Monaco G.P. On Sunday

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28889, 8 May 1959, Page 16

Monaco G.P. On Sunday

Monte Carlo will reverberate to the sound of highly-tuned racing engines this Sunday when one of the most famous motor races in the world will be staged there as the first round of the 1959 world drivers’ championship. The race of 1000 corners, it is perhaps the most testing on the calendar, although it is the slowest. The Monaco round-the-houses circuit is only 1.9 miles, and the cars race along the streets and avenues of the city at more than 120 miles an hour. Footpaths, lamp posts, concrete walls, and the waterfront become a blur as the world’s top drivers jockey for the lead. Part of the circuit is through a tunnel, and a flick of a wheel there could spell tragedy. Invitations Because of the dangers of the circuit, entry in the Monaco race is by invitation only, and only the 16 fastest cars in practice qualify for the race. This year there will be teams entered by . Ferrari, Cooper, 8.R.M., Lotus, and Maserati. Few circuits are more testing on car or driver than Monaco. There is no long straight on the whole circuit, and the gearboxes of the racing cars become very r hot and the drivers’ arms weak from constant gear changing. The brakes are treated unmercifully j —the cars accelerating at full throttle only to be brought back g almost to a halt within 20 sec- 1 onds. To win at Monaco, a driver t has to fling his car through the i corners. 1 c Dangerous Kerbs * —,— I The kerbs are a nightmare, and c if a driver finds his car sliding j towards them he deliberately - steers off the road. Hitting a kerb with the front wheels is far better than hitting it broadside and running the risk of the car overturning. Because of the shortness of the circuit, its surface becomes slippery in the closing stages from oil and rubber. Yet no-one has been killed there, if one discounts the crash which caused Fagioli’s death from injury some weeks after the 1952 race. Only once has a British car won this race, when Maurice Trintignant proved the giant killer in his little Cooper last year. Stirling Moss enters Sunday’s event a top favourite in the Cooper-8.R.M., but no-one knows better than he just how hard this race is to win.