A certain week of the year coincides with two traditional festivities. Catholicism notes the ascension of Jesus to heaven forty days after rising on Easter; while in the United States Memorial Day, dedicated to soldiers who died in combat, is commemorated on the last Monday in May. without looking for it, these two ‘holidays’ gave sporting events an opportunity to reach mass very different and distant that grew up together: both the Monaco Grand Prix with Formula 1 running in the streets of the Principality like the Indianapolis 500 at more than 370 km/h on a super fast circuit. These competitions, so unequal in their characteristics, are pieces sought by the greatest drivers in history, as much as the endurance race of 24 hours at Le MansFrance, at the level of form the well-known “triple crown of motorsports” that only one person has managed to obtain. That is why this weekend there is special attention on Indy500 and F1 in Monte Carlo, as glory will put a handful of brave people to the test to reward whoever is deserving at the end of the competition.
Which is bigger or more important? it is impossible to answer clearly, because each one has its characteristics. For Le Mans we will have to wait until mid-June but those that take place this Sunday each have their own challenge, where versatility and expertise of pilots is appreciated by constantly responding to the unexpected, in fractions of a second.
The metal arms of the Monegasque guardrails wrap around the F1 cars to the point of making them look small as they speed up the zigzag after the curve where the Church of Sante Devote stands. The capacity of the balconies rented at extravagant prices with fans from all over the world who do not want to miss the unique sight and feel the masonry vibrate on the first lap of the race. It is a track present since before the F1 championship was created in 1950 and that is why it is a classic. It involves not only a car race but a millionaire social gathering with characters from every category imaginable in luxurious suites or their own yachts in the port and whose winner is crowned in the Box next to His Serene Highness the Prince. Monaco does not pay the exuberant figures that other countries do to be part of the ‘Great Circus’ but rather with only a symbolic value they allow it to be and, in addition, receive sporting exceptions. With its 3,340 meters on the lap, the Grand Prix where charles leclerc (Ferrari) is local turns out to be the only track on the calendar that is accepted without complying with the minimum 3.5km route.
When it comes to celebrations, the capital of the State of Indiana also dresses up especially to receive during the week of activities 400,000 viewers and generate a movement greater than that of the SuperBowl itself inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It is not only the largest racetrack in the world but there is no greater sports venue in the world, because inside it they can accommodate in a puzzle imaginary about a hundred times the playing field of the River Plate stadium. Two long and two very short straights, joined by four wide curves, give a rectangular shape to a circuit where last weekend Scott Dixon transited to 376km/h average to achieve the fastest Ranking in 106-year history, cwith top speeds recorded at 390 km/h. Only the lateral inclination of the cant with which the track was designed allows it to sustain such high traffic in the curves. Juan Manuel Fangio, who together with Carlos Reutemann are the only Argentine winners in Monaco, carried out some tests in the -badly named- oval and after passing the tests that every rookie must complete (despite being an F1 star in 1958) decided not to participate. He did not have a vehicle with the performance that his reputation deserved and he gave up running the test that invented the famous phrase ‘Gentlemen, start your engines‘.
Who won the Triple Crown and who could match it?
The story only has the English name Graham Hill (father of fellow driver, Damon Hill) as able to score victories in the three great jewels of motorsport. He had five wins in Monte Carlo with F1 and celebrated big at both Indy and Le Mans. Two contemporaries who will race this weekend, one in the United States and the other in the Principality, dream of Hill’s honorary title. The Colombian John Paul Montoya He owes the victory in the general classification of the French endurance race Le Mans that José María López from Córdoba won last year; and the spanish Fernando Alonsodespite having tried, has not yet managed to prevail in the North American event.
Formula 1 today is going through a period of unparalleled popularity, with renewed cars and a paradigm of absolute domination of Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes cut with the spectacular 2021 season in which the young man was consecrated Max Verstappen aboard the Red Bull. It excites the strength with which Ferrari has jumped to prominence on all tracks but reliability has played a trick on him to the Italian factory days ago leaving Leclerc empty-handed in Spain. The impetuous current monarch has won four of six in 2022 and is a candidate despite having the Dutch a recurring failure in its rear wing. Meanwhile, the internal struggle between the newcomer to the Silver Arrows team, George Russell, standing before the seven-time champion Hamilton. Besides them, Sergio Perez with the energy drink squad and Carlos Sainz with the mark of prancing horse intersperse prominence with their peers every weekend.
On the Indy side, among the 33 classified there is a car in charge of an Argentine team based in the USA, Juncos Racing, which is led by the British Callum Ilott. It will be interesting to evaluate the Brazilian Helio Castroneves attempting the fifth victory to escape as the only one on the list of top winners, the aforementioned Montoya and the charismatic Japanese takuma sato looking for each their third celebration, or Jimmie JohnsonNASCAR idol debuting in this race.
In the cover letter of an Indycar driver, the championships achieved are not clarified, but rather, if you have ever managed to win Indy500. Different in this sense Monaco can become, inserted as a special Sunday within a major tournament. “I love Monaco, but I’d rather win the World Cup than win in Monte Carlo”, Leclerc recently said, on whom a ‘curse’ seems to weigh that always causes problems in his home race. What is clear is that these tests exalt those who are capable of mastering them and only the winner is remembered. This counts for any of the diamonds of the triple crown, which has the particularity that in this week of the year it puts two of its jewels into play.
