But then there are few guarantees that Ecclestone, aged 83 and with his trial
in Munich for alleged bribery looming over him, will be in charge much
longer either. Monaco, given that it holds a race contract until 2020, is
the safest bet for a race that might ultimately outlast the ringmaster.

Ecclestone, as is his wont, grumbles that the hosts “don’t pay enough”, with a
race fee understood to be dwarfed by the £40 million Bahrain paid last month
for the privilege. But he appreciates that Monaco is the one postcard that
the sport can ill afford to lose from its collection.

For a start, most of the drivers live here, if purely for the financial
benefits it brings rather than the stunning sunshine, the turquoise waters,
or to be closer to the testing tracks in Spain and Italy. And of those that
do, few would tolerate even the slightest cosmetic change to their
on-the-limit dance around La Rascasse and Loews hairpin.

Lewis Hamilton, the championship leader, said: “There’s not a single part that
doesn’t make my hair stand up on end. It’s the whole track. Honestly, I wish
you could feel what we feel when we go around here.

“I describe it as the most scary rollercoaster ride, perhaps when they drop
off a cliff. And where that first bit, the fear factor, normally lasts for
just a second, here it’s the whole lap.

“It’s scary but it’s cool, all these different emotions in one. It’s a circuit
where you have to walk very slowly before you can run. In most cases you’re
not running until Sunday.”

It is galling to Hamilton that he is yet to secure a single pole position on
his adopted home turf, an omission he hopes to correct on Saturday. Ideally,
he would do so with an emphatic flourish to recall his idol Ayrton Senna’s
peerless pole lap in 1988, when the Brazilian eclipsed McLaren team-mate
Alain Prost by 1.4 seconds with a performance he would later label an
“out-of-body experience”.

Would Hamilton confess to a similar sensation? “I don’t think I fully relate
to that. I’m very much there, but it’s unlike anything else. Death – well,
not death – is just there. That one small turn in too early and you’re gone.
Brake a couple of metres too late and you’re in the wall. That’s why it’s
the best track, because there’s no room for error. The coolest thing is that
they allow us to race here. It’s the most real race, where it can be a
massive risk to try to overtake. But over a single lap, it’s the best.”

It will be fascinating to watch Hamilton seek to fend off Mercedes rival Nico
Rosberg, whom he baited this week with a barbed comment about the German’s
pampered Monaco upbringing, for a fifth straight win. Where the 29-year-old
has made Monte Carlo his base – indeed, he was able to stagger half-asleep
en route to the first practice session – Rosberg grew up here on the
Riviera. For last year’s winner, who followed dad Keke to form the first
father-and-son double act to have stood atop the Monaco podium, a 190mph
dash through the tunnel is less an exhilarating novelty than a reminder of
the school run.

About the only driver to harpoon this Monte Carlo love affair was bluff
Australian Mark Webber, who, despite winning the race twice in three years,
admitted it was “really not my cup of tea”.

He explained: “As a setting and an amphitheatre, it’s incredible, and that’s
why you see a lot of big celebrity names. I love driving there. But as for
the rest, I can absolutely take it or leave it. It’s extremely pretentious.”

While it can grate to witness the ostentatious excesses of Vijay Mallya’s
yacht, crammed with micro-celebrities just craning from the top deck to the
seen, there is still no disputing Monaco’s status as the ultimate test of
driver skill. Webber claimed at a dinner last season that Singapore’s Marina
Bay was the most challenging for fitness and endurance, Monte Carlo’s 48
gear changes per lap necessitate by far the greatest precision.

This is the flaw in the argument of naysayers who point to Monaco’s monotony,
and the absence of overtaking. As David Coulthard once said, “the tricky bit
here starts the moment you leave the garage”. Long may it remain so. Prince
Albert’s fiefdom might tread the most delicate line between class and
vulgarity, but his race is a crown jewel worthy of protection.