CANAL + – SATURDAY MAY 22 AT 9 P.M. -DOCUMENTARY

Nearly a billion viewers from 170 countries are expected to attend the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday 23 May, the fifth meeting of the Formula 1 world championship. An exceptional audience for a legendary race, one of the three constitutive of the “triple crown” – with the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 500 Miles of Indianapolis – won by a single driver, the Briton Graham Hill (1929-1975), in 1972. A Grail that deserves a little warm-up for approach it with serenity.

This is what the passionate documentary offers tonight, by plunging us into the preparations for the event, from their beginnings, three months ago, until the day before qualifying. With the child of the country as a guide, Charles Leclerc, 23, a Ferrari driver who has already won twice in 2019 (at Monza and Spa). But also, and this is the attraction of the film, Zoe, a young novice race commissioner; Marco, happy to be able “Live off your passion” for twenty years by laying the safety rails on the 2,837 km of the route; Ronan Le Gallou, head of superstructures; Michel Boeri, president of the Automobile Club de Monaco for… forty-nine years.

Without forgetting “Monsignor” Prince Albert of Monaco, who nurtures a sincere passion for motor racing beyond the international influence offered by racing to his 2.02 km micro-state.². He gladly opens the doors of his office to the cameras, which follow along the track, during site inspections, and is pleased that, once again, the logistical challenge has been met.

Spectacular metamorphosis

The first thirty minutes devoted to the metamorphosis of a tourist city center into an F1 circuit are spectacular. It all starts at La Brasca, at D – 87, where the prefabricated modules of the twelve stands and the office of Jean Todt, president of the International Automobile Federation, and one of the many speakers with the former French drivers are stored. Jean Alesi, Alain Prost and René Arnoux.

Picturesque interludes, Radio Monaco’s news flashes question: will there be audiences this year? In the kitchens of luxury hotels, other preparations are underway to create a tire-shaped pastry, a chocolate wheel.

D – 2: installation of cameras. Unique case – again – the Monaco Grand Prix is ​​filmed by private teams from the Principality – in order to “Control the image”, clarifies the comment. This perhaps explains the length of the sequence on the historic Grand Prix, an amateur competition serving as a dress rehearsal one month before the F1 race, as well as the mention of the ePrix, an electric single-seater race. Two competitions which, unlike F1, do not attract crowds. Shadow actors don’t care. “We only live for that, we are in the myth! “, launches a track marshal. Operational in her orange jumpsuit, Zoé approves: “It’s a total kif! “