Monaco delivered dreary race, Verstappen: "F--- me, this is so boring"
Change Needed for the Monaco Grand Prix Format After Lackluster Race?
MONACO – The Monaco Grand Prix delivered one of the most uneventful races in Formula One history. For the first time since the championship's inception in 1950, the top 10 drivers finished in the exact positions they started from.
A Feel-Good Win Amidst a Dreary Race
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finally seized victory at his home race, a feel-good moment amidst an otherwise dreary event at arguably the most iconic race venue in the world.
The fears voiced by Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso came to fruition on Sunday. Before the weekend began, Hamilton had questioned how the media stay awake watching the Monaco Grand Prix annually.
Both Hamilton and Alonso belong to a camp of drivers who believe that while F1 needs the Monaco Grand Prix, something must be done to improve the spectacle of the championship's most famous race.
Driver Frustrations Boil Over
Championship leader Max Verstappen, uncharacteristically down the order in sixth place, vented his frustration early on: “F--- me, this is so boring,” Verstappen said over the radio to the Red Bull pit wall. “I should have brought my pillow!”
Verstappen spent much of his race stuck behind Hamilton's Mercedes teammate George Russell, with both drivers seemingly conserving their tyres rather than pushing their cars to the limit. Russell’s radio summed up the mood: “At this stage, we gain nothing from driving fast.” A rare sentiment for the pinnacle of motor racing.
Red Flags and Stagnation
The narrow, winding streets of Monte Carlo, combined with the ever-increasing size of F1 cars, have amplified the race's reputation for monotonous processions. This year hit a new low, exacerbated by an early red flag.
On Lap 1, a collision involving Sergio Pérez, Kevin Magnussen, and Nico Hülkenberg led to the race being suspended. Due to F1's rules, teams could change tyres during the pause, meaning every driver had already made the required tyre change when the race resumed over half an hour later.
“It was a very static race,” stated Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. “The top 10 is as it started. ... The red flag effectively killed the race because everybody just was going to run to the end.”
Mid-Package Tensions
Further down the track, Yuki Tsunoda decelerated, dropping back to eighth. Williams driver Alex Albon, who secured his team’s first points of the season in ninth, spent the entire race stuck behind Tsunoda.
“It’s annoying because he had pace, he had so much pace,” Albon said post-race. “He absolutely cleared off at the end of the race, and I was like, ‘You could have done this the whole time!’”
Calls for Rule Adjustments
Pressed on whether the rule regarding tyre changes during a red flag needs revisiting, Albon suggested, “We need to figure [something] out. Maybe a mandatory pit stop if it’s a Lap 1 red flag.”
Verstappen, too, made a pit stop, only to find himself stuck again behind Russell after catching up with fresh tyres.
Humor and Serious Proposals
The mutual frustration was palpable as Russell and Verstappen discussed the dull race during a ViaPlay interview. Proposals ranged from serious to humorous:
- Russell: “We need to do something. They need to change something for Sunday. Mandatory pit stops, I don’t know.”
- Verstappen: “Like five or something!”
- Interviewer: “Refuelling?”
- Russell: “Refuel, yeah.”
- Verstappen: “Mandatory nap! I don’t know.”
- Russell: “One lap on foot!”
Though the humor lightened the mood, the premise of altering the Monaco Grand Prix format is gaining traction.
A Need for Structural Changes
Horner advocated for revisiting the race’s structure: “It’s something that we should collectively have a look at. It’s not racing as such when you’re just driving around three or four seconds off the pace. Monaco is such a great place to come racing, but the cars are so big now that we just need to look at, ‘Can we do something that introduces an overtaking area?’”
A highlight on social media further underscored the problem: Formula E’s race on a modified Monaco track this year saw over 200 overtakes compared to F1’s zero, illustrating the issue with F1’s larger cars.
Qualifying: Monaco’s Saving Grace?
Yet, some argue the Monaco Grand Prix’s saving grace is its Saturday qualifying session. As Yuki Tsunoda noted, “We keep the extra excitement for qualifying as everyone knows that’s a really important session ... I think this is Monaco, and this is why qualifying is extra special compared to other tracks.”
Whether Saturday’s drama is enough to offset Sunday’s processions is a debate that continues—and one the future of Monaco’s legacy may hinge upon.
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