Video: Monaco Historic pre-1961 Formula 1 highlights

14th June 2022

Simon Ostler

The Monaco Historic Grand Prix opens the Monte Carlo streets to a wonderful selection of early Formula 1 cars. From the front-engined torpedoes of the 1950s and early ‘60s to the turbocharged monsters of the ‘80s, and plenty more in between.

Here we’re enjoying the sleek shape and minuscule dimensions of the Pre-‘61 race at this year’s Historic event. The race offered plenty of on-track action, with overtaking throughout this field of legendary F1 machinery.

Out at the front the battle was between Claudia Hurtgen, in the Ferrari 246 Dino driven to world championship glory by Mike Hawthorn in 1958, and Tony Wood, in a delightfully obscure Tec-Mec F415 – a modified version of the Maserati 250F, of which there were plenty running here.

Sights like this make it quite easy to imagine the likes of Hawthorn, Fangio and Ascari dancing these glorious cars around Monaco, and it’s an opportunity we appreciate hugely to relive the great history of motorsport.