Monaco Grand Prix Betting

To many fans of motor sports, Monaco is synonymous Grand Prix racing. The Mediterranean principality hosted the very first Formula One championship event held in continental Europe in 1950 and the streets of Monte Carlo and La Condamine have hosted the Monaco Grand Prix every year since 1955—a total of 60 F1 seasons, which is more than any other circuit in the world save Monza, the home of the Italian Grand Prix.

As it happens, however, the Monaco Grand Prix greatly predates F1 racing. It started out on 14 April 1929, when Prince Pierre Grimaldi, Duke of Valentinois, took a lap of honour through the streets of Monte Carlo to inaugurate a new circuit for the 1st Grand Prix of Monaco. That inaugural race was won by Britain’s William Charles Grover-Williams driving a Bugatti T35B.

From 1930 through 1937, the Monaco Grand Prix was conducted as an annual event. The 1931 edition was won by Monaco’s own native son, Louis Chiron, and the list of early victors includes such greats as France’s René Dreyfus (1930) and Italy’s Luigi Fagioli (1935). In 1936, the Regenmeister (Rainmaster), Rudolf Caracciola of Nazi Germany, drove a Mercedes to victory in a downpour, and he would have won again in 1937 but for the record-setting pace set by his teammate, Manfred Georg Rudolf von Brauchitsch, the race’s last winner the streets were closed to racing for the duration of World War II.

In 1948, an unofficial Formula A Grand Prix was run on the Circuit de Monaco and won by Italy’s Giuseppe “Nino” Farina in a Maserati. Then, on 21 May 1950, the first F1 Monaco Grand Prix was run as a FIA World Championship event and won by Argentina’s Juan Manuel Fangio in an Alfa-Romeo. He would later become Formula One’s first five-time World Champion.

Oddly enough, that first F1 Grand Prix was almost Monaco’s last. The death of Prince Louis II had forced the 1949 Grand Prix event to be cancelled. Then, the race was called off again in 1951, as the Automobile Club de Monaco struggled to decide whether the tight streets of Monte Carlo were really suitable for F1 vehicles that were becoming ever faster and more powerful. It was not until 1955 that final decision was taken to embrace Formula One once again … and forever after.

During the years since then, some of the finest motor sports events ever seen have been run on Monaco’s street circuit, which has been reconfigured several times at lengths varying from the original 3.145 kilometres with 14 turns to the current 3.340 kilometres featuring 19 turns. Building the circuit takes six weeks, and dismantling it after the race takes another three. It is said to be the most demanding track in Formula One racing, with many elevation shifts, tight corners and narrow passages. On several occasions, speeding vehicles have ended up in the harbour.

Among the top drivers competing in the Monaco Grand Prix since 1955, Britain`s Graham Hill (1929~1975) was dubbed the “King of Monaco” for his five victories in the 1960s. His accomplishments easily surpassed those of his compatriots, Jackie Stewart and Stirling Moss, who each won the Monaco Grand Prix three times between 1956 and 1973. Much later, Germany’s Michael Schumacher would equal Hill’s feat with five victories of his own between 1994 and 2001.

But perhaps the greatest rivalry at Monaco, and one of the main reasons it will always be viewed as the pinnacle of F1 competition, was between France’s Alain Prost and Brazil’s Aryton Senna. Prost began dominating the track in 1984 and collected three straight wins before Senna broke his string in 1997. Prost bounced back in 1988, and then the Brazilian went on a tear of five consecutive victories from 1989 through 1993.

In more recent years, Spain’s Fernando Alonso has met with success in the Monaco Grand Prix, winning in 2006 and 2007. Australia’s Mark Webber has also notched two victories, in 2010 and 2012, while the 2011 winner, Germany’s Sebastian Vettel, narrowly missed getting his second win, when fellow German Nico Rosberg beat him by 3.889 seconds over 78 laps.

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