Rallye Monte-Carlo

Lore & Background

In 1909, an association named Sport Automobile et Vélocipédique de Monaco (which became the Automobile Club de Monaco in 1925) started planning a car rally at the behest of Albert I, Prince of Monaco. The Monte Carlo Rally was to start at points all over Europe and converge on Monte Carlo. In January 1911, 23 cars set out from 11 different locations, and Henri Rougier was among the nine who left Paris to cover a 1,020 kilometres (634 mi) route. The event was won by Rougier in a Turcat-Méry 25 Hp. The rally comprised both driving and then somewhat arbitrary judging based on the elegance of the car, passenger comfort and the condition in which it arrived in the principality. The outcry of scandal when the results were published changed nothing, so Rougier was proclaimed the first winner. Following the Second World War, works or works-supported teams became more and more important. From 1949 onwards, there was a special Team prize. First winners were the three Allards of Potter, Godsall and Imhof. Simca, Delahaye, Sunbeam-Talbot and Jaguar were subsequent winners. Sydney Allard – as the first and only winner driving his own car – was driving a 'works' car in 1952, but Gatsonides also participated in a factory prepared Ford Zephyr in 1953, a year that saw no fewer than eight factory backed Sunbeam-Talbots. The 1966 event was the most controversial in the history of the Rally. The first four finishers, driving three Mini-Coopers, Timo Mäkinen, Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk, and Roger Clark's 4th-placed Ford Cortina were all disqualified because they used non-dipping single filament quartz iodine bulbs in their headlamps, in place of the standard double filament dipping glass bulbs, which are fitted to the series production version of each models sold to the public. This elevated Pauli Toivonen (Citroën ID) into first place overall. Toivonen himself found the situation so embarrassing that he refused to accept his award. Rosemary Smith (Hillman Imp) was also disqualified from sixth place, after winning the Coupe des Dames, the ladies' class. In all, ten cars were disqualified. Teams threatened to boycott the event. The headline in Motor Sport read 'The Monte Carlo Fiasco'.

Reader's Guide

From its introduction in 1953 to 1972, the Rallye was part of the European Rally Championship, except in 1968 and 1969. From 1973 to 2008, the rally was held in January as the first event of the FIA World Rally Championship. Between 2009 and 2011, it was the opening round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) programme, before returning to the WRC championship season again in 2012. As recently as 1991, competitors were able to choose their starting points from approximately five venues roughly equidistant from Monte Carlo (one of Monaco's administrative areas) itself. With often varying conditions at each starting point (typically comprising dry tarmac, wet tarmac, snow, and ice, sometimes all in a single stage of the rally), this event places a big emphasis on tyre choices, as a driver has to balance the need for grip on ice and snow with the need for grip on dry tarmac. For the driver, this is often a difficult choice as the tyres that work well on snow and ice normally perform poorly on dry tarmac. The Automobile Club de Monaco confirmed on 19 July 2010 that the 79th Monte Carlo Rally would form the opening round of the new Intercontinental Rally Challenge season. To mark the centenary of the event, the Automobile Club de Monaco also confirmed that Glasgow, Barcelona, Warsaw and Marrakesh were selected as start points for the rally.

Did You Know?

• The rally features one of the most famous special stages in the world, the Col de Turini, a 31 km route over a steep and tight mountain road with many hairpin turns, often covered in ice and snow.
• The Monte Carlo Historic Rally, held annually since 1998, is a classic regularity rally open for car models from the 1960s through the early 1980s that participated in earlier editions of the original race.

Origins and the Concentration Rally Era

Born from the vision of Prince Albert I of Monaco, the Rallye Monte-Carlo first rolled out in January 1911, when 23 automobiles departed from eleven scattered locations across Europe to converge on the principality. Henri Rougier, piloting a Turcat-Méry 25 Hp, covered a 1,020-kilometre route from Paris to claim the inaugural victory—despite a storm of protest over the judging, which weighed elegance, passenger comfort, and the car's arrival condition alongside pure driving skill. For nearly a century the event kept its defining concentration-rally character, with competitors launching from diverse European cities before tackling special stages near Monaco. After the Second World War, factory-backed teams reshaped the competitive landscape. A dedicated Team prize appeared from 1949, first claimed by three Allards, and later won by Simca, Delahaye, Sunbeam-Talbot, and Jaguar entries. Sydney Allard etched his name in 1952 as the sole driver to win in a car of his own making, while 1953 saw eight factory-prepared Sunbeam-Talbots on the grid alongside a works Ford Zephyr driven by Gatsonides.

The 1966 Fiasco

No Monte Carlo Rally in the annals of the sport has generated more fury than the 1966 edition. The four cars that crossed the line at the front—three Mini-Coopers driven by Timo Mäkinen, Rauno Aaltonen, and Paddy Hopkirk, plus Roger Clark in a Ford Cortina—were all stripped of their positions because their headlamps used non-dipping single-filament quartz iodine bulbs rather than the standard double-filament dipping glass units fitted to the road-going versions of those models. The disqualification catapulted Pauli Toivonen, in a Citroën ID, into the overall victory, a result he found so mortifying that he flatly refused to accept his trophy. Rosemary Smith, who had taken the Coupe des Dames in a Hillman Imp, was also removed from sixth place. In total, ten cars were disqualified, and teams threatened to pull out of the event entirely. The publication Motor Sport captured the mood with a headline that simply read: The Monte Carlo Fiasco.

Col de Turini and the Night of the Long Knives

Few rally stages carry the mythic weight of the Col de Turini. Stretching 31 kilometres between La Bollène-Vésubie and Sospel, the route climbs from an elevation of 479 metres to a peak of 1,603 metres along the D70, averaging a 6.7 percent gradient through a labyrinth of hairpin bends. At that time of year, sections of the pass are routinely glazed with ice or snow, and spectators lining the route add their own layer by hurling handfuls of white powder onto the tarmac. In 2005, that crowd-sourced hazard proved catastrophic: both Marcus Grönholm and Petter Solberg lost a wheel when their cars skidded on spectator-placed snow and slammed into a wall. Grönholm limped home in fifth; Solberg's damage was too severe to continue. That same year, Sébastien Loeb posted 21 minutes 40 seconds, a time that ranks among the fastest ever recorded on the stage in the modern era. The Turini is also run at night, an event fans call the Night of the Long Knives for the way high-beam headlights slice through the darkness. It was absent in 2007 but returned in 2008, and in 2009 and 2010 it was broadcast live on Eurosport.

Championship Cycles and the Tyre Dilemma

The Monte Carlo Rally has cycled through several championship umbrellas over the decades. It anchored the European Rally Championship from 1953 to 1972, skipping only 1968 and 1969, then became the January curtain-raiser for the FIA World Rally Championship from 1973 through 2008. A brief interlude saw it serve as the opening round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge between 2009 and 2011, before it rejoined the WRC calendar in 2012. The event's unique character is amplified by its geography: even as recently as 1991, drivers could select from roughly five starting venues spread equidistantly around the principality. Because conditions shift dramatically—dry tarmac, wet asphalt, snow, and ice can all appear within a single stage—tyre selection becomes a high-stakes gamble. The compounds that bite into snow and ice typically lose grip on dry tarmac, forcing crews to make a compromise that can define their entire result. To mark the rally's centenary in 2010, the Automobile Club de Monaco chose Glasgow, Barcelona, Warsaw, and Marrakesh as departure points. In 2026, the event will once again include a Super Special Stage within Monaco's borders, a first since 2008.

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