Monaco GP preview - Ferrari.

The seventh round of this year's Formula One World Championship moves to the most glamorous of the year's 17 events and certainly the best-known venue in Grand Prix history - Monte Carlo.

Already an established and prestigious race before the World Championship began in 1950; this unique street circuit within the Principality of Monaco has hosted 47 World Championship events around what is now one of the most challenging races of the season.

"It is a race track with literally no room for mistakes," points out Michael Schumacher referring to the lack of run off areas and the steel barriers lining most of the circuit. "As a result you have to have a well balanced car and complete confidence in where it might end up when you commit yourself to a corner on a qualifying lap," he adds.

Because it is a street circuit, using the same roads used by Monegasque traffic for the other 362 days a year, it is not the perfectly groomed surface with carefully cambered corners that most other tracks have. This alone can create its own special problems in addition to those that come with steering an 800 bhp Grand Prix car between a sinuous narrow corridor of crash barriers at speeds of up to 200 mph.

"The car has to be set-up very carefully to cope with the different aspects of this track, in particular maximum downforce as the average top speeds are not that high. There is also a compromise with the suspension settings to compensate for the bumps and different cambers that would make a 'normal' set-up almost impossible to drive around a track like Monaco," explains Schumacher, who has four victories and three pole positions to his credit in his nine appearances at the track.

The track takes a special kind of discipline, concentration and driving skill that demands more from the driver than other circuits. This is probably why only a few drivers over the years like Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna before Schumacher have done the majority of winning.

The constant braking, gear changing and hard acceleration puts a stress on the cars that often does not show up on other tracks. "Reliability is always a number one concern in Monaco as I have found out in the past," says Schumacher, who dropped out while leading last year's race.

Another feature of the Monaco circuit is the difficulty in overtaking, which makes a good grid position and good start an even more important part of winning. "Monaco is probably the most important of all the Grands Prix for a good qualifying time. Saturday afternoon's qualifying session can be as exciting as the race," says Schumacher, who will be hoping to add his sixth pole in seven races to his year's tally.

Another unique feature of the Monaco race is that it is a four-day event with free practice on Thursday and a day off on Friday before qualifying Saturday and the race on Sunday.

Rubens Barrichello will be hungry to score his first Monaco win next weekend. "It is a very special race from every aspect. Just to drive the circuit in a Formula One car is a big thrill and it is a special kind of satisfaction to set a quick lap. It would be a dream come true to win in Monaco," says Barrichello, and a dream for the hard core of Italian tifosi that come to support Ferrari, for the Italian border is only a few miles away.