Drivers’ Monaco Grand Prix strategies were so extreme Max Verstappen pointed out he could have pitted twice more and finished in the same position.
After Formula 1 introduced a new rule requiring drivers to make two tyre changes in Monaco, Verstappen gambled on leaving his second stop until the last possible moment at the end of the penultimate lap. Had a red flag been thrown during the final portion of the race, Verstappen could have made his final tyre change without pitting and won.
That did not materialise, however, and his second pit stop dropped him to fourth place. However he still finished half a minute ahead of Lewis Hamilton in fifth. A pit stop costs around 19 seconds in Monaco, so assuming Verstappen would have gained time on fresh tyres after each pit stop, the Red Bull driver reckoned he could have finished fourth on a four-stop strategy.
“It was quite boring,” he told Viaplay. “I mean, I could have done four stops, I would have still finished in the same position.
“So that’s probably not what you want around here. But it’s, of course, also not nothing new.”
Verstappen was caught by Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri during his long second stint. However he did not expect any of them to overtake each other, or him, as passing is so difficult in Monaco.
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“At the end of the day, you saw even with my pace, they couldn’t pass me,” he said. “So you need to be, like, 10 seconds off. An F1 car can maybe pass an F2 car around here, that’s how bad it is.”
F1’s new rules for the Monaco Grand Prix were criticised by several drivers after the race. However George Russell said the difficulty of racing around Monaco is so severe F1 should consider a drastic alternative.
“I don’t know what the solution is,” he said. “I honestly think we should not have a race and we have a qualifying race. “Do qualifying on Saturday, the pole man gets a trophy and some points, you do another qualifying on Sunday and the pole man gets the points.
“Because the race is not a race, it is a boring game of chess and you’re driving around in circles for 77 laps. We were lucky in ’22 and ’23 when it was wet.”
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2025 Monaco Grand Prix
- Winning Monaco GP meant less than ‘getting my groove back’ in qualifying did – Norris
- ‘Successful’ or ‘wrong’? Team bosses differ over F1’s Monaco rule experiment
- If I’d pitted four times I’d have still finished fourth – Verstappen
- Russell’s tougher penalty had no effect on his result: Monaco GP analysis
- Antonelli made “optimistic” move because he felt “embarrassed” – Bortoleto
