‘Screw it’: Monaco Grand Prix leaves Formula 1 a laughing stock

A Formula 1 star has made a public apology as drivers were left “embarrassed” following ugly scenes at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix problem is beginning to look terminal.

That’s the widely-held view that’s emerged after the annual procession around the streets of the French principality on Sunday night.

Despite a new mandatory two-stop rule being in place this year, the top four all finished in the same spot they started as Lando Norris gave McLaren its first Monaco Grand Prix win since 2008.

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Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc did his best to put some pressure on the lead driver in the final 15 laps, but with the narrow streets of the glamorous city making it impossible to pass, the British driver held on without much drama unfolding.

Teammate Oscar Piastri finished third, but his lead in the world championship has been slashed to three points while reigning world champ Max Verstappen finished fourth.

The only real fireworks were set off after Norris had taken the chequered flag with drivers and team officials coming out and slamming the iconic but out-dated street circuit.

The lack of action has been something criticised yearly in recent times, but the attempts to address the issue this year with a mandatory second pit stop flopped spectacularly.

Drivers were far from impressed with the attempt to inject some life into the monotonous race — with the new rules opening the door for “gamesmanship” tactics.

Teams did little to hide their attempts to jostle for positions by asking one driver to slow and hold up the traffic to create a pit-stop window for the other.

“It’s not the way we want to go racing,” admitted Williams team boss James Vowles who had instructed Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon to dawdle deliberately on their way to top 10 finishes as did the RB pair French rookie Isack Hadjar, who came home sixth, and Liam Lawson, eight.

McLaren's British driver Lando Norris (R) celebrates after winning the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix with second-placed McLaren's Australian driver Oscar Piastri (L) at the Circuit de Monaco, on May 25, 2025. (Photo by Christophe Simon / AFP)

Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was fifth in the second Ferrari after starting seventh.

As a result of Albon’s slow pace, both Mercedes drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli felt forced to cut the chicane to avoid a collision. Russell declined to give the place back and was hit with a drive-through penalty.

“That’s Monaco and it’s how the game goes,” said Russell.

“The only way to score points. You are damned if you are and damned if you don’t. It’s a bit of a flawed system.”

He went on to say: “At one point I was like ‘screw it, I don’t care’ because I was out of the points and going to finish nowhere”.

An unimpressed Verstappen, who pitted from the lead for his second stop ahead of the final lap, said: “You can’t race here anyway so it doesn’t matter what you do — one stop or 10 stops. I was in the lead and my tyres were completely gone and you still can’t pass!

“I had nothing to lose staying out.

“A big gap behind and I think I could have done four stops and still been in the same position. That’s Monaco for you. Qualifying is really important. In the end, P4 was the maximum we could do.”

He went on to say: “We were almost doing Mario Kart. Then we have to install bits on the car and maybe you can throw bananas around”.

Asked for their views on the mandatory two-stop rule, both Williams drivers said they disliked feeling their racing had been manipulated while Mercedes boss Toto Wolff shook his head, saying: “I don’t like it”.

Former world champion Jenson Button said the new rules left drivers feeling “embarrassed”.

“When teams were using one driver to help another and going six seconds a lap slower, it looked a bit silly,” he said on Sky Sports.

“Then we had George trying to jump Albon through the chicane to get in front and push on, again, it makes a bit of a mockery of it.

Oscar Piastri (left) held off Max Verstappen on Lap 1. Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images.

The Monaco track once again produced a long queue of cars. (Gabriel Bouys/Pool Photo via AP)

“It hasn’t worked. I love that we tried it but we need to work a way of tweaking it.

“As a kid, eight years old, you look at F1 as the pinnacle and think you want to get there because you drive fast. Then you come to Monaco and it’s about driving as slow as you can for your teammate.

“And the drivers are embarrassed but they did what they had to, to score points.”

Sainz also pointed out it should have been obvious for officials that teams would simply move the goalposts to accommodate for the extra stop.

“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.

“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.”

Teammate Albon was blunt when speaking after the race, making an apology to viewers by saying “sorry” as he looked straight at the TV camera used for the global broadcast on Sky Sports.

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

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

Lando Norris came out on top. AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

F1 guru Martin Brundle summed it up on Sky Sport.

“It didn’t work,” he said.

“The focus was on pitting and not on racing.”

Sky F1 commentator Naomi Schiff said: “Things were more chaotic today but some drivers’ races were ruined because you have to play a strategic game.

“At the end of the day, you want to see the person who deserves to win, win, even if that means being followed around in circles.”

Leading Formula 1 journalist Nate Saunders posted on X: “Liked F1 trying something different with the rules this year, but a risk was that we got a spectacle like that - think an unavoidable conclusion is that you’re not going to get many “good” races in Monaco whatever you try”.

Norris, however, won’t care about the outcry as he celebrates his sixth career Grand Prix win.

“It feels amazing,” he said.

Norris resisted intense pressure to claim his deserved victory, his first since Australia’s season-opening race, to finish 3.131 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s local hero Leclerc.

“It’s a long, gruelling race, but good fun. We could push for quite a lot of the race, but in the last quarter, I was nervous with Charles behind and Max ahead,” said Norris.

“But we won in Monaco and it doesn’t matter how you win. For me, an amazing weekend. This is what I dreamed of when I was a kid, so I achieved one of my dreams.”

After eight of this year’s 24 races, Piastri has 161 points, Norris 158 and Verstappen 136.

— with AFP

Originally published as ‘Screw it’: Monaco Grand Prix leaves Formula 1 a laughing stock