Monaco fan

Sir,

A brief response to Mr Timm’s letter in your March edition. His letter started with the question ‘What is it about Monaco?’. Well, if he does not know, I can only assume he has never seen a motor race there. It is the last relic of what motor racing was, and should be, all about: road racing.

To my mind, the comparison between modern racing circuits and the Grand Prix venues of yore just isn’t worth thinking about. Modern circuits all look so similar, and so featureless, to me that I often have to be told which country is staging the race. These Lego-type circuits are nothing compared to such soul-stirring battlegrounds as Spa, the Nurburgring or Reims.

Your correspondent’s views are based on safety criteria. The whole country seems to be obsessed with this. We now have to be strapped into our cars: this may be a good thing, but surely that decision should be a matter for the individual. We will probably have to drive around with an uninflated barrage balloon in front of us soon, not to mention umpteen other .directives legislated for ‘our own good’. Why the hell should Mr Timm worry about safety at Monaco? He is not obliged to spectate at Grands Prix

there, and I don’t recall having seen his name on an Fl grid recently. In anticipation of future legislation directed at my personal safety, 1 now

intend to go to bed at eight in the evening, with a glass of warm milk, wearing a safety helmet, clutching the government-issued lightning conductor in one hand and my Enid Blyton book in the other. BG Edgerton, Gerrards Cross,

Bucks.