How to get the perfect Monaco Grand Prix photo: ‘To get on the Ritz-Carlton roof you need a supreme plan’

This weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix offers the ultimate canvas for F1 photographers – so long as they can find somewhere in the dense jungle of Monte Carlo to take their shot

'Monaco offers countless pictures, if you blag your way on to buildings and rooftops’ (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Through the lens of a photographer, some F1 tracks are inescapably ugly. Silverstone, for instance, is an old RAF airfield that’s flat and featureless like a grey desert, broken up by patches of grass as if someone once tried to spruce it up a bit. Others are irresistibly beautiful, like Austria’s Red Bull Ring, a track swaddled by forest, with sweeping bends which seem to rise into the Alps behind them.

Singapore twinkles, Texas shouts, Baku seems to time-travel from one corner to the next. But nothing is quite like Monte Carlo and its unique street circuit, which carries itself with a certain regality, the grand palace of Formula One. It is a venue that knows full well it is special: the race itself can be dull but that is part of its arrogance, like an artist who deliberately ignored the brief. Oh, you’ve come for the racing, to see one car overtake another, that sort of thing? Well you’ve misunderstood the purpose of this place entirely.

Each part of the circuit forms its own little world. The Opera House which sits at the top of the hill ushers cars down to the famous Casino Square hairpin. The tunnel cloaks the race in darkness before emerging into the marina, which glistens in the sunshine. For photographers hustling in the heat amid a jungle of buildings, the challenge in Monaco is not so much identifying an eye-catching shot as finding a place to take it.

Max Verstappen's Red Bull in the tunnel, 2019 (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari approaches the marina, 2018 (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

“Monaco offers up countless pictures, if you can blag your way on to buildings and rooftops,” says Getty Images photographer Mark Thompson. He has been working in sports photography for more than 30 years, starting out in football before shifting to Formula One, drawn in by the shape of the cars. He had photographed every grand prix for 24 years (“which is either really cool or really sad,” he says) before Covid ended his streak last year. A colourful, award-winning career has entailed handling wild drivers, capturing intimate moments like Max Verstappen’s emotional embrace with his father Jos after securing the world title, and partying for two days straight when Red Bull won their first championship.

F1’s travelling circus has expanded in every direction since his early days in the 90s and the pandemic made things even more intense last season, forcing him to embed within the Red Bull bubble. “People talk about the glamour and all that sort of thing, which does exist, but when you work in the industry it's actually not that glamorous. It's long hours and hard work.”

Valtteri Bottas’s Mercedes in action, 2018 (Getty Images)

Thompson typically arrives at a circuit on Wednesday to set up his kit and build a makeshift office inside the Red Bull motorhome. Press conferences and sponsor obligations fill Thursday before Friday practice where he’ll get shots of the drivers talking to their engineers. Only then does he get out and has the chance to capture the cars.

In a place like Monte Carlo, it pays to know how to talk your way through a closed door. “I always carry a couple of signed drivers hats or something like that and that gets you in. I’ve been going to Monaco for so long now I say ‘can I come back to that apartment next year?’. If you want to get somewhere like on the roof of the Ritz-Carlton you have to have a supreme plan, but over the years you get to know the right people and that helps.”

Daniel Ricciardo swan dives into the Red Bull swimming pool after victory in 2018 (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Mark Webber jumps into the harbour after victory in 2010 (Getty Images)

It is the utlimate F1 film set, and a unique test for drivers too. “It’s an incredible race to cover,” Thompson says. “The first time I did Monaco, I literally couldn’t take a picture for a while because it’s just insane to see the cars going around there at that speed with no run-off area. The race is generally quite boring, but for me when you see a driver on a qualifying lap around Monaco, that is the ultimate because there is no run-off area. If you make a mistake there you’re in proper trouble.”

So what does it take to get the perfect Formula One photo? Ultimately it comes down to instinct, perseverance and little good fortune. “Sometimes you come away from a race you'll see what some other people have shot and think ‘why didn’t I see that?’ Sometimes you come away and think ‘I got some mega stuff there’. There’s an element of luck involved in that and sometimes it goes in your favour.”