Monaco Grand Prix’s Two-Stop Rule Falls Flat With Drivers And Teams

The suitability of the Monaco Grand Prix to modern Formula 1 is again under the microscope after another uneventful affair on Sunday.

Lando Norris won ahead of Charles Leclerc and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, but the main topic of conversation in the aftermath was the controversial mandatory two pit-stop rule.

By introducing two obligatory pit stops, so the thinking went, teams would have to get creative with their strategy and liven up an event that has often felt too predictable of late.

The change was enforced after last season a red flag on the opening lap allowed drivers to pit immediately and switch to the hard compound, which most of them ran until the end of the race.

It resulted in the top-10 on the grid finishing in exactly the same positions come the chequered flag.

But the new rule fell flat, with only two overtakes completed throughout the 78 laps as the race maintained its usual processional feel, with Norris winning from pole-position.

It was a painful reminder that the principality’s narrow streets are particularly ill-suited to the current Formula 1 cars and make overtaking all but impossible.

“I get it, but I don’t think it has worked,” Max Verstappen, who finished fourth, said of the two-stop rule.

“You can’t race here anyway so it doesn’t matter what you do. One stop, 10 stops. Even at the end I was in the lead, but my tyres were completely gone, and you still can’t pass.

“We were almost doing Mario Kart. Then we have to install bits on the car – maybe you can throw bananas around? I don’t know, slippery surface?”

Norris was similarly skeptical about the wisdom trying to liven up the race by imposing a two-stop minimum, suggesting the rule had simply “given people opportunity by luck – by waiting for a red flag, waiting for a safety car”.

The Briton, who became the first McLaren driver to win in Monaco in 17 years, added: “It depends what you want. Do you want to manufacture races?

“There hasn’t been any more overtaking here. I thought that was what was wanted.

“You’re not getting a more deserved winner in the end of things, which I don’t entirely agree with. I think it should be the person who drives the best race and deserves to win.”

The race organizers, the Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM), maintain altering the layout of the track is all but impossible, due to its proximity to the sea and the nature of Monte Carlo’s narrow streets.

But the current Formula 1 cars are too big and heavy to allow overtaking around Monaco in its current guise, making the most iconic event on the calendar a non-event unless rain is involved.

It was more of the same on Sunday, with no safety car or red flag involved and the leading teams matching their rivals’ strategies closely.

Williams’ boss James Vowles ‘sorry’ for Monaco Grand Prix strategy

Further down the pack, team orders led to deliberate slow driving to engineer pit window gaps.

It led to the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli trawling behind Carlos Sainz in 10th place as the Spaniard looked to allow his Williams teammate Alexander Albon to build enough of a gap to retain his place after pitting.

Once the Thai had successfully done so, he allowed Sainz to overtake him and Williams reversed the strategy, with Albon driving painfully slowly much to Russell’s frustration.

“The two-stop clearly did not work at all,” he said.

“For all of the ­drivers, qualifying is the most exhilarating moment of the weekend. Do we accept that there should be no race and it’s a qualifying race?

“You do one on Saturday, one on Sunday and the guy who qualifies on pole gets some points and gets a little trophy.”

Speaking on Sky Sports during the race, Williams team principal James Vowles admitted “this is not how I like to go racing”, but suggested the tactics had been brought upon by the introduction of the two-stop rule.

In the post-race press conference, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff revealed Vowles had apologized for the strategy.

“I’m sorry. We had no choice given what happened ahead,” read the text, according to Wolff.

“I answered. ‘We know’.”

Christian Horner calls for changes in Monaco Grand Prix

If drivers were unimpressed with the two pit-stops rule, the same applied to team principals.

Red Bull supremo Christian Horner said it was time for Monaco “to move with the times” after yet another soporific affair.

“The fundamental problem is you cannot overtake here,” he said. “The cars are so big now that you just don’t have a chance to get alongside. It’s circuit specific, we’ve known that, it’s been on the calendar for 72 years. Everything has to move with the times ultimately.

“It’s an iconic and historic circuit but if you look at how Monaco has changed, how much land they’ve reclaimed into the sea, I don’t think you’d need to do too much.”

Horner added even a small tweak to the layout of the track, which is under contract with Formula 1 until 2031, would have a significant impact.

“There just needs to be one area where you can have an overtake and everybody knows that coming here the race was pretty much done on Saturday,” he continued.

“We’ve introduced another dynamic with the pit stop, which, ultimately for the top 10, other than the retirement, nobody really changed position.”

His McLaren counterpart, Andrea Stella, warned the mandatory two pit-stop rule alone was not enough to address Monaco’s “structural limitations” as a track.

“We should praise that Formula 1 and the FIA made an attempt to improve racing,” he said.

“The main limitation remains the fact that you cannot overtake and this is quite structural as a limitation. I am not sure exactly how this can be modified just simply by imposing a certain number of pit stops.

“I’m not sure there’s anything that can be done from a track layout point of view. I’ve never thought of this aspect but maybe there’s something that we should consider.”

With the win in Monaco Norris moved to 158 points in the standings, three behind championship leader Piastri and 22 ahead of Verstappen. Russell is 62 points adrift of Piastri with Leclerc 20 further back.

McLaren leads the constructors’ standings with 319, followed by Mercedes with 147 and Red Bull with 143.

The Formula 1 season continues this weekend with the third race of this European triple-header as the paddock moves to Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix.