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How do you solve a problem like Monaco?

NEWS STORY
27/05/2025

As its spicing-up experiment turns out to be damp squib, F1 needs to reassess the current jewel in its crown.

Of course, we say current because Derek Chang and the guys at Liberty Media are hoping upon hope that Las Vegas will replace it and become the sport's biggest attraction.

And why wouldn't it, when behind the scenes both are somewhat tawdry, attracting the vacuous, vain and the vicious.

Many years have passed since Scott Stoddard climbed the wall after exiting the tunnel and Pete Aron ended up in the harbour, not only that the cars have got much, much bigger.

Over the last couple of decades the cars grew, slimmed down and then got big again, and were Jean-Pierre Sarti's race-winner be placed alongside Lando Norris' you'd be shocked by the difference in size.

The 2026 regulations will see the cars slimmed down again, but not to the extent that drivers had hoped for, while the demands of aero and hybrid ensure that length-wise they remain absolute monsters.

Quite simply, F1 - or rather the cars - have out-grown the Principality.

"The main limitation remains the fact that you cannot overtake," said Andrea Stella on Sunday in a masterpiece of understatement. "This is quite structural as a limitation and I am not sure exactly how this can be modified, can be changed, just simply by imposing a certain number of pit stops."

"What I'm interested in seeing is next year with the smaller cars and with cars with less grip, therefore all the braking zones will be much, much longer," he added. "Cars that will have a completely different power unit, deployment strategy. We are fundamentally changing the cars and I would hope that this change of the cars will make overtaking possible even at least when you are three seconds faster.

"At the moment, if you are three seconds faster, still you cannot overtake," he continued. "But I think this has very much to do with the size of the car, with the speed of the car and the grip, which means that the braking zones are very, very short. There's just not materially the space in braking.

"So, I think more than looking at the strategy, we should look at the cars and see if we can create opportunity to overtake. I think this is what we should focus on. I'm not sure there's anything that can be done from a track layout point of view. To be honest, I've never thought at this aspect, but maybe there's something that we should consider even from that point of view."

He's right in terms of the fact that the cars will be smaller, but not small enough that there won't be a repeat, then there's the fact that such are the unique characteristics of the street track, the strategists will always see Monaco as the ultimate challenge.

This video, featuring the 1966 Grand Prix which formed the basis for the previous F1 movie, has an unbelievable shot of the original Mr Monaco, Graham Hill, finding a unique way of turning his car around after making a mistake.

At Red Bull, Christian Horner believes it is the track that needs rethinking not the cars.

"The only way to really encourage any form of overtaking is trying to create a bit more of a braking area," he suggests, "either on the exit of the tunnel or Turn One if there was any way of creating a longer braking zone somewhere, we should really investigate it.

"The cars are so big now that you just don't have a chance to get alongside," he adds.

Contrary to Norris' claim that the first year of racing was "50, 60 years ago," the layout has changed little since cars first raced on the streets just under one hundred years ago. The very layout and geography of the Principality significantly dictates what can and cannot be changed.

"Everything has to move with the times ultimately," admits the Red Bull boss, "it's an iconic and historic circuit but, you know, if you look at how Monaco has changed, how much land they've reclaimed into the sea into the 72 appearances here, I don't think you'd need to do too much.

"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 yesterday, and we've introduced another dynamic with the pit stop which ultimately for the Top Ten other than the retirement nobody really changed position."

Referring to the regulation changes for next year, he laughs: "Maybe go-karts!" he jokes. "I think these cars are just too big for this circuit, you can barely get them side by side, that's Monaco, we know that, we all want to be here, we're here because it is Monaco and the prestige and the cache that goes with that, but everything has to move with the times at one point.

"The marshals are fantastic here, they put on a great event, it would just be really cool to have at least one area where there was a chance of an overtake, as even in Formula 2 and the support races it's very similar."

Former F1 driver, Le Mans winner, GPDA Chairman and potential FIA president, Alex Wurz has offered his own solution.

The Austrian, who has now turned his hand to circuit design and is the man behind the Qiddiya Speed Park which will replace Jeddah as host of Saudi Arabia's Grand Prix, has some suggestions.

First off he believes that the Nouvelle Chicane should be moved back, around 80 metres further away from its current spot, meaning that when cars exit the tunnel they would have a longer run to the chicane and therefore the opportunity for overtaking.

He also believes racing would benefit from widening Rascasse, which forms the final phase of the track layout. Like so much of the Principality existing structures cannot be moved or demolished, and in terms of Rascasse there is a car park entrance. However, Wurz believes that simply re-profiling and widening the corner would present opportunities for the brave of heart.

Finally, there is the Hairpin the slowest corner on the circuit, indeed the slowest corner on the calendar, where speeds drop to a level even Sadiq Khan might accept.

Wurz believes that widening the entry to the corner and removing the kerbs on the opposite side would present an opportunity and certainly cause the driver in front to defend their position a little harder.

The fact is that unless changes are made Monaco will continue to be all about Saturday afternoon.

Whether all parties are open to the idea remains to be seen, though, of course, there could be another solution much closer to home.

Bearing in mind that F1 has made much of its partnerships with Lego and Disney, perhaps, having built a grid full of cars, Lego could be persuaded to build replica tracks, the layouts of which could be easily adapted to suit the cars by adding or removing a few thousand of the little coloured bricks.

At the same time, should the regulations not work, Lego could helpfully adapt the cars in order that they better suit each individual circuit layout.

The circuits, of course, could be laid out in the various Disney theme parks. Job done.

Ka-ching!

Picture Credit: Alex Wurz/Instagram

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READERS COMMENTS

 

1. Posted by Pavlo, 31/05/2025 9:35

"Question is, should Monaco be fixed or all the rest of the tracks?
If you look into any other historic track, you will see that in 50 years all of them got wider, straighter, less sharp corners, etc. But some like Imola have less space for expansion, and Monaco obviously didn't change at all. What used to be corners, now on many tracks is flat-out curved straight.
Of course, widening tracks pushes engineers to build bigger cars, as they would really go faster. But if we continue, soon Silverstone will be too small for F1 cars, like Monaco.
It's like increasing football field, increasing teams sizes, and then wondering why the only stadium with original size is too small for CL final.

So maybe a solution is, build narrower tracks, return historic tracks to historic dimensions, and then teams will naturally build smaller cars because they would actually be faster."

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2. Posted by Spindoctor, 30/05/2025 15:31

"It seems obvious that in order to generate more 'in race' action, primarily the probability that faster cars can overtake, there are two options:
1) Smaller lighter cars which could be much more nimble with better mechanical grip;
2) Change the track layout Alex Wurz has proposed some changes already, but I rather doubt it could be done sufficiently to accommodate current cars.

Bearing in mind the old adage 'when you're down a hole, stop digging' I doubt that Monaco can be rescued as a sporting event.
I'd suggest 'dropping' Monaco. Historically it was a decent race, but latterly, like some other newer, mainly 'street' circuits it's more about 'glamour', ligging & networking than racing."

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3. Posted by Tristian, 29/05/2025 15:59

"Martin Brundle's son Alex, half-tongue in cheek, suggested that each driver should have one "Joker card" they can play each Monaco, to effectively allow them, to "do a George" (my words) and cut the post tunnel chicane once a race without penalty to allow them to pass cars deliberately driving slowly and backing up the pack.

It sounded plausible to me until I realized that it could be abused to allow you to overtake a car on the same pace as you (think Le Clerc and Norris near the end of the race).

Any thoughts?"

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4. Posted by kenji, 29/05/2025 12:15

"Ask any female follower of F1 and she'll give you the answer.... 'size matters' "

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5. Posted by Editor, 29/05/2025 8:35

"@ Simon in Adelaide

Rest assured, the title was intentional and was in place long before the bulk of the article."

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6. Posted by Simon in Adelaide, 29/05/2025 6:13

"https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+do+you+solve+a+problem+like+maria&ia=videos&iax=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Ds-VRyQprlu8"

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7. Posted by Simon in Adelaide, 29/05/2025 6:08

"Thanks for that Chris.

I now have songs from the Sound of Music going around in my head."

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8. Posted by Pavlo, 28/05/2025 14:04

"I think it's not only a question of size. After all, except Monaco, overtaking as such is already easier than it was in 80s, thanks to DRS.
What really matters is variability between qualifying and the race, as well as during the race. For example, when I do karting, if I am a bit faster then others, I will win qualifying and steadily drive away in the race, boring and clean - I'm not a profi, but already can do quite steady laps. In F1 cars are inevitably different, so having it stable would mean extremely dull race.
To have a lot of overtaking there needs to be big variety - conditions in the qualifying significantly different from the race, tires different, fuel load, etc. Not like now, when hards and softs are giving marginal advantage for marginal wear, fuel usage is same for everyone... make it that extra pit stop can give seconds per lap of advantage, and there will be people to try.
And then of course we need smaller cars, which is quite easy to do, without compromising safety. But it's already obvious for everyone."

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9. Posted by ffracer, 28/05/2025 9:42

"The 70s and 80s cars were dangerous. Today's F1 safety is paramount. I am talking about consering pairing down dimensions. "

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10. Posted by ffracer, 28/05/2025 9:38

"Excellent points made by all! My humble take: change your f@*&!#& car, lol.

Monaco needs F1 and F1 needs Monaco, the crowd that loves F1 loves to play in Monaco. The cars however tell another story. Comparing a 1982 Ferrari 126 C2 and Ferrari's current challenger is like pairing a 5 ft thin cyclist and a 6 ft 7 in body builder. Not saying to bring back the narrow but the dimensions need to consider the narrow corners of Monaco "

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11. Posted by Pavlo, 27/05/2025 19:56

"Is there a problem? I don’t think so.
Monaco is a cool glamorous event, that is interesting to watch - at least because I like scenery, but also it’s interesting to see how modern sports cars manage old style track, and still are extremely quick there. From sporting perspective it’s still a great race - one needs extraordinary talent to win qualifying and then still be quick enough to manage 78 laps. The most challenging, driver-focused race with history and long tradition. And glamour.
Yes would be great to make cars smaller, would help everywhere.
And please don’t listen to the drivers or teams. If I (customer) liked it, they are paid to go there and perform, whether they find it boring or not."

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12. Posted by Superbird70, 27/05/2025 19:52

"@Chester- To use a quote from Sunset Boulevard that I think applies here, "I *am* big. It's the *pictures* that got small."."

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13. Posted by BrightonCorgi, 27/05/2025 19:49

"Bring back refueling. That'll spice up every race.

How about removing side view mirrors? That'll help cars pass."

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14. Posted by RP, 27/05/2025 19:42

"I've watched F1 for a very long time and admire the knowledge of the many commenters. Over the years regulations have been written in order to achieve parity. PARITY. Just looking back a short time, we see the gap between the fastest qualifiers and slowest steadily decreases. We now have a circumstance where the top 10, or more, are within one second of each other. As stated frequently, an insufficient advantage to allow passing. Then along came the DRS, a patch. Improved things somewhat for a few. Then we could watch the DRS "trains" race around the tracks. But the cream still creeps to the top. For a while, Mercedes was the engine to have. But, overtime and with unchanged regs, others have caught up. Well, lets cut development time for someone who won. That will do the trick. Nope. In the days of long, long ago innovation produced interesting events. The Tyrrell P34 comes to mind, all 6 wheels. It did win a race before being banned.
We're not going to see diversity until we allow it. I found it very interesting. Development during the season also helped. Do you really want to go around tweaking each track, moving a turn here, shortening a straight there. If you need longer braking zones, easy. Decrease brake size. Politicians can;t design cars."

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15. Posted by Tyrbiter, 27/05/2025 19:34

"Get rid of the hybrid PUs and replace them with something that has plenty of cylinders, burns something much like normal petroleum distillate and has brakes that eschew carbon-carbon for something more like cheese and crackers.

May the bravest driver win!"

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