I’m a pretty loud critic of the Monaco Grand Prix. What was once among the greatest racing events in the world has devolved into a celebrity-spotting affair with the racing taking a back seat, in large part because the racing around the tight streets of the principality sucks. The current regulation Formula One cars are too wide, too long, and too aero-dependent to allow for any side-by-side racing, or even the faintest idea of a lunge for a pass at any of the circuit’s corners. In order to have a half-decent race you have to hope rain falls on the circuit and someone bungles a pit stop or two. After the 2024 running of the race didn’t see a single pass among the top ten qualifiers the series decided it needed to do something to make the multi-billion dollar affair even a little bit interesting. Instead of actually fixing anything, F1’s top brass decided to mandate every driver pit twice instead of just once.
F1 already mandates a single pit stop during the race, as every car has to use at least two different compounds of tire in order to make the racing more exciting. I’m not sure that has actually happened. A single mandatory pit stop takes away team strategy options, and makes every car just a little bit more homogeneous than it needs to be. By throwing a mandatory second stop into the mix, the racing becomes even more secondary, arbitrary, and gimmicky. The extra stop isn’t because the cars will need new tires, it’s just to up the potential for someone to make a mistake, or for a backmarker to pit “off-strategy” to maybe make up some time in clear air. If passing doesn’t really happen with a single pit stop, I’m not sure how adding another one will make a significant difference at a track where it’s all but impossible for a faster car to pass a slower one.
Monaco is washed
As Racer reports, the rule is actually quite convoluted and could result in a ridiculously complicated penalty structure. Let’s dig into it. Here’s what the rulebook says:
“For the Monaco race, each driver must use at least three different types of tire (either dry or wet). If a driver does not use intermediate or wet tires in the race, they must use at least two different slick tire compounds, of which one must be from the mandatory dry compounds (hard or medium).”
In the case of a wet race, teams will need to use at least three different types of tire, so you can’t just run three sets of intermediates, you’ll need to switch to full wets or gamble on dry tires, it seems. If the race is a dry one, teams will still have to switch tires at least twice, and at least one of the sets has to be either a hard or a medium. If any driver fails to do this, they’ll be disqualified from the race outright. If the race is paused by red flag before the end of the race and does not resume, presumably for torrential downpour reasons, any driver who has not yet used a third set of tires will be penalized 30 seconds, while any driver who has only used one compound will be hit with a one minute penalty. Draconian, to be sure.
I hate everything about this. F1 needs to fix its cars, and hopefully the 2026 spec car will be significantly better at Monaco, not completely upend a team’s strategy in order to push some fake drama. Get it together, F1.
