Lewis Hamilton Reminisces the First Time He Visited the Monaco Track and Still Carries the Same Mentality

The start of the Monaco GP weekend is right around the corner. As the world awaits the unfolding of yet another iteration of the iconic race, Lewis Hamilton reminisced on his fond memories of the Principality. In a snippet of an interview uploaded by @fiagirly on X, Hamilton reflected on his first visit to Monaco. As a 13-year-old, he was left awestruck by the beauty that made him vow to one day live there.

He said, “I first came here when I was 13 and that really opened my mind. That became a dream. I was like, okay, this is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. This is where I want to live.”

Hamilton then recalled the first time he raced in Monaco as a 19-year-old in Formula 3. “I had a little scooter that I rented and I was running around the town, got to up to the Ayres, and it was just epic,” he added. Looking back at his first F1 Monaco GP, Hamilton remembered recognizing only Martin Brundle on the grid.

#MonacoGP | Lewis Hamilton reminisces Monaco: “I got to go on the [F1] grid, which was crazy because I had only seen Martin Brundle in there. It is a really special place (…) and this weekend is really the pearl of our sport.” pic.twitter.com/mz3CGPrPul

— deni (@fiagirly) May 23, 2024

Incidentally, Lewis Hamilton went on to win the race when he first raced in Monaco as an F3 driver. In a recent Instagram post, he remembered how surreal the experience was and dubbed it the ‘best weekend of his life’. The seven-time F1 champion also expressed his gratitude for where he is and reiterated that he does not take his stature in the sport for granted.

Sadly, the charm of the Monaco GP is beginning to lose its sheen on the F1 fans. The track is too narrow for the drivers to make overtaking maneuvers. That makes for dull races as most of the time, the pole sitter takes away the win. Lewis Hamilton, however, has made a suggestion that could revive Monaco’s lost fandom.

Lewis Hamilton calls for the overhaul of the Monaco GP format

One of the most radical steps taken by F1 to inject excitement into races is the introduction of the Sprint format. While Lewis Hamilton is against making the Monaco fixture a sprint race weekend, he believes some thought can be spared to chalk out a unique format to make it more exciting.

New “Top Headlines” post on ESPN: Hamilton: New Monaco format would boost drama https://t.co/gltmL7UBAe pic.twitter.com/bolpFZauow

— Strickly⚡️Electric (@strickd9) May 23, 2024

ESPN quoted him as saying during Thursday’s press conference, “You’ve got the sprint things that they’ve added, but for this particular weekend, I think they should come up with some new formula for it rather than it just be the same.”

“That’s just my opinion. Do you guys [the media] not fall asleep on Sunday watching the race? Yeah. So, creating something else somehow, I don’t know how you do it.”, he added.

He further suggested the introduction of a different tire compound that degrades faster. Monaco being a one-stop race, usually, can benefit from this idea as more pit stops could add an extra factor to look forward to.