Crash spectacle feared in Monaco

Fears are mounting that the Monaco Grand Prix, round six in the championship battle, could deteriorate into a dangerous crash-bang-wallop spectacle.

And the mutterings from worried drivers concerned about their safety at high speed around the narrow and twisty streets of the Principality are already echoing above the popping of champagne corks among the party-goers aboard the ocean-going yachts that so spectacularly grace the trackside harbour.

The disquiet has been stirred, ironically, by kingpin Bernie Ecclestone's eagerness to improve the Formula One show by increasing the depth of the competition and allowing three new teams onto the grid for the 2010 season.

The problem is they are all slow coaches compared with the likes of front runners Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes, and around Monaco, where there is scant chance of overtaking, that is an extremely dodgy situation. They are not my words. Eminences Lewis Hamilton and his McLaren teammate Jenson Button, both champions, and former racer David Coulthard, a Monaco resident, all winners here, reckon the risks are unacceptable.

Indeed, so slow are the new boy backmarkers, compared with the front runners, that the established and experienced fear an on-track disaster because of the speed differentials. Hamilton points out: "It is very difficult when there is such a massive difference.

Coulthard summons some sympathy for the also-rans and says: "Racing here is the ultimate challenge when you are skimming the barriers at 270km/h. Try doing that while you are looking behind you for the faster guys."

And he argues forcibly the opinion of the pacemakers concerned about the snail-pace newcomers: "What we need in F1 is quality — not quantity."

The writer is an expert on motorsport based in England.