Monaco GP to keep using grid girls in F1

Monaco Grand Prix organisers will defy the dropping of grid girls in Formula 1 under Liberty Media according to the President of the Automobile Club de Monaco Michel Boeri.

During the winter Liberty Media outlined its plans to replace grid girls with ‘grid kids’ from the start of the 2018 F1 season which was met by a mixed reaction from fans while at the 2018 F1 season opener in Australia Sebastian Vettel said he was “confused” by some of the changes made.

Despite ‘grid kids’ making their debut in Melbourne last month, which saw selected karting youngsters from the host country join F1 drivers both before the race and on the grid during the national anthem, key FIA figure and President of Monaco’s motorsport body Boeri says the principality will defy the changes and continue to use grid girls for this year’s race.

Boeri has outlined a compromise between Liberty and Monaco GP organisers which is likely to see grid girls used in a different way to the traditional format of holding signs with the drivers’ name in front of their grid slot.

“We have no real problems with Liberty, but for this story with the grid girls,” Boeri told Nice-Matin in an interview. “They have heard our arguments.

“The girls will be there but without a sign. They are pretty and the cameras will continue to close on them.”

The Monaco Grand Prix, which is part of the iconic Triple Crown of Motorsport along with Le Mans 24 Hours and Indianapolis 500, has been an ever-present fixture on the F1 race calendar since 1955 while it was also part of the first F1 world championship in 1950.

At the 2015 Monaco race gird girls were replaced by male models in Monte Carlo as part of a TAG Heuer campaign with the ideal credited to Boeri. The move turned out to be a one-off as grid girls returned a year later.