'I'm at the Monaco GP - this is one thing you don't see on TV'

Monaco. The jewel in the crown of the F1 calendar and still the sports most important annual race. Despite attempts to replicate the glitz and glamour of the Principality down Las Vegas' strip and Miami's Hard Rock car park, there really is only one Monaco. The race that transcends the sport.

Around 2million tune into the Monaco GP every year in the UK, making it among the most watched races on the calendar. Meanwhile, last year 1.965m viewers in the US tuned in for the Monaco GP, up 7% of the 1.833m the year before.

Although the millions watching on TV still won't be able to fully appreciate one key detail that makes Monaco special. Just how tight and narrow this track really is.

Riding onboard with Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen or Lando Norris at home may appear awe-inspiring, drivers threading the needle millimetres from safety. But standing 5m from the side of the circuit really puts it into perspective like you wouldn't imagine.

I've been to my fair share of motorsport events but nothing has yet given me the same visceral chill as standing on a Go Privilege yacht on Friday afternoon. Peering over the edge, I was almost in horror as Charles Leclerc threw his Ferrari into Tabac on without a flicker of hesitation despite being mere centimetres from the barrier. Minutes later, I saw Isack Hadjar crawl past with a destroyed right rear tyre after knocking his Racing Bulls into the wall, a stark reminder of the cost of getting it even millimetres off line.

On Saturday, I had a chance to walk around the same piece of circuit and was amazed at how this track has withstood the test of time. It's no wider than a road you'd find on a housing estate and yet it hosts probably the most famous motorsport event of them all. It's inarguable that this circuit is outdated for modern F1 standards and would probably never have made it onto the modern F1 calendar if it was pitched as an idea today.

But that's what makes this race great and should be one of the reasons it's celebrated and never changed. After updates to Silverstone, Monza and Spa from their original 1950s layouts, Monaco is now the only F1 circuit that almost completely resembles the track driven by the likes of Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and co back in F1's golden age.

The sceptics might say the racing is dull, that you can't overtake, but maybe that isn't the point of this race. Monaco is a survival of the fittest challenge, the task being to thread a car capable of 1,000hp past metal barriers for 78 laps or two hours. There is no Hermann Tilke concrete run off to bale you out. One mistake and you're gone. This is raw as it gets and seeing it up close makes you realise why Monaco really is the jewel in the F1 crown.