We like to acknowledge that we at Goodwood Road & Racing are pretty lucky when it comes to settings for work. The paddocks at Goodwood are picturesque, and when filled with racing cars there are few places better in the world. But the Monaco Historic Grand Prix has a paddock that even we look at and just go “wow”.
Gallery: The Monaco Historic Grand Prix paddocks are a special place
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Like the circuit, the paddock is set along the side of Monaco’s stunning marina, with multi-gazillion dollar yachts parked up just feet away. It runs away from the famous Rascasse corner, down toward the sea and its necessitated tight confines are, at times, a real assault on the senses. Somehow the Automobile Club de Monaco manages to cram a couple of rows of paddock space into this thin strip of land.
While some of the more modern F1 cars that race in the Historic Grand Prix are cocooned away in the rather more palatial surrounds of the pitlane – the same buildings used by Formula 1 and Formula E – the rest of the Formula 1, pre-war Grand Prix and sportscar machinery takes a place in these paddocks. As you walk down, it becomes a cacophony of noise at times as teams prep for the weekend ahead. Just next to you on the other side of a temporary fence is an auction house, a boatyard dealing almost exclusively in Riva machinery, and even an American themed bar. Just to remind you that this Grand Prix takes place in the very centre of a city that nearly 40,000 people call home.
This weekend’s sights, smells and sounds would be enough to make you wonder whether the digital nomad life and a flat in Monaco is in your reach at all.
Remember we’ll be live streaming all the action from the Monaco Historic Grand Prix weekend, and you can watch it all right here.
Photography by Pete Summers.
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