Formula 1 drivers had little positive to say about the series’ experiment with new rules forcing them to change tyres twice in Monaco.
However team bosses offered a range of views in reaction to yesterday’s Monaco Grand Prix. The race saw several teams instructing their drivers to slow down significantly and block their rivals, in order to help their team mates complete their pit stops and secure points finishes.
Williams was one team which did this. However their team principal, James Vowles, admitted he did not like racing this way. “We need to review the rules and regulations for Monaco, because racing like this feels wrong,” he said.
However McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, speaking after his driver Lando Norris won the race, was much more positive about the new Monaco rules.
“I think it made it a lot more stressful,” he told Channel 4. “Strategy was very important and you had to kind of do it twice. I said to Andrea [Stella, team principal], right, stage one we’re happy with, after the first pit stop, but now we have another race to do.
“So I think while the results on paper kind of looked the same as qualifying, I think that was a very exciting race. So I thought it was successful.”
Norris spent much of the second part of the race pursuing Max Verstappen, who delayed his final pit stop as far as possible, hoping for a late red flag to hand him victory. It never materialised.
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Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur, whose driver Charles Leclerc finished second, did not think encouraging teams to gamble on red flags or Safety Cars was a positive change.
Honestly, I think it didn’t change something at the [front], except that this opened the door to Verstappen to make a bet and to expect a red flag,” he said. “But probably it’s not good. If you have just one stop, you can’t do this because you are under pressure with the guys who are behind you and it’s not possible.”
Mercedes endured a grim race in which neither driver was able to break into the top 10 after spending almost all the grand prix being held up by the Williams drivers. Asked whether he enjoyed the new format, team principal Toto Wolff said “no”, but indicated he sees it as a starting point for further improvement.
“I think we had to try something,” he told Sky. “I see it from a different perspective.
“This is such great entertainment here. When you see, we had full grandstands, there’s spectators everywhere, on the terraces, on the boats, lots of spectacular wining and dining, all of it.
“Saturday is the day when the sport comes alive and on Sunday we tried something. It didn’t work, and maybe for next year we need to find some regulations where maybe we need to define a maximum lap time, so this backing off doesn’t happen. But it is what it is.”
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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
