Does Monaco Deserve a Place on the Formula One Calendar?

Manuel Goria/Sutton Images 2018

The Monaco Grand Prix is, without a doubt, the most iconic circuit on the current Formula One calendar. Its glamour and prestige never fail to attract the highest end of society, packing the grandstands and paddock with celebrities year after year. To name a few, Naomi Campbell, Dua Lipa, and even Jeff Bezos attended the Grand Prix this year. Its famed track consists of many twists and turns around narrow streets, making the circuit an increasingly complex one. Most notably, the track contains the renowned hairpin, the Nouvelle chicane, and a long tunnel; one of the only tracks on the current calendar to do so. At Monaco, the track presents a challenge for the drivers: make it around the circuit without smashing the car into pieces. Even a millimetre off leads to trouble for the driver; one hundred percent accuracy is required one hundred percent of the time. However, Monaco isn’t all glamour and excitement. The races at Monaco are often wildly uninteresting- many describe them as nothing more than a game of ‘follow the leader.’ The question now on everyone’s minds: has Formula One evolved to outgrow the historic circuit?

Monaco and Formula One are synonymous: you can’t think of one without thinking of the other. Monte Carlo is steeped in History, much of which is intrinsically linked to the sport. The first Grand Prix in Monaco was held in April 1929, right when Formula One was beginning to establish its place in the sporting world. In fact, the Monaco Grand Prix predates the current World Championship, which has been held since 1950. Apart from two exceptions in 1953 and 1954 (due to unfinalised car regulations), a Grand Prix has been held in Monaco every year since 1950. The circuit in Monte Carlo is a fundamental part of the F1 calendar, its rich history rooted deep in the motorsport. Former driver Daniel Ricciardo beautifully sums up the circuit as “awesomely scary and beautiful” and “one of life’s greatest experiences” (Lewis Larkham, 2024). The track in Monaco is also one of the three races required to achieve the unofficial Triple Crown of Motorsport (only completed by Graham Hill), rendering it an essential track of all motorsport, not just Formula One. It’s always more than the track. Monaco is being so close to the cars, that you have to hold onto your hat. Monaco has glamorous celebrities and drivers arriving stylishly on motorbikes. Monaco is Formula One.

However, not all Formula One drivers, previous or current, feel the same about the glamorous track. Former world champion and Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso once remarked that Monaco was “one of the best moments of the season” but it “could be a little bit boring as well” (Lewis Larkham, 2024). This only scratches the surface of the problem of the Circuit de Monaco; it’s boring. While the tight and narrow streets of Monte Carlo bring a certain exciting danger to the race, it also makes it borderline impossible to overtake. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner sums the problem up perfectly, criticising Monaco for its “fundamental problem” as you “cannot overtake” on the narrow track. As a result, Monaco is nothing more than a seventy-eight lap long game of ‘follow the leader’, as the remaining nineteen drivers follow the pole sitter around the circuit. Since 1950, thirty-three wins have come from pole at Monaco, and a total of fifty wins from the front row out of seventy-one Grands Prix total. It is becoming increasingly difficult for anyone not on the front row to win the race and claim that top step on the podium. Therefore, Monaco is slowly becoming more boring and predictable. Saturday qualifying mostly predicts the outcome before the race even starts, essentially sealing the win before Sunday has even begun. A common criticism of Formula One is that it’s just ‘cars driving around in circles’, and in Monaco? No one can even argue against that.

While the tight streets of Monaco do tend to lead to the impossibility of overtaking, they also regularly cause crashes and pile-ups. These crashes are often dangerous, but current safety regulations mean the crashes often add excitement to the race, rather than fear and heartache. Most recently, at the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly failed to brake in time, resulting in him crashing into the back of Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull. This added thrill to an otherwise boring race, reminding the complacent audience of just how dangerous the narrow streets of Monaco can be. Most spectacularly, the first lap of the 2024 Grand Prix saw a huge crash between three cars, a red flag soon being waved to suspend the session. Mexican driver Sergio Perez spun out and smashed into the wall, taking the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg with him. The other Haas of Kevin Magnussen then had no choice but to plow directly into the side of the already ruined Red Bull. This wreck saw all three cars retiring from the Grand Prix and a relatively uneventful race, after its resumption. We also don’t have to only look to Formula One for disastrous crashes at Monaco. In the 2025 Formula Two feature race, pole-sitter and championship leader, Alex Dunne hit the side of Martins’ car, spinning them both into the barrier and dangerously bringing them to a standstill in the middle of the narrow track. The remaining drivers tried to swerve and avoid the barrier, but this was in vain as their botched attempts resulted in a ten car pile-up. Described by a commentator as a “Formula Two car park”, the devastating crash resulted in seven cars out of the race and the most excitement that was seen at Monaco all weekend. Dunne was later heavily blamed by Martins, leading to the iconic line “Who does he think he is, Max Verstappen?” This begs another question, however, just how safe is Monaco? When all the excitement that we get from a track is the fearful anticipation that a driver may cause a crash, why do we still return to Monaco year after year? Aptly put by many fans, Formula One is about racing, not crashing. The ever-evolving size and abilities of the Formula One cars make overtaking borderline impossible in Monte Carlo, forcing the race to become one of crashing; not racing. Why do we still have such a desire to hold onto Monaco when it is straying us away from what the sport is at its core? Racing.

FOM 2025

Nevertheless, it isn’t only avid motorsport fans that have noticed the lack of exciting racing at Monaco. In a desperate attempt to make the Grand Prix more exciting, the FIA introduced a new rule to the 2025 Grand Prix. All drivers now have to make two mandatory pit stops during the race. Furthermore, they had to run three sets of tyres, two of which are different compounds. Therefore, the race became a game of strategy and well-timed pit stops in an attempt to gain an advantage, rather than sheer speed or clever overtaking. The new rule did bring some level of excitement to the race, no one can argue against that. Watching the race was a constant guessing game of who was going to pit next, and trying to figure out the different teams’ strategies to gain an advantage over one another. Many moments arose when I sat with bated breath, unsure where a driver would come out after a pit stop. But with this small bit of excitement, the rule also brought unpopular strategies to the race, especially from Racing Bulls and Williams. The two teams are under fire for the way they conducted their drivers throughout the race. In the words of Williams driver Alex Albon, it was an “ugly race” that brought out the worst of many drivers (Sky Sports, 2025). British commentator Martin Brundle highlighted a key issue after the race: “The focus was on pitting and not on racing” (Sky Sports, 2025). What we all watched last week wasn’t racing, it was a game. The drivers sought to outcompete each other with tactics and sneaky moves, instead of sheer speed and raw competition. This removes arguably the core principle of motorsport, speed, and replaces it with something much slower. This is reinforced by former McLaren driver Jenson Button’s comment that young children see Formula One as the “pinnacle” because the cars “drive fast” (Sky Sports, 2025). Yet now at Monaco, “it’s about driving as slow as you can for your teammate”. Speed is the essence of Formula One racing; why should we be removing it?

As aforementioned, the race saw some… interesting strategies from Racing Bulls, Williams, and Mercedes. Both Racing Bulls and Williams opted to have one of their drivers deliberately take slower speeds around the tight circuit of Monte Carlo to give the leading driver more time for a pit stop by holding up the cars behind. This ensured that the leading driver came out well ahead of the cars behind them on track, maintaining their place in the race order. The tactic was a highly successful one, with both Sainz and Albon ending in a points scoring position and rookie driver Isack Hadjar finishing the highest he ever has in Formula One. However, just because the tactic was successful, doesn’t mean it was popular. Outrage ensued among William’s fans, including myself, at the unsportsmanlike tactic of slowing down the rest of the grid. Team principal James Vowles himself spoke to Sky Sports during the race and expressed his distaste at the strategy: “This isn’t how I like to go racing, but that’s what the rules have created“. We cannot blame Vowles for the strategy he chose, as the new rule made it necessary for the unpopular tactic to be employed by Williams. Moreover, the strategy of Williams led to Russell gaining a drive-through penalty of five seconds in the latter half of the race. Albon’s slow speeds and incessant braking led to Russell leaving the track and gaining an advantage over the William’s driver, to prevent a collision between the two childhood friends. This indicates a key drawback of the strategy of Williams, which was arguably just a product of the strange rule. Moreover, it highlights the ridiculous nature of the new regulation, through the strange choices drivers are forced to make on track. However, Racing Bulls and Williams weren’t the only teams to make strange and unpopular pit-stop choices. The German racing team Mercedes opted to not pit either of their drivers until the last eight laps of the race, forcing their drivers to complete seventy laps on a single set of hard tyres. This left many Mercedes fans anxious that the drivers would rather take the harsh penalty than pit even once during the race. However, both drivers pitted twice in the very last part of the race, plunging Russell and Antonelli down to eleventh and eighteenth place respectively. Team principal Toto Wolff later commented that they “forgot the regulations” until “after lap 60”. While Wolff is clearly joking here, his comment highlights the ridiculous nature of the new regulation. As demonstrated through the unpopular and downright strange tactics used, the new rule twists the sport into a harsh and sneaky game, rather than racing.

British driver George Russell suffered the most from this new rule, his devastation clear in a post-race interview. Following his disappointing performance, Russell remarked on a way to improve the new rule. He suggested that one driver on the grid should be given a button to activate sprinklers and soak the track once during the Grand Prix weekend. Furthermore, Dutch world champion Max Verstappen, who placed fourth in the uneventful race, also commented on the ridiculous new regulations. Invoking Mario Kart, he joked that “maybe you should throw bananas or something” to make the race more exciting (Sky Sports, 2025). While certainly both humourous suggestions, this does bring to light the idea that it is ridiculous for the FIA to bring in desperate, stifling regulations to try and make the race more exciting. Instead of endless and meaningless rules that try and make the circuit more exciting, perhaps the iconic track should be swapped out for something inherently more exciting.

Sky Sports 2025

This rule has not been favoured by the drivers, many “embarrassed” to do what they did for the points. Embarrassment should not be an emotion felt by F1 drivers after a race. Regret at a bad choice? Sure. Disappointed at a heart-breaking retirement? That’s a given. But not embarrassed by the choices that your team has made for you. Driven, competitive, hungry. All emotions that should be flying around after a race. Not embarrassment.

The new regulation hardly saw any change to the starting order by the end of the race. While two retirements led to some drivers shuffling up a position or two, there was hardly any change to the order. In fact, the top four started and finished in the same order, many previously predicting this would happen. This undoubtedly shows the failure of the new rule. A rule designed to shift the order of the cars making the race less predictable ended up cementing what had previously occurred at Monaco. The FIA cannot continue implementing new rules and regulations in a hopeless attempt to make the Grand Prix more exciting. The rules aren’t the problem: the track is. In fact, Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, suggested creating “one area where you can have an overtake”, as the race “was pretty much done on Saturday” (Giles Richards, 2025). However, as Wolff puts it, the city is “limited by mountains and sea”, making it almost impossible to alter the track and allow more overtaking.

The Monaco Grand Prix has grown tired and Formula One has evolved past the narrow confines of the circuit. While the Grand Prix does bring a certain level of glamour to the Formula One season, this doesn’t negate just how boring the races can be. With the entire race decided on Saturday’s qualifying session, motorsport fans complacently watch a long game of ‘follow the leader’ on Saturday. We don’t need more rules, we don’t need inventive ideas to make the race more exciting: we need to replace the Monaco Grand Prix with something inherently more exhilarating. But the decision isn’t up to me, you, or even the teams: it’s up to the FIA. Instead, it’s our job to sit back and watch the ridiculous rules that the governing body decides to implement in the years to come. Hopefully, something will make the iconic Grand Prix just a bit more exciting.