Grand Prix de Monaco Historique

Monaco is 2.02 square kilometres. The circuit runs through the middle of it for 3.337 kilometres, using public roads that are closed for roughly two weeks a year. The barriers are close. The gradients are real. There is no run-off to speak of.

The 2026 edition runs April 24 to 26 and is the fifteenth Grand Prix de Monaco Historique. Eight series cover nearly six decades of racing history, from pre-war Bugatti Type 35s and Maserati 26s in Serie A1 through front-engined postwar cars, sports cars, and five grids of Formula 1 machinery spanning 1946 to 1985. New for this edition: turbo-era F1 cars are admitted for the first time in Serie G, alongside the normally-aspirated 3-litre cars that have been the backbone of the event. Eighty to a hundred entries are expected across the F1 grids alone. The 2026 edition carries a strong Italian accent: Maserati's centenary and several Ferrari anniversaries are woven through the programme.

The cars run at pace. The DFV-powered single-seaters that dominate the F1 grids are capable of lap times faster than their original race appearances, on better tyres and with better data, which is a strange thought when you're standing at the Nouvelle Chicane watching them arrive. Conservation quality is strict; these are not shelf pieces.

Getting to Monaco by train is straightforward and worth considering over a car: the station sits a short walk from the circuit. If you do drive, the A8 from Nice deposits you close to the Principality's border in around 20 minutes. The old Corniche road above the city, the D6007, takes longer but runs along the coast with a direct view down to the harbour. It makes more sense as an arrival route than a return.