Ayrton Senna famously had to enter something of a supernatural state to conquer the streets of Monaco, the Formula 1 calendar’s greatest challenge and our sport’s most prestigious, glamorous, and iconic circuit. 

No driver has ever been able to match Senna in Monte Carlo, who provided Formula 1 fans with the greatest Qualifying lap in history at the street circuit, as well as six victories, the most of any driver.  

In honour of Ayrton, we’ll be running a special one-off livery around the Principality streets this weekend. Inspired by his iconic yellow, green, and blue helmet, his much heralded colour scheme will make a return to the circuit 30 years on from his tragic passing, driven by Lando and Oscar.  

To talk you through it all, we’ve gathered the thoughts of Lando and Oscar, as well as Team Principal Andrea Stella. We’ve also compiled our latest F1 translation and icebreaker topics, a guide to the circuit and some tips on what to wear.

“Monaco up next! It’s one of the most challenging weekends on the calendar. It’s not the easiest track to overtake on, but Qualifying here is one of the most exciting challenges in motorsport. It's all about hitting the ground running and building confidence right from FP1.

“It felt good to be able to fight for the win in Imola. We have so much potential moving forward. Monaco will also be a special race for us as we will be racing in a tribute livery to Senna. It looks amazing, and I can’t wait to race around this special track in it.”

“It’s going to be an honour to race around the streets of Monaco in our special Senna livery. He was a master of this track with six victories and it’s important to pay tribute to such a role model of our sport.

“I have also come up with a special helmet design and I’ll be auctioning off one of my helmets to raise funds for the Ayrton Senna Institute, which does such great work in providing opportunities and transforming lives.

“The past two race weekends in Miami and Imola have been amongst my strongest in F1 and it’s an exciting prospect to be heading to Monaco with good momentum.”

“We go into the Monaco Grand Prix with another podium finish. We’re seeing consistent results and fights for wins, which is a good place to be. Monaco is an interesting circuit, as we know it’s more difficult to make up positions in the race, so we need to once again qualify strong. However, it’s not impossible.

“Monaco is also a special place for McLaren. We won many races here in the past with Ayrton Senna, so it’s only fitting that we pay tribute to him here by racing in a very special livery inspired by his helmet.”

Track insights

Tackling the Circuit de Monaco requires a great deal of confidence, as well as a good amount of pace in the slow-speed corners. Navigating the tight and twisting streets is certainly a smoother ride than in Senna’s day, but it still requires complete commitment and an ability to find the fine line between pushing the limits and exceeding them. The faster you go, the more it feels like the walls are closing in.

As you may have already guessed, the narrow streets of Monaco and the barriers that surround the circuit make overtaking difficult, but the skill and bravery the drivers display when weaving through the 17-turn, 2.074-mile circuit help make up for the lack of passing. And trust us when we say, you won’t want to miss Qualifying.

Portier, Nouvelle, and Rascasse are among the most iconic corners in the world, but they’re not the only notable turns in the principality. Unsurprisingly, the circuit features one of the slowest corners of the calendar – the Fairmont Hairpin, taken at 30 mph – but it also contains one of the quickest too. The flat-out corner in the tunnel is taken at roughly 160 mph, with the added complication that drivers switch from light to dark and back to light in a very short space of time.

Like Imola, there is only one DRS Detection zone, active along the pit straight. Although overtaking isn’t the easiest, positions can be gained by capitalizing on mistakes and through clever strategy calls.

The season so far

It’s been a pretty good few weeks, even if we do say so ourselves. We departed the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix with more points than any other team, thanks to Lando’s third successive podium and Oscar’s fourth-place finish.

Lando’s third podium came on the back of his first victory, in the Miami Grand Prix, and he very nearly followed that up with a second, but his pursuit of Max Verstappen in the closing stages narrowly fell short. The Brit possessed no shortage of pace and had managed his rubber expertly – another couple of laps, and he might have had him.

Oscar did well to gain a position on a circuit that, like Monaco, is famously difficult to overtake on. And the Australian might have come away with more were it not for a three-place grid penalty he received on the back of Qualifying. We retain third in the Constructors’ Championship, on 154 points.

F1 translations: Rear wings

F1 is full of specialist slang and complicated jargon that can stump even the most avid of fans, which is why we’ll be explaining common F1 terminology ahead of each Grand Prix this season. This week, we’ll be explaining rear wings.

This weekend in Monaco, you’ll see teams bringing rear wings specifically made for this circuit, but why?

Ultimately, rear wings exist to generate downforce – a vital component in modern-day F1 - and, therefore, play a key role in the aerodynamics of the cars. The rear wing – unsurprisingly, positioned on the rear of the car – reduces drag on the car as the air flows around it.

Like almost every component on an F1 car, rear wings have evolved greatly over the past few decades, progressing from a very basic and simplistic design to one with several components, including endplates, Gurney flaps, and of course, DRS, all of which contribute to its ultimate goal of increasing downforce.

So if the goal is to decrease drag and increase downforce, then why do teams develop and take different rear wings to different tracks?

Essentially, the level of downforce teams want from their cars differs depending on how many – and what type – of corners and straights a circuit has. If a track has very few corners and long straights – such as Barcelona and Monza - then lower downforce is preferred. If a circuit has a lot of corners and short straights – such as Imola and Monaco - then teams will generally opt for a higher downforce setup. Other tracks, such as Suzuka, sit somewhere in between. For this reasons, teams will develop and build a variety of rear wings to suit different types of circuit.

F1 icebreaker

Stuck for conversation with your F1-loving friends? Spark up a discussion with our F1 icebreaker…

The total distance covered in the Monaco GP is 161.887 miles, which is actually below the FIA’s minimum race length of 190 miles. However, due to the history of the race, which first ran in 1929, an exception is made.

The fit: Senna-inspired

Senna’s yellow, green, and blue helmet design is an iconic look that shouldn’t just be limited to his helmet alone. It’s inspired our livery for this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix and now it can inspire your outfits too.