After F1 driver criticism, what next for Monaco GP's two pit stop rule?

New York Times

2 days ago

BARCELONA, Spain — Formula One officials will review the mandatory two pit stop rule enforced at last weekend's Monaco Grand Prix despite concerns from drivers over the format.
Following a lack of action in the 2024 race due to an early red flag, F1, the FIA and the 10 teams agreed to introduce two mandatory pit stops for this year's Monaco Grand Prix to try and improve the on-track spectacle.
While the race had greater strategic variety, the top four drivers still finished where they qualified, and many drivers were left frustrated by rivals going deliberately slow at points to help their teammates by creating a gap to take a pit stop.
Williams driver Carlos Sainz said drivers were effectively 'manipulating the race' through these tactics, while Mercedes' George Russell opted to cut a corner and take a penalty instead of giving a position back to Sainz's teammate, Alex Albon, after growing frustrated of being stuck behind his car.
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The outcome of the two-stop rule in Monaco is set to be discussed at the next F1 Commission meeting, which includes representatives from all 10 teams plus F1 and its regulator, the FIA. This is scheduled to take place in July in the gap between the races at Silverstone and Spa.
F1 paddock sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, have indicated to The Athletic that the general feeling is the two-stop rule did mark an improvement on previous races in Monaco where there were no additional regulations in place, despite the comments from the drivers.
But there is an openness to review what happened in Monaco and consider any future steps with the format in a bid to try and aid the on-track spectacle, with one source suggesting that all options are on the table currently.
The decision to trial two pit stops in Monaco was backed by the teams earlier this year in a bid to spice up the racing, with the regulations and implementation being detailed by F1's Sporting Advisory Committee prior to its approval.
A return of the rule for 2026, or any refinements, would require the same backing from the teams once again.
Sainz, who serves as a director for the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA), said in a news conference on Thursday in Spain that he felt both F1 and the FIA needed to listen to the drivers about potential improvements for Monaco.
'I feel like F1 would benefit a lot in the decision-making process from including us drivers in this conversation,' Sainz said.
'I really believe the sport would benefit if, instead of maybe trying to stop or something, we all sit together in a table and with the ideas of drivers, we let them know to FOM and FIA and put together a solution that actually works.'
One of the biggest issues in Monaco remains the size of the current generation of F1 cars, the largest in the sport's 75-year history, and the tight confines of the street circuit that makes overtaking difficult to achieve.
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Although there will be a slight reduction in size with the new car design rules for 2026, drivers doubt it will make much of a difference to improve the situation.
One suggestion put forward came from ex-F1 driver Alex Wurz, who is the chairman of the GPDA, which included a series of tweaks to the Monaco circuit to help encourage overtaking.
This included repositioning the chicane exiting the tunnel to create a longer straight and a bigger braking zone, allowing for more overtaking attempts, plus a widening of the hairpin at the Fairmont Hotel.
WURZdesign proposed Monaco Track upgrades. High level only, considering urban constraints of the city, but aiming to improve raceability. (Nouvelle Chicane idea indeed a larger civil engineering impact) pic.twitter.com/zwdTsEM150
— alex wurz (@alex_wurz) May 26, 2025
But Sainz said he thought these changes would only help '1-5 per cent of the issues that we have,' as drivers would still be able to lap slowly and not be overtaken.
That issue is expected to be one of the main topics that emerges when teams come together to discuss Monaco given the frustration many felt with drivers backing off to help their teammates.
'That was not nice,' Haas driver Esteban Ocon told reporters on Thursday ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix. 'It opens up for such team orders that are honestly not very clean, and it's not a sport anymore if you start to do that.
'Yes, there's always been some team orders in F1, but this is not what we like to see. And to that extent, it's honestly too much.' Ocon added that he thought Russell's decision to cut the track and not give the place back to Albon was 'a bit dirty.'
Russell explained on Thursday he was 'tired of seeing Alex drive like a grandma' and knew the drive-through penalty was coming. But he called it 'a bit ironic' that his race result actually improved by not giving the position back as he crossed the line 11th.
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On the format itself, Russell said F1 was 'all grateful for the trial of two-stop,' but that it 'didn't change things as people predicted.'
Monaco race winner Lando Norris said it remained a 'special' event in spite of the difficulty to overtake, and that if officials wanted to improve the spectacle, more focus should be placed on qualifying.
'I don't think you can really change the race apart from if you make the cars half the size of what they are now,' Norris said. 'I don't think it needs to change that much. It's never been anything else than what it has been now.
'I think people should just be happy with what it is.'