How Will Monaco Bounce Back from the Two-Stop Strategy Blunder?
May 26 – Formula 1 figures are once again scratching their heads about what to do about the dubious spectacle of the Monaco GP.
After the particularly processional and slow 2024 edition, this year’s grand prix on the tight, twisty streets of the Principality was a mandatory two-stopper.
“It was worse,” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted.
World champion Max Verstappen laughed to Viaplay: “Very exciting. I really enjoyed it. Really great.
“Maybe we should make it three pitstops next year. Or four or five. At least the team would get some pitstop practice,” he added.
“I mean, I could have done four pitstops and still finished fourth,” said the Red Bull driver. “For us it didn’t matter at the front of the field.”
Indeed, while the top runners had an actual race, the rest of the field was either deliberately slowing big trains of trailing cars, or stuck in those trains.
George Russell even skipped over the harbour to get past Alex Albon’s mobile , copping a 30 second penalty.
“I was outside the points anyway and I just wanted to enjoy pushing hard in Monaco,” he said. “The irony is that I did 25 qualifying laps in the race and finished higher than if I hadn’t taken the penalty.
“So the system is flawed,” said Russell.
Nico Hulkenberg agreed: “I appreciate that something was tried this year with the two-stopper, but it clearly didn’t work. Not at all.
“There were a lot of strategic things going on, but it didn’t have much to do with racing.”
Carlos Sainz told DAZN: “I’m very upset with the race and with the sport in general.
“15 years ago, there were penalties for manipulating the races. But now the whole race is being manipulated,” he said. “I hated going so slowly, but (Liam) Lawson put us last and second to last and it had to be done.”
So with the unanimous agreement that the mandatory two-stop approach failed, what next? “Maybe we can throw out bananas like in Mario Kart,” Verstappen joked.
“You can’t race here anyway, so it doesn’t matter what you do. One stop, 10 stops. I think with the cars we have now, you can only overtake a Formula 2 car around here.”
Pole sitter and race winner Lando Norris is among those who think Formula 1 should simply stop trying to make the on-track action more exciting on Monaco Sundays.
“I think it should be the person who drives the best race and deserves to win,” he said. “I don’t even know why people have such a high expectation. I mean, it’s not just a show to entertain people.
“It’s a sport.”
Verstappen was actually the race leader until very late on, delaying his second pitstop in the hope of a red flag and a ‘free’ pitstop. “I’m sure if we keep this going in the future, eventually a result like that will happen,” said Oscar Piastri.
“But is that what we want to see?”
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner thinks the only solution would be to actually change the Monaco layout. “We should try to create a braking zone at the exit of the tunnel or in the first corner,” he said.
“The cars are so big these days that there’s no chance of getting past an opponent,” added Horner.
Wolff suggested: “Perhaps we need to introduce something like a maximum laptime so that certain opponents don’t get so tactically tricky?”
Albon – one of the deliberate laggards on Sunday – apologised to spectators afterwards, and agreed with Horner that F1 and Monaco should think about tweaking the layout.
McLaren boss Andrea Stella commented: “What we need are smaller and lighter cars.”
Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer was among the tricky tactical masterminds on Sunday, but he insists the F1 Commission thought long and hard about the new two-stop rule.
“I can’t really think of anything,” he told Sky Deutschland when asked what F1’s next move should be. “If the track doesn’t allow for any changes, then the only approach to intervene here was through the regulations.
“There are other ideas like using only soft tyres or the C6, but at the end of the day, the reality is that you can’t overtake here. No matter how fast you are, you can’t get past these big cars.
“The Monaco weekend is obviously incredibly important for the teams and for Formula 1. The fans, our partners, love it, and we have to try to improve the sporting aspect.”
Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher warned: “If things continue like this, it will eventually mean the end of the grand prix because the spectators won’t accept it.”
Another former grand prix star, Nick Heidfeld, also chimed in: “Perhaps they can look at something like a joker lap where you take a shortcut once or twice during the race.”
Wolff, meanwhile, concluded by suggesting Monaco should simply remain unique, and that the most overtaking-obsessed critics “should take their racing glasses off” once per season.
Hulkenberg concluded: “99 percent of the people in Monaco are here to drink champagne on a yacht. They don’t really care.”
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The two-stop minimum requirement proved to be a good move in the end, so I hope it remains in place for the Monaco GP, especially because it’s more or less the only way to get any sort of excitement & tensity in dry conditions.
This year’s edition was definitely better than last year’s dismal showing in any case.
I’ve been suggesting a time trial format with points distributed solely based on driving against the clock rather than a traditional race & coincidently, George has effectively suggested the same & he’s right that the system is flawed, especially as he could still finish 11th despite a drive-through penalty.
I like how Carlos indirectly refers to the crashgate & I like Max’s joke.
Altering the circuit configuration is easier said than done as has been established many times over the years, especially regarding the chicane & I don’t see how Sainte Devote could be changed to create a bigger braking zone.
I agree with Toto that setting a limit to how much off the pace relative to the leaders is permitted & two seconds as the upper limit would be reasonable.
The next generation cars will indeed be smaller & lighter, which some people even in F1 seem to have forgotten, but that won’t help, especially given that overtaking wasn’t any easier with the 1998-2016 car dimensions, so the circuit is the sole issue.
Btw, the last quote is actually George’s unless they coincidently said the same thing almost word-by-word the same way.
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