Amid Lando Norris’s Monaco Grand Prix win, Formula One teams call for track changes

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McLaren's Oscar Piastri steers his car during the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix (AP Photo)

While McLaren driver Lando Norris won the Monaco Grand Prix after starting at the front from the start amid the mandatory two pit stop rule by the FIA at the race track, there have been calls by Formula One teams to consider layout changes for the 1929 built race track. The track, which has been hosting Formula One races since 1950, has almost no spots where drivers can overtake and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has urged FIA to ‘move with the times ultimately’.

“The fundamental problem is you cannot overtake here. The cars are so big now that you just don’t have a chance to get alongside. It’s circuit specific, we’ve known that, it’s been on the calendar for 72 years. Everything has to move with the times ultimately. It’s an iconic and historic circuit but if you look at how Monaco has changed, how much land they’ve reclaimed into the sea, I don’t think you’d need to do too much. There just needs to be one area where you can have an overtake and everybody knows that coming here the race was pretty much done on Saturday,” Horner told The Guardian.

FIA had come up with a new rule requiring drivers to use three sets of tyres apart from the mandatory two pit-stop rule at the Monaco race track. Norris, who is now placed at the second spot in the Championship title race behind team-mate Oscar Piastri by three points, won the race ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Piastri with Red Bull driver Max Verstappen finishing fourth. With the mandatory two pit-stop rule, Verstappen, who was in the lead after the 76th lap in the 78 lap race did not take his second pit-stop until the last lap. It meant the Red Bull team was considering a possibility of a crash and a red flag, a loophole to be exploited in case such an incident happened on the last lap, with Verstappen starting from the lead and taking advantage of the fresh tyres. It did not happen and Verstappen fell back to fourth spot with Norris winning the race. Only two overtaking passes were made in the 78 lap race. “There’s not been any more overtaking here. I thought that was what was wanted. Now you just give people opportunity by luck, by waiting for a red flag, waiting for a safety car. You’re not getting a more deserved winner in the end of things, which I don’t entirely agree with. I think it should be the person who drives the best race and deserves to win. It depends what you want. Do you want to manufacture races? There hasn’t been any more overtaking here. I thought that was what was wanted,” said Norris post the race.

Verstappen admitted that the team was hoping to get lucky. “We had nothing to lose. You just hope that something happens and you get lucky, but… that didn’t come the whole time.” Verstappen said post the race.

Last year, FIA had signed a six-year extension with Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM), the race’s organisers. McLaren rival Mercedes’s team principal Toto Wolff too agreed with Horner’s views. “What we can look at is to create some more specific regulations that there’s a maximum of back-off you can have. Does it improve the overtaking? I don’t think that’s feasible. We need to talk also with maybe ACM here. Is there anything we can change on the layout, if you could in a city limited by mountains and the sea.” Wolff told the media post the race.

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