cover the racing, I still do not have a clue.

The answer to the curious is: go there. But don't forget to take your ear plugs. And your wallet, or purse as the case maybe, and make sure they are generously filled. Oh, and bags of patience...

Be prepared to be overcharged, under-served, jostled and inconvenienced at every turn, stuck in traffic jams, penned into cramped commuter trains or forking out a small fortune to arrive by helicopter from Nice airport.

Prefer to berth your modestly-sized yacht in the famous trackside harbour? That'll be €20,000 (Dh94,000). For one night....

The numbers game does not stop at the fabled, packed-every-night Casino, where there is as much wheel-spinning, the roulette kind, as there is out on the track.

And there is the real lottery. For the Formula One drivers, that is. Consider this: along the 3.34 kilometre tight and twisty street circuit, with the fans only metres away and the barriers only millimetres, there are 19 corners, eight left and 11 right.

On each of the exhausting 78 laps, a driver changes gear 62 times, more than 4,800 times in all, and hits a top speed of 285 kilometres per hour from the slowest corner taken at 50 kilometres per hour.

But there is not a driver who does not regard the showcase of Monaco as the jewel in the grand prix crown — the race they all most wish to win.

Amazingly there have been five different winners from the opening five GPs this season and Lewis Hamilton, the 2008 champion and Monaco victor that year, intends to make it six this weekend.

The McLaren star, who has recently moved home from Switzerland to Monaco, says: "It is such a tremendous challenge with the barriers being so close to the track.

"There is nowhere in the world like it. The place buzzes. It is loud and lively and great fun. It is such a fantastic vibe to be part of it. And it is the race we drivers all want to win.

"Now I live here it is going to feel like a second home GP and every driver wants to win his home race."

The writer is a motorsports expert based in the UK