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Monaco Grand Prix History
April 14, 1929 at 13.30 under the High Patronage of His Serene Highness,
Prince Louis II.
H.S.H. Prince Pierre opened the circuit on board of a Voisin, Charles
Faroux, clerk of the race released 16 competitors to curry out 100 laps
of the 318 km long circuit. It's Williams, official representative
of Molsheim, in his green Bugatti 35 B who won this first G.P
at an average speed of 80,104 kilometres per hour.
 With
the Mans 24 hour and the Indianapolis 500, the Monte-Carlo Rally and the
Monaco Grand Prix constitute two of the four great automobile sports
events most known to the world at large.
The smallest European state, after the Vatican City, has seen the
efforts and imagination of its leaders well rewarded. The appearance of
the Monaco Grand Prix on international calendars is the undeniable
result of a determined sports policy of the Grand Prix's President
Anthony Noghes. In fact it ail goes back to the mid-twenties, when
Antony Noghes and his friends set up the Automobile Club de Monaco, an
association which stemmed from the Sport Automobile et Vélocipédique,
which itself already goes back as far as the Sport Vélocipédique Monégasque
founded in 1890.
In order to expand and be recognized internationally by the A.I.A.C.R.
(Association Internationale des Automobiles Clubs Reconnus), the
predecessor of the International Automobile Féderation, which similarly
retained the real sports authority and rivaled the European record
makers, an automobile sports évent had to be organized on its own
territory. Being a man of action and a passionate sportsman, Anthony
Noghes proposed the creation of an Automobile Grand Prix which would
take place right in the streets of the Principality. The idea itself was
not new since high speed races were already being fought over in towns,
notably in the United-States with the trials of Santa Monica or Corona.
As soon as he returned to Monaco, Anthony Noghes had to put his idea
into action. He obtained the official support of Prince Louis II
and when he presented his plans to Louis Chiron, the famous Monégasque
racing driver, he too expressed his enthusiasm. After some analysis, one
realized that the topography of the place was admirably well suited to
setting up a natural race track.
 Since
the launch of the first race, the Principality has known only 14 years
without a Grand Prix, namely from 1939 to 1947 and then 1949, 1951, 1953
and 1954. From 1950 onwards the Monaco Grand Prix featured permanently
in the calendar of World Champion Racing Drivers, except in 1952 when
the organizers decided they preferred « Sports » cars to the
single-seater Formula 2 (2 litres) normally retained for the
World Championship.
The circuit itself had not undergone any major changes, the length being
3,180 km up until 1950. In 1952 some modifications to the Saint Dévote
bend led to the shortening of the length of the track to 3,145 d it
was not until 1973 that the layout underwent a change again. It was
extended another 135 meters by the addition of a new track along
the port, a track which was to join the track of the new pool and which
would end in a hairpin bend around the restaurant « La Rascasse ».
From then on grand stands were reinstalled on the old quay. As the
length of each lap was increased, the Grand Prix was shortened to 78
laps. In 1976, the addition of two more zigzags, one at Sainte Dévote,
the other coming round the La Rascasse hairpin bend, extended the length
of each lap by 34 metres. Ten years later, for the 44th Grand Prix,
the widening of the road at the beginning of the Quai des Etats Unis at
the foot of the Boulevard Louis II descent, allowed the creation of
a new zigzag which brought the length of a lap to 3,328
In 1997, the first « S » of the Swimming Pool has been drawn
again. Henceforth, ifs called bend « Louis Chiron ».
The total length of a lap is 3,367 km.
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