‘We’ve put on a bad show for everyone’: F1 drivers slam Monaco GP rule change chaos

Formula 1 drivers have slammed a Monaco-only rule designed to liven up the most famous race on the calendar.

Pole-sitter Lando Norris held on to win, reducing Oscar Piastri’s championship lead to just three points, but for the first time in F1 history, each driver on the grid had to pit at least twice and use three different sets of tyres. It was designed to boost the on-track action on a tight and twisty circuit at which overtaking is exceedingly rare, but all it did was cause utter chaos – overshadowing the whole event.

Race winner Lando Norris with McLaren CEO Zak Brown and third-place finisher Oscar Piastri.Credit: Getty Images

Former F1 racer Martin Brundle said on the Sky coverage: “The focus was on pitting, not on racing”.

Norris won from Monaco product Charles Leclerc, and Piastri in third, but the attention soon turned to what the drivers actually thought of the new rule.

Max Verstappen, who took fourth after delaying his second pit stop until nearly the end of the race when his finishing position was inevitable, was at his brutal best when explaining the situation.

“You can’t race here anyway, so it doesn’t matter what you do,” he said on Sky.

“One stop, 10 stops – even at the end, right, I was in the lead but my tyres were completely gone and you still can’t pass.

“Nowadays, in an F1 car, you can just pass a Formula 2 car around here.”

When asked whether pitting within a certain window could work instead, Verstappen said: “But then you are almost doing Mario Kart – then we have to install bits on the car. Maybe you can throw bananas around. Yeah, I don’t know. Slippery surface?”

Williams racer Carlos Sainz jnr, who finished 10th after ceding his ninth position to teammate Alex Albon, spoke about the situation in which some drivers were holding up sections of the chasing pack in order to directly benefit their teammates. All but the top five drivers were lapped, with the ninth to 17th finishers lapped twice, and Kimi Antonelli in 18th lapped a staggering three times.

“It shows the two-stop change is nothing around Monaco. People are still going to do what we did, manipulate the final result with their driving,” Sainz said.

Close but not close enough: Oscar Piastri.Credit: Getty Images

“I’m happy if they want to try things… we tried it [the rule change] – for me it didn’t work.

“I must say, it’s not the way I like to race – it’s not the way I dream about racing around Monaco.”

Albon was even stronger – apologising to those who watched the race.

“It’s not how we want to go racing,” he said.

“I know we’ve put on a bad show for everyone.”

He then looked straight down the Sky camera and said: “Yeah, sorry.”

In speaking to former F1 world champion Jenson Button straight after the race, Piastri was honest about his own performance.

“I felt like I got into qualifying with not a lot of confidence with how the weekend was going, and I got close, but not quite close enough,” he explained.

“Around here, where you qualify is pretty much where you finish so [I’m] pretty happy with that overall. [There’s] obviously some things to look at for when we come back next year.

“If this is a bad weekend, it’s not going too badly at all. [We’ve got] some things to work on – we’ll go again next week [in Spain] and try and come back stronger, but well done to Lando – he had a great weekend.”

Red Bull star and four-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen.Credit: Getty Images

Norris started from pole and had a huge wheel lock-up into the opening turn, but maintained his composure and led largely from start to finish. It was hoped the new rule would avoid a repeat of last year where a red flag on the first lap of the race encouraged each of the front-runners to change their tyres, which lasted until the chequered flag.

After the race, in the cooldown room before the top three walked out to the podium, Piastri said to Norris of his first-corner near miss: “I thought you were in the wall, hard.”

But outside of that – and a head-scratching decision by Pierre Gasly to drive half a lap back to the pits after hitting a wall, causing him to leave debris all over the track – the Monaco race was short on genuine, uncontrived action. Formula 1’s supremos will be moving heaven and earth to avoid a repeat of that next time or Circuit de Monaco, which was one of the seven races on the first world championship calendar in 1950, could have its days numbered.

Piastri will head into the Spanish Grand Prix with just a three-point advantage over Norris in the drivers’ standings, while McLaren have a monster lead in the constructors’ title race already.

Monaco finishing order

1. Lando Norris (McLaren) 1:40:33.843
2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +3.131 seconds
3. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +3.658
4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +20.572
5. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +51.387
6. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +1 lap
7. Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1 lap
8. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +1 lap
9. Alex Albon (Williams) +2 laps
10. Carlos Sainz jnr (Williams) +2 laps
11. George Russell (Mercedes) +2 laps
12. Oliver Bearman (Haas) +2 laps
13. Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +2 laps
14. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) +2 laps
15. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +2 laps
16. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +2 laps
17. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) +2 laps
18. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +3 laps
19. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) DNF
20. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) DNF

What a grand prix that was – for better or worse.

It’s hard to say what the answer is to Monaco’s lack of overtaking, but it’s probably safe to say it’s not a mandatory two-stop rule.

Melbourne’s Oscar Piastri leaves the event still in the lead of the drivers’ championship, albeit by just three points now over his teammate Lando Norris.

Goodbye for now, and we’ll be back soon with more Formula 1 coverage.

After race marred by a chaotic rule change of two mandatory pit stops, the top three drivers – Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, and Oscar Piastri spoke to former F1 world champion Jenson Button on the coverage...

McLaren CEO Zak Brown on the podium with Charles Leclerc (second), Lando Norris (race winner) and Oscar Piastri (third).Credit: Getty Images

Oscar Piastri (third)

“It was a bit of a tricky weekend. Practice was messy all the way through and I felt like I got into qualifying with not a lot of confidence with how the weekend was going, and I got close, but not quite close enough.

“Around here, where you qualify is pretty much where you finish so [I’m] pretty happy with that overall. [There’s] obviously some things to look at for when we come back next year.

“The margins [around here] are so fine.

“If this is a bad weekend, it’s not going too badly at all. [We’ve got] some things to work on – we’ll go again next week [in Spain] and try and come back stronger, but well done to Lando – he had a great weekend. Well done to Charles as well.”

Charles Leclerc (second)

“At the end of the day, we lost the race yesterday [in qualifying]. We should have done a better job – Lando did a better job this weekend and he deserved the win.

“On my side, I realised a childhood dream last year. Not this year, but considering everything, I think it’s a lot over expectations... I thought that being in the top 10 would be a challenge, and at the end we are second, very close to P1, so it’s been a good weekend overall, but I wish I won.”

Lando Norris (winner)

“It feels amazing – it’s a long race, it’s a long, gruelling race, but good fun. We could push for quite a lot of the race. [In the] last corner I was a little bit nervous, with Charles pushing behind… but we won at Monaco, so it doesn’t matter how we win, I guess.

“[It was an] amazing weekend, with pole, with today – this is what I did dream of when I was a kid, so I achieved one of my dreams.

“The worst bit really was just the end. I felt more under control the whole race, but Max was ahead and Max was kind of backing it up a little bit, and I knew then that Charles had an opportunity so I had to manage it quite a lot – I tried back off of Max so I could push when I needed to and chill when I needed to, so I still had to manage.”

Formula 1 drivers have slammed a Monaco-only rule designed to liven up the most famous race on the calendar.

Pole-sitter Lando Norris held on to win, reducing Oscar Piastri’s championship lead to just three points, but for the first time in F1 history, each driver on the grid had to pit at least twice and use three different sets of tyres. It was designed to boost the on-track action on a tight and twisty circuit at which overtaking is exceedingly rare, but all it did was cause utter chaos – overshadowing the whole event.

Race winner Lando Norris with McLaren CEO Zak Brown and third-place finisher Oscar Piastri.Credit: Getty Images

Former F1 racer Martin Brundle said on the Sky coverage: “The focus was on pitting, not on racing”.

Norris won from Monaco product Charles Leclerc, and Piastri in third, but the attention soon turned to what the drivers actually thought of the new rule.

Max Verstappen, who took fourth after delaying his second pit stop until nearly the end of the race when his finishing position was inevitable, was at his brutal best when explaining the situation.

“You can’t race here anyway, so it doesn’t matter what you do,” he said on Sky.

“One stop, 10 stops – even at the end, right, I was in the lead but my tyres were completely gone and you still can’t pass.

“Nowadays, in an F1 car, you can just pass a Formula 2 car around here.”

When asked whether pitting within a certain window could work instead, Verstappen said: “But then you are almost doing Mario Kart – then we have to install bits on the car. Maybe you can throw bananas around. Yeah, I don’t know. Slippery surface?”

Williams racer Carlos Sainz jnr, who finished 10th after ceding his ninth position to teammate Alex Albon, spoke about the situation in which some drivers were holding up sections of the chasing pack in order to directly benefit their teammates. All but the top five drivers were lapped, with the ninth to 17th finishers lapped twice, and Kimi Antonelli in 18th lapped a staggering three times.

“It shows the two-stop change is nothing around Monaco. People are still going to do what we did, manipulate the final result with their driving,” Sainz said.

Close but not close enough: Oscar Piastri.Credit: Getty Images

“I’m happy if they want to try things… we tried it [the rule change] – for me it didn’t work.

“I must say, it’s not the way I like to race – it’s not the way I dream about racing around Monaco.”

Albon was even stronger – apologising to those who watched the race.

“It’s not how we want to go racing,” he said.

“I know we’ve put on a bad show for everyone.”

He then looked straight down the Sky camera and said: “Yeah, sorry.”

In speaking to former F1 world champion Jenson Button straight after the race, Piastri was honest about his own performance.

“I felt like I got into qualifying with not a lot of confidence with how the weekend was going, and I got close, but not quite close enough,” he explained.

“Around here, where you qualify is pretty much where you finish so [I’m] pretty happy with that overall. [There’s] obviously some things to look at for when we come back next year.

“If this is a bad weekend, it’s not going too badly at all. [We’ve got] some things to work on – we’ll go again next week [in Spain] and try and come back stronger, but well done to Lando – he had a great weekend.”

Red Bull star and four-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen.Credit: Getty Images

Norris started from pole and had a huge wheel lock-up into the opening turn, but maintained his composure and led largely from start to finish. It was hoped the new rule would avoid a repeat of last year where a red flag on the first lap of the race encouraged each of the front-runners to change their tyres, which lasted until the chequered flag.

After the race, in the cooldown room before the top three walked out to the podium, Piastri said to Norris of his first-corner near miss: “I thought you were in the wall, hard.”

But outside of that – and a head-scratching decision by Pierre Gasly to drive half a lap back to the pits after hitting a wall, causing him to leave debris all over the track – the Monaco race was short on genuine, uncontrived action. Formula 1’s supremos will be moving heaven and earth to avoid a repeat of that next time or Circuit de Monaco, which was one of the seven races on the first world championship calendar in 1950, could have its days numbered.

Piastri will head into the Spanish Grand Prix with just a three-point advantage over Norris in the drivers’ standings, while McLaren have a monster lead in the constructors’ title race already.

Monaco finishing order

1. Lando Norris (McLaren) 1:40:33.843
2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +3.131 seconds
3. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +3.658
4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +20.572
5. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +51.387
6. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +1 lap
7. Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1 lap
8. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +1 lap
9. Alex Albon (Williams) +2 laps
10. Carlos Sainz jnr (Williams) +2 laps
11. George Russell (Mercedes) +2 laps
12. Oliver Bearman (Haas) +2 laps
13. Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +2 laps
14. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) +2 laps
15. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +2 laps
16. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +2 laps
17. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) +2 laps
18. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +3 laps
19. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) DNF
20. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) DNF

Unfortunately for Australian fans, it’s not Piastri winning his first Monaco race, but Norris has won – a richly deserved result, given his pole position and commanding race pace.

Leclerc is second, with Piastri third.

Unfortunately, as Martin Brundle said on Sky, “the focus was on pitting, not on racing”.

The four-time reigning world champion is finally serving his second mandatory pit stop.

He’s now out of the lead and will finish fourth.

The question now is just whether Norris can hold on...

It’s taken longer than Norris would like, but Piastri is right behind Leclerc.

They’re bunched up big-time from first (Verstappen) to fourth (Piastri).

This will be a huge relief for Norris, who can now focus more over the remaining laps on Verstappen in front than on Leclerc behind him. The Monégasque racer has Piastri to worry about now.

Mercedes are clearly no fans of this two-stop Monaco-only rule change. Kimi Antonelli has just pitted for the first time, and still has another mandatory stop to come.

He’s well out of the points, of course, so even if he didn’t make his final stop and got disqualified, it wouldn’t mean anything in real terms.

Verstappen’s tyres are 40 laps old, but he’s not pitting yet. Could this cause some late drama for McLaren and Norris?

As Martin Brundle said on commentary for Sky, Red Bull’s long-game strategy is still a smart one. There’s still plenty of time for a red flag...

Meanwhile, Piastri is rapidly catching Norris and Leclerc – and Verstappen – given the race leader is showing no great pace out in front. Bizarre.

Verstappen, currently leading the race on lap 63 of 78, but having only pitted once, will finish fourth barring anything truly weird – coming back out behind Norris, Leclerc and Piastri.

Leaders

1. Verstappen
2. Norris +1.9 seconds
3. Leclerc
4. Piastri
5. Hamilton
6. Hadjar
7. Ocon
8. Lawson
9. Sainz
10. Albon

Red Bull are clearly praying for a safety car at this point – that’s Verstappen’s only hope of victory, given he’s yet to make his second stop.

Hamilton has made his second stop and has resumed in fifth, behind Verstappen, Norris, Leclerc and Piastri.

It’s been another day of frustration for Oscar Piastri.Credit: AP

Astonishingly, Russell in 10th and Antonelli in 12th are yet to pit at all. Is that Mercedes’ way of subtly protesting this Monaco-only pit stop rule change?