F1 General | Joe Unplugged | 180 | The Monaco Problem: Is the Crown Jewel Broken?

Listener Drew asks: would driving Monaco in the opposite direction make the racing better? It's a clever way of asking the real question — is F1's most prestigious race also its worst, and can anything actually fix it?

In this episode, Dick and Sabrina take that question to Joe Saward, who has been going to Monaco since the early 1980s and has a clear-eyed view of exactly what the circuit is and isn't. The short answer on reverse direction: you'd need to demolish several hotels. The longer answer is more interesting.

Joe walks through the history of how Monaco came to host a Grand Prix at all — and it turns out it had almost nothing to do with motorsport. Dick reflects on what his daughter told him after seeing the track in person for the first time, which is something TV will never convey. And the three of them work through the real tension Liberty Media faces every time Monaco's contract comes up: the racing may be processional, but Joe's position is that Formula 1 has exactly two non-negotiables. Monaco is one of them.

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