Racing's crown jewel: Indy 500 outshines the Monaco GP

This is a tale of the two races that traditionally mark the onset of summer – the Grand Prix of Monaco and the Indianapolis 500.

Monaco can properly be described as a grand pageant, the ultimate party and most glamorous of Grands Prix. But a proper motor race? Methinks not.

Other than the argy-bargy after the start, the only on-track overtake I saw this year was Mick Schumacher elbowing past his teammate to move from dead-last to next-to-last – real ‘stop-the-presses’ material. It is a truth universally acknowledged that passing at Monaco is the stuff of fanciful fiction. Racing on the streets of Monte Carlo makes as much sense as convening two teams to play soccer and then not bothering to outfit the pitch with goals.

“What’s the rationale for returning to the principality every May?”

And what’s the rationale for returning to the principality every May? The race is so popular, we’re told, so prestigious, so historic. The circuit is remarkably similar to the one where William Grover-Williams drove to victory in a Bugatti Type 35B in 1929, and the event appeared on the Formula 1 calendar during its inaugural season in 1950. Quit Monaco and leave all that heritage behind? Unthinkable!

Of course, there’s another track boasting an even longer history, with fewer changes to the racing circuit over the years, and it draws even larger crowds. And yet even in its worst years, the Indy 500 is never the snore-fest we reconcile ourselves to at Monaco.

Back home again in Indiana this past Sunday, the lead changed hands three times during the first two laps of the race alone. Altogether, there were 13 different leaders and 35 passes for the lead without resorting to contrivances like DRS, overcuts/undercuts or energy harvesting. Simon Pagenaud recorded no fewer than 26 overtakes, including one on the last lap to finish third.

By Indy standards, this year’s 500 wasn’t a scintillating race. The drivers spent much of it “cutting laps,” as Dale Earnhardt Jr. once called it – that is, more or less marking time. In the past, the sheer length of the event challenged both cars and drivers, and as recently as 25 years ago, only one-third of the field reached the chequered flag. But these days, when the machinery is largely bulletproof and grip is so much more predictable, it sometimes seems like the middle section of the race exists only to provide airtime for the interminable TV commercials.