Origins Like many European races, the Monaco Grand Prix predates the current
World Championship. The principality's first
Grand Prix was organised in 1929 by
Antony Noghès, under the auspices of
Prince Louis II, through the
Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM), of which he was president. The ACM organised the
Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo, and in 1928 applied to the
Association Internationale des Automobiles Clubs Reconnus (AIACR), the international governing body of motorsport, to be upgraded from a regional French club to full national status. Their application was refused due to the lack of a major motorsport event held wholly within Monaco's boundaries. The rally could not be considered, as it mostly used the roads of other European countries. He obtained the official sanction of Prince Louis II and the support of
Monégasque Grand Prix driver
Louis Chiron. Chiron thought Monaco's topography was well-suited to setting up a race track. It was an invitation-only event, but not all of those who were invited decided to attend the race which matched very different types of cars, as in
Formula Libre. The leading
Maserati and
Alfa Romeo drivers decided not to compete, but Bugatti was well represented.
Mercedes at the time had no 2-litre Grand Prix car, but the big heavy 7-litre
SSK sportscar, and sent their leading driver,
Rudolf Caracciola, to deal with it. Starting fifteenth, Caracciola drove a fighting race, taking his SSK into the lead before wasting minutes on refuelling and a tyre change to finish second. Caracciola's SSK was refused permission to race the following year,
Pre-war The race quickly grew in importance after its inception. Because of the high number of races which were being termed 'Grands Prix', the AIACR formally recognised the most important race of each of its affiliated national automobile clubs as International Grands Prix, or
Grandes Épreuves, and in 1933 Monaco was ranked as such alongside the
French,
Belgian,
Italian, and
Spanish Grands Prix.
That year's race was the first Grand Prix in which grid positions were decided, as they are now, by practice time rather than the established method of
balloting. The race saw
Achille Varzi and
Tazio Nuvolari exchange the lead many times before the race settled in Varzi's favour on the final lap when Nuvolari's car caught fire. The race became a round of the new
European Championship in 1936, when stormy weather and a broken oil line led to a series of crashes, eliminating the
Mercedes-Benzes of Chiron,
Fagioli, and
von Brauchitsch, as well as
Bernd Rosemeyer's
Typ C for newcomer
Auto Union;
Rudolf Caracciola, proving the truth of his nickname,
Regenmeister (Rainmaster), went on to win. In 1937, von Brauchitsch duelled Caracciola before coming out on top.
Post-war Grand Prix Racing in Europe started again on 9 September 1945 at the
Bois de Boulogne Park in the city of
Paris, four months and one day after the end of the war in Europe. However, the Monaco Grand Prix was not run between 1945 and 1947 due to financial reasons. In 1946, a new premier racing category,
Grand Prix, was defined by the
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the successor of the AIACR, based on the pre-war
voiturette class. A Monaco Grand Prix was run to this formula in
1948, won by the future world champion
Nino Farina in a
Maserati 4CLT. The 1948 race also included a motorbike race.
Formula One Early championship days The 1949 event was cancelled due to the death of Prince Louis II; 1952 was the first of the two years in which the World Drivers' Championship was run to less powerful
Formula Two regulations. The race was run to
sports car rules instead, and it did not form part of the World Championship. No races were held in 1953 or 1954 due to the fact that the car regulations were not finalized. In the 1955 race,
Maurice Trintignant won in Monte Carlo for the first time and Chiron again scored points and at 56 became the oldest driver to compete in a Formula One Grand Prix. It was not until
1957, when Fangio won again, that the Grand Prix saw a double winner. Between 1954 and 1961 Fangio's former Mercedes colleague,
Stirling Moss, went one better, as did Trintignant, who won the race again in
1958 driving a
Cooper. The
1961 race saw Moss fend off three works
Ferrari 156s in a year-old privateer
Rob Walker Racing Team Lotus 18 to take his third Monaco victory.
Graham Hill's era won five of his 14 Grands Prix at Monaco.
Britain's Graham Hill won the race five times in the 1960s and became known as "King of Monaco" and "Mr. Monaco". He first won in 1963, and then won the next two years. The race was also notable for Jim Clark's absence (he was participating in
the Indianapolis 500), and for
Paul Hawkins's Lotus ending up in the harbour. Hill's teammate, Briton
Jackie Stewart, won in 1966 and New Zealander
Denny Hulme won in 1967, but Hill won the next two years, the 1969 event being his final Formula One championship victory, by which time he was a double Formula One world champion.
Track alterations, safety, and increasing business interests By the start of the 1970s, efforts by Jackie Stewart saw several Formula One events cancelled because of safety concerns. For the
1969 event,
Armco barriers were placed at specific points for the first time in the circuit's history. Before that, the circuit's conditions were (aside from the removal of people's production cars parked on the side of the road) virtually identical to everyday road use. If a driver went off, he had a chance to crash into whatever was next to the track (buildings, trees, lamp posts, glass windows, and even a train station), and in Alberto Ascari's and Paul Hawkins's cases, the harbour water, because the concrete road the course used had no Armco to protect the drivers from going off the track and into the
Mediterranean. The circuit gained more Armco in specific points for the next two races, and by 1972, the circuit was almost completely Armco-lined. For the first time in its history, the Monaco circuit was altered in 1972, as the pits were moved next to the waterfront straight between the chicane and Tabac, and the chicane was moved further forward right before Tabac, becoming the junction point between the pits and the course. The course was changed again for the 1973 race. The
Rainier III Nautical Stadium was constructed where the straight that went behind the pits was, and the circuit introduced a double chicane that went around the new swimming pool (this chicane complex is known today as "Swimming Pool"). This created space for a whole new pit facility, and in 1976 the course was altered yet again; the Sainte Devote corner was made slower and a chicane was placed right before the pit straight. By the early 1970s, as
Brabham team owner
Bernie Ecclestone started to marshal the collective bargaining power of the
Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA), Monaco was prestigious enough to become an early bone of contention. Historically, the number of cars permitted in a race was decided by the race organiser, in this case the ACM, which had always set a low number of around 16. In 1972, Ecclestone started to negotiate deals which relied on FOCA guaranteeing at least 18 entrants for every race. A stand-off over this issue left the 1972 race in jeopardy until the ACM gave in and agreed that 26 cars could participate – the same number permitted at most other circuits. Two years later, in 1974, the ACM got the numbers back down to 18. Because of its tight confines, slow average speeds, and punishing nature, Monaco has often thrown up unexpected results. In the
1982 race,
René Arnoux led the first 15 laps before retiring.
Alain Prost then led until four laps from the end, when he spun off on the wet track, hit the barriers and lost a wheel, giving
Riccardo Patrese the lead. Patrese himself spun with only a lap and a half to go, letting
Didier Pironi through to the front, followed by
Andrea de Cesaris. On the last lap, Pironi ran out of fuel in the tunnel, but De Cesaris also ran out of fuel before he could overtake. In the meantime, Patrese had bump-started his car and went through to score his first Grand Prix win. In 1983, the ACM became entangled in the disagreements between
Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) and FOCA. The ACM, with the agreement of Bernie Ecclestone, negotiated an individual television rights deal with
ABC in the
United States. This broke an agreement enforced by FISA for a single central negotiation of television rights.
Jean-Marie Balestre, president of FISA, announced that the Monaco Grand Prix would not form part of the Formula One world championship in 1985. The ACM fought their case in the French courts. They won the case and the race was eventually reinstated.
Era of Prost & Senna dominance For the decade from 1984 to 1993, the race was won by only two drivers, arguably the two best drivers in Formula One at the time – Frenchman
Alain Prost and Brazilian
Ayrton Senna. Prost, already a winner of the
support race for Formula Three cars in 1979, took his first Monaco win at the
1984 race. The race started 45 minutes late after heavy rain. Prost led briefly before
Nigel Mansell overtook him on lap 11. Mansell crashed out five laps later, letting Prost back into the lead. On lap 27, Prost led from Ayrton Senna's
Toleman and
Stefan Bellof's
Tyrrell. Senna was catching Prost, and Bellof was catching both of them in the only naturally aspirated car in the race. However, on lap 31, the race was controversially stopped due to conditions deemed to be undriveable. Later, FISA fined the clerk of the course,
Jacky Ickx, $6,000 and suspended his licence for not consulting the stewards before stopping the race. The drivers received only half of the points that would usually be awarded, as the race had been stopped before two-thirds of the intended race distance had been completed. Prost won 1985 after polesitter Senna retired with a blown Renault engine in his Lotus after over-revving it at the start, and Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari retook the lead twice, but he went off the track at Sainte-Devote, where Brazilian Nelson Piquet and Italian Riccardo Patrese had a huge accident only a few laps previously and oil and debris littered the track. Prost passed Alboreto, who retook the Frenchman, and then he punctured a tyre after running over bodywork debris from the Piquet/Patrese accident, which dropped him to 4th. He was able to pass his Roman countrymen Andrea De Cesaris and
Elio de Angelis, but finished 2nd behind Prost. The French Prost dominated 1986 after starting from pole position, a race where the Nouvelle Chicane had been changed on the grounds of safety. Senna holds the record for the most victories in Monaco, with six, including five consecutive wins between
1989 and
1993, as well as eight podium finishes in ten starts. His
1987 win was the first time a car with an active suspension had won a Grand Prix. He won this race after Briton Nigel Mansell in a Williams-Honda went out with a broken exhaust. His win was very popular with the people of Monaco, and when he was arrested on the Monday following the race for riding a motorcycle without wearing a helmet, he was released by the officers after they realised who he was. Senna dominated
1988 and was able to get ahead of his teammate Prost while the Frenchman was held up for most of the race by Austrian
Gerhard Berger in a Ferrari. By the time Prost got past Berger, he pushed as hard as he could and set a lap some 6 seconds faster than Senna's; Senna then set 2 fastest laps, and while pushing as hard as possible, he touched the barrier at the Portier corner and crashed into the Armco separating the road from the Mediterranean. Senna was so upset that he went back to his Monaco flat and was not heard from until the evening. Prost went on to win for the fourth time. Senna dominated 1989 while Prost was stuck behind backmarker René Arnoux and others; the Brazilian also dominated 1990 and 1991. At the
1992 event Nigel Mansell, who had won all five races held to that point in the season, took pole and dominated the race in his
Williams FW14B-
Renault. However, with seven laps remaining, Mansell suffered a loose wheel nut and was forced into the pits, emerging behind Senna's
McLaren-Honda, who was on worn tyres. Mansell, on fresh tyres, set a lap record almost two seconds quicker than Senna's and closed from 5.2 to 1.9 seconds in only two laps. The pair duelled around Monaco for the final four laps but Mansell could find no way past, finishing just two-tenths of a second behind the Brazilian. It was Senna's fifth win at Monaco, equalling Graham Hill's record. Senna had a poor start to the
1993 event, crashing in practice and qualifying 3rd behind pole-sitter Prost and the rising German star
Michael Schumacher. Both of them beat Senna to the first corner, but Prost had to serve a time penalty for jumping the start and Schumacher retired after suspension problems, so Senna took his sixth win to break Graham Hill's record for most wins at the Monaco Grand Prix. Runner-up
Damon Hill commented, "If my father was around now, he would be the first to congratulate Ayrton."
1990s: Tragedies and triumphs The 1994 race was an emotional and tragic affair. It came two weeks after the
San Marino Grand Prix at Imola in which Austrian
Roland Ratzenberger and
Ayrton Senna both died in crashes on successive days. During the Monaco event, Austrian
Karl Wendlinger had an accident in his
Sauber in the tunnel; he went into a coma and was to miss the rest of the season. The German Michael Schumacher won the
1994 Monaco event. Schumacher also won the 1995 event. The
1996 race saw Michael Schumacher take pole position before crashing out on the first lap after being overtaken by Damon Hill. Hill led the first 40 laps before his engine expired in the tunnel.
Jean Alesi took the lead but suffered suspension failure 20 laps later.
Olivier Panis, who started in 14th place, moved into the lead and stayed there until the end of the race, being pushed all the way by
David Coulthard. It was Panis's only win, and the last for his
Ligier team. Only three cars crossed the finish line, but seven were classified.
21st century In 2004,
land reclamation work was completed, allowing expansion of the pit area with larger temporary garages. A temporary 6,000 seat grandstand would also be constructed in the Swimming Pool area. Although Schumacher claimed it was the unintentional result of a genuine car failure, the
FIA disagreed and he was sent to the back of the grid. In July 2010, Bernie Ecclestone announced that a 10-year deal had been reached with the race organisers, keeping the race on the calendar until at least 2020.
2020s Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, the FIA announced the 2020 Monaco Grand Prix's postponement, along with the two other races scheduled for May 2020, to help prevent the spread of the virus. However, later the same day the Automobile Club de Monaco confirmed that the Grand Prix was instead cancelled, making 2020 the first time the Grand Prix was not run since 1954. The race returned in 2021. The 2022 event saw the
Monégasque driver,
Charles Leclerc of
Scuderia Ferrari, achieve his first Monaco Grand Prix pole position at the Circuit de Monaco (he had taken pole the previous year but could not start due to driveshaft failure). However, a critical strategical error meant Leclerc would drop to fourth, with
Sergio Pérez winning the race. In 2024, Charles Leclerc became the second Monégasque to win the race following Louis Chiron's win in 1931. The race was the first time the top 10 cars finished in their starting order, and there were no successful overtakes. In November 2024, the ACM signed a new race contract to remain on the F1 calendar until the 2031 season, extending their previous agreement which was set to expire in 2025. As part of this deal, the ACM relinquished advertising rights and television coverage to
Formula One Management, with previous races having their television coverage produced by
Tele Monte Carlo. From 2026, the race will be held on the first weekend of June, and will therefore no longer clash with the
Indianapolis 500 and the
Coca-Cola 600. Another extension to 2035 was confirmed in September 2025. The fastest yet qualifying lap was set by
Lando Norris in qualifying (Q3) for the
2025 Monaco Grand Prix, at a time of 1:09.954. These changes did not improve the racing quality and overtake opportunities, and
Lando Norris managed to win the race after starting on pole position. For 2026, the requirement to make a minimum two-stop strategy was dropped. ==Circuit==