The FIA announced on Wednesday that a plan to increase the amount of pit-stops at the Monaco Grand Prix this year has been approved.
The famous race on the streets of the principality is regularly criticised for its lack of overtaking opportunities, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen labelling last year’s race as “boring” – with the top-10 not changing order at all from the start of the race to the end.
As a result, after a meeting of the F1 Commission last Tuesday morning in London, it was agreed that the number of mandatory pit stops (one) per driver should be increased.
The FIA, F1’s governing body, confirmed the move on Wednesday, detailing that teams must stop at least twice and use three different tyre sets (though only two different compounds.)
An FIA statement read: “With the aim of promoting better racing at the Monaco Grand Prix, the commission discussed proposals for Monaco-specific regulations.
“The commission agreed to increase the numbers of mandatory pit stops in the Race.
“These proposals will be further discussed by the Sporting Advisory Committee in the coming weeks.”
Charles Leclerc won his home race last year but due to an early red flag – allowing all the drivers to switch tyres and make their mandatory tyre switch – the order of the top-10 did not change.
With just one DRS zone on the main straight, overtaking is near-impossible around the tight twists and turns of Monaco.
Verstappen, who finished sixth and could not squeeze his Red Bull past George Russell ahead, said over the radio: “F*** me, this is really boring… I should’ve brought my pillow”.
He added afterwards: “Overall the weekend is really cool, just the Sunday is a little bit boring unfortunately, but the scenery is still great,” Verstappen said.
“If we can find a way to race a bit better, why not? That would be my preferred solution.”
Lewis Hamilton also said of last year’s race: “It was non-eventful. Everyone drove so slow. So it didn’t matter what tyre you were on. We were driving seconds off the pace.
“I don’t know what it was like watching, but I am sure people were falling asleep.”
This year’s Monaco GP will take place on 23-25 May.
