Does F1’s Monaco Grand Prix need changes to liven up ‘boring’ race?

A lacklustre Monaco Grand Prix once again raised questions about the prestigious race’s place on the F1 calendar and has led to calls for changes to be made.

For the first time in F1 history, the top 10 finished as they started in Sunday’s grand prix around the world-famous streets of the principality. Following first-lap chaos that saw Sergio Perez and the Haas pair of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg wiped out in a huge pile-up, and the Alpine duo come to blows, the race turned into a snoozefest.

A red flag for the incident meant all the drivers could change their tyres and for most of the field, there was no longer a need to make a pit stop. That took away an element of jeopardy and resulted in drivers managing their pace and driving at an incredibly slow pace at times to preserve their tyres.

It is widely accepted that race day in Monaco usually becomes a processional event, with Saturday’s qualifying always the standout highlight of F1’s ‘jewel in the crown’. But the particularly dull nature of this year’s grand prix prompted questions about whether changes need to be made to improve racing on Monte Carlo’s tight and twisty streets.

'I should have brought my pillow'

“F**k me this is boring. I should have brought my pillow,” was the far from ringing endorsement from world champion Max Verstappen, who was stuck in sixth place for 77 laps. And the Red Bull driver was not the only one complaining.

After spending the entire race staring at the gearbox of Yuki Tsunoda’s RB, a frustrated Alex Albon said: “It’s annoying because he had pace. He has too much pace – he was just telling us. I was like, we can all manage. I’m happy to manage, but we don’t need to manage this much.

“It’s actually hard to stay focused when you’re going that slowly because you’re just not even near anything. You’re not near any limits. I mean, he absolutely cleared off at the end of the race. And I was like, you could have done this the whole time, but he decided not to do it.”

Is a layout tweak needed? 

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll called for changes to be made to the circuit’s layout.

“Monaco is just – they really need to do something with the track,” the Canadian said. “These races here are just horrendous.”

But could such changes be made? One idea that has been suggested is for the cars to turn left - instead of right - at Portier and rejoin the road leading to the tunnel further east, which would make the run to the braking zone for the Nouvelle Chicane longer and potentially increase overtaking opportunities.

“Monaco keep reclaiming land, so I think it's something we collectively and Formula 1 should look at because it's such a great place,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, who added that F1 cars getting bigger and wider since 2017 has only exacerbated the issues of racing at Monaco.

“There's so much history here but everything evolves. I think the cars are so big now. If you compare them to cars of 10 years ago, they're almost twice the size, so it's something that we need to collectively – as a sport with the promoter – look at: how do we just introduce an overtaking opportunity?”

Meanwhile, Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff said: "I think Monaco as an event is spectacular but the racing has been a bit boring forever, whether the cars were small or big.

"I've said it before, maybe there's something on the layout we can do. But it needs the rain or massive strategy offsets. We want to come here still. Everything around it makes it so special.”

Special tyres and more pit stops

Lewis Hamilton proposed another idea, suggesting that F1 should introduce special tyres and additional pit stops just for Monaco.

"I would say maybe having special tyres for this race, so you have more pit stops, would create more variability. Whether or not we have Sprint weekends, they can definitely come out with a specific weekend,” the seven-time world champion said.

"This particular weekend, I think they should come up with some new formula for it rather than just do the same. That's just my opinion.”

Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate George Russell said: “I think if we only brought soft tyres, a soft tyre wouldn't last the whole race and you may even need to do two stops. Somebody might try a one-stop. I think just having the whole weekend on softs would solve a lot of problems.”

Monaco’s current deal with F1 runs out after next year’s event, and its future is likely to face further debate after this season’s rather tedious grand prix.