Monaco F1 Grand Prix 2010

[Tuktuk]

Since my last live Monaco Grand Prix watching 19 years ago I was thinking every year while watching the race on TV: Why aren't you there?

This year I did it finally and it was a great experience. Last time we were sitting on the steep Rocher area in the grass, this year on the grandstand between harbour and start-finish line (northern part)

We waited under the grand stand in the shadow to avoid too much sunlight until a few minutes before 01:30 pm when the cars drove out of the pits to catch their start position. And this was just unreal:

Every car made an infernal sound like a jet fighter, every downshift sounded like an explosion. My wife watched first time a race and the first cars just made her flinch heavily. I watched many spectators looking at each other unbelieving. After this first turn of every car my ears were hurting already wearing no earflaps. For the race we put them into our ears all the time.

The place was pretty good because in our back was the end of the start line. We couldn't watch down but the cars were just about 10 meters away downstairs. The distance to the cars in front was about 20 meters so we had an all-time real surround sound. My iPhone app showed nonstop 100 dB - it can't indicate more so it must have been much louder. Every car in our back let the stand vibrate a bit like the floor on a rock concert.

Some people didn't use earflaps. Either their ears are without function or they will not work after the race … Compared to pictures, videos and the fantastic Redline track everything is looking much steeper in reality - and much more narrow. The real track is just damn narrow.

From our place we could watch a big screen. Without that you would have problems to get on overview of the race. Watching TV at home with a comment you are informed definitely better but the real atmosphere is undemonstrable.

These few video sequences show how the view from our places looked like:



Some pics from our seats and at casino:

Above Sainte Devote


General admission at Rocher


The heros


Free TV


Tunnel catapult


Balconies for rent


Webber relaxes behind SC


Barrichello aka Johnny Walker


Grand Prix Race? How boring!


Probably Huelkenberg's car ...


Narrow ...


... and bumpy

[Kenners]

you said "..and bumpy".. Which girl were you.. Oh.. the track..

God those pics are great!

K

[leoantix]

looks like someone had a great time ... thank you for the nice photos and clip

this is like a teaser ... can't wait to get my butt up to LRP in less than 2 weeks!

[DonaemouS]

this was great I suppose. I love it™

The pictures are incredible. And the safety car is absolutely stunning!

[Tuktuk]

And the safety car is absolutely stunning!

The SLS produced an impressive sound - quite loud, deep and rumbling. It was fascinating how fast the SC was starting after a crash: Just a few seconds later and we could hear the car accelerating behind us rroooooaaaAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

[Valentin K]

Sweeeet stuff! I'm just not sure if the SLS's sound beats that of the BMW Z4 GT3.

[alphonse]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

loud, stinky , insane - i love real race!

i like movie and pics, hope your ears are still working smooth...

alf

[DANDY]

Very nice, Tuk - what a beautiful race. It's amazing the way the sounds hit you in the chest. Those with heart conditions need not apply.

[Toad]

Thanks for the post Tuk, nice photos and sounds. For some people high performance engines are like music and we find it soothing. Laguna Seca, for instance has been in existence for decades longer than the housing that surrounds the place now. And people complain like mad when a loud race happens. Some of us would pay extra to hear that.

This weekend is a reformatted American Le Mans race (ALMS) with a GT3 race also. Six hours for the main event on Sunday. I heard the cars practicing while I was two valleys away and about 10 miles from the track. Just makes me want to go, but as usual I have work when big events are in town.

If anyone is interested there appears to be free live streaming of the main event. They claim they have only 10,000 connections available worldwide. To get to the signup page

http://www.americanlemans.com/primary1.php?cat=live

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