Ultimate Guide: What You Need to Know Before the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix

The 2025 Monaco Grand Prix will be the eighth race of the current Formula 1 World Championship season.

The F1 paddock arrives at Monaco after a brilliant race with many strategic differences at Imola. However, the unknown of the two mandatory pit stops at the Principality remains an interesting dynamic to observe in the upcoming race. Will it produce a solid race?

Regardless, the World Drivers’ Championship is quickly becoming a three-way battle between the two McLaren drivers, championship-leader Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, and third-placed Max Verstappen (Red Bull).

The Dutchman clearly imposed himself at Imola with impeccable racing. Also, he was helped by a solid Red Bull car, which has been a bit inconsistent but quite close to the McLaren at various points of the season. McLaren also lost on the strategic side of things to Red Bull at Imola, and all those ingredients could prove costly at the end of the year.

Piastri still leads, with 146 points. Norris is 13 points behind his teammate, with Verstappen 22 points off the leader.

McLaren has dominated the World Constructors’ Championship so far, with 279 points and five wins in seven rounds. The three followers are Mercedes (147 points with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli), Red Bull (131 with Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda) and Ferrari (114 points between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton).

2025 Monaco GP Facts & Figures

This will be the 82nd Monaco Grand Prix in racing history, and the 71st celebrated under the F1 World Drivers’ Championship format, since 1950.

Scuderia Ferrari, team celebration, LECLERC Charles (mco), Scuderia Ferrari SF-24, portrait, victory during the Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2024, 8th round of the 2024 Formula One World Championship from May 23 to 26, 2024 on the Circuit de Monaco, in Monaco – Photo Eric Alonso / DPPI

The first Monaco Grand Prix was held in 1929, and William Grover-Williams took the victory for Bugatti, while Juan Manuel Fangio won the first Monaco race that was part of the World Championship in 1950, in what was the first of his 24 Formula 1 wins.

The race was not part of the World Championship from 1951 to 1954, while one non-championship race took place in that span (1952). In 2020, the race did not take place, and it ended a run of 65 official Monaco Grands Prix in a row, since 1955, but it returned successfully since 2021.

The Monaco round is the most prestigious in Formula 1, and it is also one of the biggest motor races in the world, as it is a part of the motorsport ‘Triple Crown’ with the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

A win at Monaco often means something similar to a World Championship for a driver, and only 36 racers have won at the prestigious street circuit in Formula 1 history. Out of those 36, only 17 have more than one victory at Monaco, and the legendary Ayrton Senna leads the all-time table with six wins at the principality and some iconic performances. In 1984, Senna finished second in a wet race and had the pace to win on a Toleman car that was not among the most competitive machines on the grid.

Two-time F1 champion Graham Hill was another Monaco master in his prime, winning five times around the streets, a tally surpassed by Senna and matched by seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher. Four-time champion Alain Prost is the only other driver with at least four wins at Monaco, followed by Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart, Nico Rosberg, and Lewis Hamilton (leader among active racers) with three wins each.

In terms of the highly important Pole Position at Monaco, Senna also leads the table with five, followed by five-time champion and two-time winner at Monaco, Juan Manuel Fangio, two-time champion Jim Clark, three-time champion Stewart (three-time winner) and Prost with four poles at the track.

Senna also had the most podiums at Monaco, with eight. He is followed by Graham Hill, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, and Sebastian Vettel with seven podiums each.

Among teams, McLaren has the most wins at Monaco with 15, achieved by seven drivers.

The Pole Position will be essential for the results of Sunday’s race, as 47% of the Monaco GPs have been won from first on the grid (33 out of 70 – Verstappen won in 2021 from first on the grid, as pole-sitter Leclerc didn’t start the race). Overall, 85.7% of the Monaco races were won from the Top 3 places (60 out of 70) which makes qualifying surely one of the most important of the entire season, if not the most important.

MONTE-CARLO, MONACO – MAY 26: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20.

In 1996, Frenchman Olivier Panis won a crazy race after starting from 14th place on the grid (the lowest grid position for a Monaco winner in F1 history), but changeable weather conditions and many mistakes from seemingly every driver helped Panis and Ligier.

Red Bull won three in a row from 2021 to 2023, with Verstappen winning in 2021 and 2023, and his teammate Sergio Pérez winning the event in 2022 from third on the grid.

In 2024, Charles Leclerc made history at Monaco, becoming the first Monegasque driver to win the F1 Monaco Grand Prix and only the second to win the race at home (Louis Chiron did it in 1931, the race’s third edition, before F1 even existed.

Circuit de Monaco

A twisty, challenging track that allows no mistakes from the drivers, the iconic Circuit de Monaco will make drivers pay for any issue throughout the entire weekend. The track, which has not had major changes throughout its history, beyond some corners added or reshaped, is currently 3,337 km long and has 19 corners.

In Formula 1, the track layout has had some changes throughout its history to increase safety, and the most notable change in Monaco’s history is the shape of the chicane at the tunnel exit, which was super fast in the early days and until the early 1980s. Now, the chicane forces the cars to enter at slower speeds, but it offers a slight chance of overtaking.

Other changes were the addition of the Piscine ‘S’ and La Rascasse for the 1973 race and the new shapes of the Sainte Devote and Anthony Noghes corners from 1976. The chicane at the tunnel exit was a simple left-right, fast chicane ever since the race was part of the World Championship, but it was changed for the 1986 race and it has maintained a similar feel since.

Small changes have been made since 1986, but the track has maintained its essence.

Though overtaking is highly difficult at Monaco, the circuit has seen some extraordinary battles in the modern era of Formula 1, especially in the 1992 race between Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell, or Max Verstappen’s hot pursuit of Lewis Hamilton in the 2019 edition.

An early red flag in the 2024 edition saw every car make tyre changes without any pit stops, which meant that any strategic plan was essentially deleted.

For the 2025 race, F1 approved a plan that would mandate two pit stops throughout the race to try to improve the spectacle.

The FIA explained the situation with a statement on February 26:

“Following recent discussions in the F1 Commission, a specific requirement for the Monaco GP has been approved mandating the use of at least three sets of tyres in the race, with a minimum of two different tyre compounds to be used if it’s a dry race.”

The lap records for the track are held by Lewis Hamilton (1:10.166 in the 2019 qualifying – outright record) and 1:12.909 for the Fastest Lap during a race (2021).

2025 Monaco Grand Prix – Tyres

The dry tyres for the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix will be the C4 as P Zero White hard, C5 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C6 as P Zero Red soft.

Pirelli explained their choice with a statement: “For a second consecutive race, Pirelli has selected the three softest compounds from the 2025 range. As in Imola last week, the C4 will be the Hard, the C5 the Medium and the C6 the Soft, with the first two being the mandatory compounds for the race.

This weekend will see an important change to the regulations, specifically for this event only. During the race, two pit stops will be mandatory (for a full explanation see the “Keyword” section below).

The aim of the FIA and F1 is to inject more excitement into a race that has often been very linear and predictable, as was very much the case last year (see specific section below).

As part of this rule change, each driver will also be allocated an additional set of Full Wets, on top of the usual two, so that the two-stop rule can be applied even if conditions require the use of extreme wet tyres.

It will be interesting to see how this affects teams’ race strategies. For example, with no clear pit-stop windows, it could present opportunities for drivers starting from further back to move up the order by making the most of running in clean air.

Having two stops should also rule out concerns about tyre degradation, even if it is in any case very low at this track. It could even lead to the use of the Soft compound, especially for those making a late second stop or in the case of a Safety Car period in the closing stages.”

The minimum starting pressures for the tyres will be 20.0 PSI (front) and 19.0 PSI (rear).

2025 Monaco Grand Prix Weather Forecast

Friday, May 23th – FP1 & FP2

Conditions: Mostly sunny and comfortable

Max. temperature: 22°C

Chance of rain: 25%

Saturday, May 24th – FP3 & Qualifying

Conditions: Partly sunny with a brief shower or two in the afternoon

Max. temperature: 21°C

Chance of rain: 63%

Sunday, May 25th – Race

Conditions: Partly sunny and pleasant

Max. temperature: 22°C

Chance of rain: 20%

Who will be on the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix Podium?

2024 Monaco Grand Prix – Podium

Could the mandatory pit stops change the dynamic a bit at the front? Let us hope for a good spectacle of racing.

Red Bull’s new pieces to the car were actually upgrades at Imola, with Max Verstappen winning the race clearly after a fantastic first-corner overtake on McLaren’s Oscar Pïastri.

The Dutchman could be poised to again reach the top step in Monaco, which would be his third win at the event and also his third of 2025.

Ferrari, on its side, is a mystery. Qualifying has been an issue for the team, but the race pace looked better at Imola. Could the slow corners of Monaco help home hero Leclerc and a revitalized Hamilton? Maybe.

For McLaren to be out of the podium, they’d have to do everything badly, but mistakes are easy at Monaco.

The prediction for the top three of the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix is 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Charles Leclerc, 3. Lewis Hamilton.

✅ Check out more posts with related topics: