27/05/2025
NEWS STORY
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.
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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