Does Monaco have a place in the f1 calendar?

[Nigel_O]

After Merc's cockup with Lewis on Sunday and his understandable failure to overtake Seb's Ferrari, it occurred to me that Monaco isn't really a race, just a very expensive parade

Let's put it another way - if Monaco WASN'T already on the calendar and submitted a proposal to Bernie to host one, it would surely fall very flat - no straights, almost zero overtaking, minor mistakes often punished by DNFs, etc etc

Surely a fundamental pre-requisite for ANY race is the physical ability to overtake. It seems the only way to pass someone at Monaco is to wait for them to make a sizeable mistake, give them a bit of a nudge (Ricciardo on Sunday, Bianchi last year), or try to do it in the pits.

Any circuit where a slow car can physically prevent a faster car from passing is surely not what F1 needs. Mansell behind Senna, Coulthard behind the Arrows of Bernoldi on 2001

I don't accept the "tradition" angle, as several traditional circuits have been dropped over the years (Magny Cours, Nurburgring, Jerez, etc) - whilst some of these will have been dropped for good reasons (safety, facilities, access etc), I can't believe that Monaco would score particularly well on most requirements of a modern F1 circuit.

However, I rather suspect that the spectacle of racing comes a very poor and distant second to the harsh commercial realities (ie how much they are prepared to pay to host)

Discuss....

[Nigel_O]

I have no doubt that as an event its unbeatable - a showcase for all the shiny people of the world and (as already mentioned) an awful lot of business is done in the GP week - lots of corporate events going on

However, as an actual motor race, it has to be pretty near the bottom of the list