Do you think the Monaco Grand Prix would have been any better without the mandatory two-stop rule? – Sukhpal
The new rule introduced for the Monaco Grand Prix this year was a requirement to use three sets of tyres in the race.
The idea was to increase the number of strategic options available, effectively force teams to do two stops and manufacture extra jeopardy.
On that basis, it worked, up to a point.
All weekend, teams were talking about the sheer number of strategic possibilities in the race. And after the race, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said: “There was a very large variety of scenarios. So in this sense I think it was interesting.”
Whether this made the race better for spectators is a different question.
And while the rule change increased the nervousness and tested the brainpower of the strategy engineers, it made no difference to the result – the only changes in the order of the top 10 were Lewis Hamilton making up his grid penalty and Fernando Alonso retiring.
There is an argument that, in some ways, the rule made the race worse, because it increased the possibility for teams to ‘game’ the result by using their drivers strategically.
Racing Bulls started this, by using Liam Lawson to back up the pack to ensure Isack Hadjar could pit without losing position, before Hadjar returned the favour.
Because they had, Williams then did the same – and then Mercedes.
Some drivers were not comfortable about this.
Williams’ Alex Albon said: “I know we put on a bad show for everyone, and I know we made a few angry drivers behind us in the process as well.
“The two-stop just made us do it twice, rather than once. Just frustrating. Apologies to everyone who watched that. That wasn’t very pretty.”
Their team boss James Vowles even apologised to Mercedes’ Toto Wolff mid-race. Wolff said: “Yeah, I [was] sent a text in the race. He said: ‘I’m sorry. We had no choice given what happened ahead’.
“I answered: ‘We know’.
“He had two cars in the points, and I think that when it started was when the RBs backed us up. So that is what he had to do.”
And then there was the fact that it also made it easier for F1’s controversial red-flag tyre-change rule to be exploited, more of which in the next answer.
The issue at the bottom of all this is the impossibility of overtaking at Monaco, a problem that has existed for about 50 years, as Lando Norris pointed out, and is not solely caused by the size of the current cars, although that has made it even worse.
So, it has to be asked – is it right to introduce such artificial gimmicks to try to fix a problem that is unfixable without track changes? And is Monaco broken, anyway?
As Max Verstappen put it: “Of course I get it, but I don’t think it has worked. You can’t race here anyway, so it doesn’t matter what you do. One stop, 10 stops.
“We were almost doing Mario Kart. Then we have to install bits on the car. Maybe you can throw bananas around. I don’t know. Slippery surface.”
