26/05/2025
NEWS STORY
Following a frustrating Monaco Grand Prix, George Russell says it is time to rethink the future of racing in the Principality.
The Mercedes driver was one of the high-profile 'victims' of the mandatory two stop rule introduced to spice up the event but which actually resulted in a strategic game of chess in which there were few winners, only the strategists.
Following a disastrous qualifying session, Russell and teammate Kimi Antonelli started 14th and 15th. Though he made up a couple of places, Russell subsequently found himself stuck behind Liam Lawson, who was under instructions to hold up the field for the benefit of his RB teammate, Isack Hadjar.
Once the kiwi had pitted, Russell found himself at the mercy of the Williams pair, who were playing a similar strategic game.
In his frustration, Russell eventually cut a chicane in order to pass Alex Albon's Williams, and when told to hand back the place said he would rather stay ahead and take the penalty. However, still to make a stop the Briton was hit with a drive-through that resulted in him finishing the afternoon in eleventh.
At a race end the Briton was frustrated, not only with the two-stop rule being trialled this year, but also the whole concept of racing in Monaco.
"We definitely need to have a real think about what the solution is here in Monaco," he told reporters. "I appreciate trying something this year for two stops, clearly, it did not work at all," he added.
"For all of the drivers, qualifying is the most exhilarating moment of the weekend," he continued. "I think that's what you guys enjoy watching the most, and 99% of the other people in Monaco are here sipping champagne on the yacht, so they don't really care.
"I'm not talking about just the two-stop in general," he insisted, when asked about his frustration, "it's too easy to have Lawson taking the 40-second gap to help Hadjar, and that was comfortable for him.
"Then Sainz did another 40 seconds..." he added, "driving four seconds off the pace here is dead easy.
"Our strategy said anything less than three seconds, the pace advantage is a zero per cent chance of an overtake. You need four and a half seconds for a 50 per cent chance of an overtake. So you effectively can put an F2 car out there and they've got a chance of holding up an F1 car!
"I don't know what the solution is," admitted the Grand Prix Drivers' Association director. "We were lucky in '22 and '23 that the wet races offered some excitement. Do they wet the track? I don't know."
Both Williams drivers sympathised with their Mercedes rival, admitting that this was not what racing is meant to be about.
"A terrible day for racing, in general," said Sainz over his team radio at race end. "It is definitely something I don't like to do," he subsequently added. "Liam Lawson did it first, to us. It put us into panic mode. The only way to get both cars into the points was to do it to the rest of the field ourselves.
"I am disappointed with the whole race, the lap times all weekend. It shows the two-stop changes nothing around Monaco. People are still going to do what we did, manipulate the final result with their driving.
"In the midfield, it backfired. It made things even more manipulated. I am happy for F1 to try things. I am a massive fan of trying things. We tried it, it didn't work, at least not in the midfield.
"It's not the way I like to race, not the way I dream of racing around Monaco. When I was a kid, I didn't see this manipulation. But it's becoming a trend over the past five years."
"This is not how we want to go racing," added teammate Albon. "We put on a bad show for everyone, and made a few drivers angry behind us.
"It's taking advantage of the track, and the size of the cars. The two-stop made us do it twice rather than once. Apologies to everyone who watched that.
"Being honest, we didn't want to do it, or plan to do it," he insisted. "We knew on Thursday it was a thing, and the Racing Bulls started it, if they didn't start it, we wouldn't have done it. Sorry.
"I was getting ready to bring my pillow out," he laughed.
Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff subsequently revealed that in the aftermath, James Vowles, the Silver Arrows former strategist and now team boss at Williams, had texted him at race end to apologise.
"I'm sorry. We had no choice given what happened ahead," read the text.
"You know, James is one of my guys," Wolff told reporters, "and I don't want to sound patronising, because he's making a career as a team principal, and he's doing really well.
"He had to do it, you know, he's got two cars in the points. I think what started it was these RBs that backed us back off, and that's what he had to do."
As F1 bosses head back to the drawing board, after all, unlike Imola, Barcelona, Istanbul, Monza, Silverstone or Spa, Monaco is seen as a jewel in the crown, vital to the sport... for now, Wolff had his own suggestion.
"I think what we can look at is to create some more specific regulations that there's only a maximum of back-off that you can have," he said. "You know, you can't hold up a train, overtaking here is difficult, because you can't go slower than X seconds from the leaders. That would probably create a little bit more of a closer field. Does it improve the overtaking?
"I don't think that's feasible," he added. "We need to talk also with maybe ACM here, and say, is there anything we can change on the layout? It's difficult in a city, we're limited by a mountain and the sea. But you know, I see the positives. This is an unbelievable spectacle."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Monaco here.