Trackside Monaco Historique: Formula 1 Goes Back to the Future

Under the glorious Cote D'Azure sunshine it's three days of heaven for petrol heads, and anyone who witnessed F1 over the decades. From the early F1 cars of the fifties to the eighties, many looking as a good as new and proper deja vu for anyone who strolled the F1 paddocks and pitlanes of that era.

The Old Glory. Once upon a time Roger Penske had a team in Formula 1. The project started with the driver who gave him his first victory in the Indy 500 in 1972, Mark Donohue.

The “Unfair Advantage” driver lost his life after suffering serious head injuries, after a tyre failure, in Sunday's warm up session at the old Österreichring for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix.

His replacement was Ulsterman John Watson. At the same venue a year later “Wattie” gave Penske his one and only F1 victory.

French racing blue. Matra - Mécanique Aviation Traction - was a company primarily involved in aerospace and defense activities. “To improve the image of the company, Matra went racing”, said CEO Jean-Luc Lagardère

Jean-Pierre Beltoise gave Matra their first racing victory in the 1965 Formula 3 at Reims. The sound of their V12 is still talked about and was, in the words of Mario Andretti, “power”.

Jackie Stewart’s first F1 Championship in 1969 was won driving a Cosworth-powered Matra MS80. Present this weekend is also the beautiful and final F1 car from Matra MS120, designed by Bernard Boyer.

“Fernando at Monaco.” Relaxed and fan friendly Fernando Alonso is seen chatting with out of picture Zak Brown. In 2007, Alonso won the Monaco Grand Prix with McLaren over rapidly rising rookie.

Alfa Romeo & Scuderia Ferrari. Enzo, like Colin Chapman and Bernie Ecclestone decades later, started out as a racing driver. The now mythical Scuderia Ferrari was formed when he was asked to manage the racing activities of Milan-based Alfa Romeo.

Tazio Nuvolari was one of his drivers. After starting his own company it was at Silverstone in 1951 that a Ferrari F1 car won it's first championship Grand Prix with Argentine driver Froilan Gonzalez. Second was the Alfa Romeo of his compadre, Juan Manuel Fangio.

“That day I felt like I stabbed my own mother," said Enzo Ferrari after his team's famous first FIA F1 Championshio Grand Prix victory, since he parted ways from Alfa Romeo.