1967 Grand Prix de Monaco de Formule Vée

I know more than a few vintage Formula Vee drivers that would be beside themselves with joy to take a sweeping right through Casino Square or drop to low gear for the Hairpin.

But until today, I’d never seen photos of FVs taking to this most famous track. From 1966 to 1975, the European Formula V Championship was one of the many feeder series that aspiring Formula 1 drivers had as a platform to prove themselves—including young Keke Rosberg who was the FV champion in 1973.

By the mid 60s, the Vee Formula was already popular in the States, and had slowly been making inroads into Europe. In 1966 the Formula was actively being raced throughout Europe with two holdouts: Italy and France. It wasn’t until the French magazine l’Automobil and racing driver Maurice Trintignant got behind it that the formula finally properly launched in France a year later. Finally, the formula found its way to the promised land: Monaco.

Perhaps it sounds silly to have these little 1300cc VW Beetle powered cars puttering around Monaco. Bear in mind though, that 67’s winning average pace of 99.3 kph isn’t far from Fangio’s pace in the 1950 race and is only 16 kph slower than Moss’ 1960 qualifying average.

Werner Riedl, who would later become the Formula champion in ’68, took the race in an Austro Beach (is this the same as the popular Beach stateside?). The rest of the field was a collection of makers that have since become popular in today’s vintage Formula Vee racing (Beach, Autodynamics) as well as a few that I’m not familiar with (Fuchs, Bora, Zarp).