The 66th Monaco Grand Prix gets underway in sombre mood following the death on Monday night of the legendary Austrian racer, Niki Lauda at the age of seventy. In total, there have been 77 editions of this event, the earliest dating back 90 years to 14th April 1929, the race won by British driver William Grover-Williams. The race has always been run on the same streets of the Principality, although the layout and length of the circuit has been slightly changed eleven times. The current length is 3.337 kilometres and Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow has nine wins to its name at this track.
FERRARI STATS GP MONACO
GP participations 65
Debut 1950 (Alberto Ascari 2nd; Raymond Sommer 4th; Luigi Villoresi DNF)
Wins 12 (13,84%)
Pole positions 10 (15,38%)
Fastest laps 17 (26,15%)
Total podiums 52 (80%)
Mattia Binotto Team Principal
“The run up to this Monaco Grand Prix has been perturbed by our sadness at the news of Niki’s death. His straightforward no nonsense approach will be missed in Formula 1 and it will seem strange for all of us not seeing him in the paddock. Niki was a standard bearer for Ferrari and for Formula 1 and he pushed through changes in motor racing that made it even more professional, being ahead of his time in terms of being a stickler for detail which is now very much a key element of our sport.
Turning now to this weekend’s race, last week’s testing in Barcelona and analyses carried out in Maranello confirmed just how much this year’s tyres, which are very different to those we had in 2018, require different mechanical and aerodynamic settings to work properly. We are already working in Maranello on evaluating new concepts, as well as bringing some initial further updates here.
This Grand Prix is celebrating its 90th anniversary, as indeed is the Scuderia, which makes this weekend even more special. It’s a very different sort of race, where the track characteristics that can shake up the order could be jumbled up still further this weekend. As usual, qualifying will be very important because of the fact it’s almost impossible to overtake. Of course, Monaco is Charles’ home race and we know how much it means to him. It means a lot to us too.”
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