Why you don’t want to watch Monaco Sunday if it’s your first F1 race

This weekend is a dream for racing fans.

The Indianapolis 500 takes place Sunday and this race provides great entertainment during the 200-lap event, arguably the most prestigious auto race in the world. The 2.5-mile track will surely have some drama with an expected 300,000 fans watching the Indy cars go 200+mph.

MotoGP is back this weekend and it is at Mugello. The Italian track is situated in the beautiful rolling hills of Tuscany. The track is wonderful, too, with a long straightaway and fun flowing curves.

NASCAR is racing again after last weekend's annual All-Star Race in Texas. The Coca-Cola 600 takes place this Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway -- well, to be precise, it starts in the late afternoon daylight and finishes in the night time, roughly four or more hours after the green flag drops. Chase Elliot leads the championship going into the race.

And then there is Formula One's Monaco Grand Prix.

If someone is a casual racing fan and they want to watch some racing, they shouldn’t watch the Monaco Grand Prix. If someone is interested in Formula One due to the rise in popularity in the United States, they should wait and watch another race if they’ve never seen a Formula One race.

Many non-Formula One fans or casual fans will be confused by these statements. The Monaco Grand Prix has been called the crown jewel of the Formula One calendar. Therefore, this race has drawn lots of media attention.

The Monaco Grand Prix has been on the F1 calendar starting in 1950. Ever since then, the rich and famous have flocked to Monaco to see the race and party in their yachts in the harbor, next to part of the track.

What makes Monaco appealing to the rich is their tax laws. Monaco does not charge income or capital gains taxes. The country was also one of the first places to legalize gambling in Europe and build a casino. For these reasons, it’s a haven for the rich to live in or own property in.

What has also been appealing about the Monaco Grand Prix is the circuit. It's made up of every day Monaco roads and has changed very little since the first Formula One race there in 1950. The circuit has tight, narrow corners with no run-off area, as well as elevation changes, it goes through a tunnel and passes by the harbor with dozens of massive yachts docked. Drivers have to be almost perfect around the course -- and if they aren’t, they will crash.

At the beginning of the Monaco Grand Prix in the 1950s and throughout the next few decades, the course was narrow and tight, but the drivers were still able to pass each other in certain areas of the circuit.

Not anymore.

In 1960, according to an article on motorsportmagazine.com, the championship-winning Cooper-Climax T53 was approximately 1.4 meters (4.59 feet) wide and 3.5 meters (11.48 feet) long. The 1970 championship-winning Lotus 72 was approximately 1.9 meters (6.23 feet) wide and 4.2 meters (13.78 feet) long.

Fast forward to last year, the 2021 Mercedes Formula One car is estimated to be around two meters (6.56 feet) wide and 5.7 meters (18.70 feet) long.

This is a massive difference in size between the size of the early Formula One cars and the current Formula One cars. This makes a big difference in the racing at Monaco because the current cars don’t have room to make passes on a circuit that hasn’t changed in 70 years.

In the 21st century at Monaco, qualifying almost always determines the winner and the general layout of the field by the end of the race. Since 2004, the driver who starts first has won the race 13 out of 17 times.

The last three times a winner didn’t start from the pole, the winner took the lead of the race due to a pit stop, not a pass on the circuit. In the last three races, the winner led from start to finish.

Monaco is a beautiful spectacle of a Formula One circuit. But Monaco is the outlier when it comes to Formula One circuits. All other Formula One circuits are spectacles because of the racing with breathtaking passes and battles for key positions on track. Monaco is a spectacle because of the pomp and circumstance outside of the race.

If someone wants to watch a Formula One race to see the best drivers in the world battle on track, Monaco is not the race to watch.