F1 rolls the dice with new Monaco GP rule – can it save the famous race?
Last year's procession around the principality – where the order of the top-10 did not alter once – was the final straw. In an era where the show is king for F1 's owners Liberty Media, something had to change at the sport's most famous race.
Where better to roll the dice than Monaco? Ahead of the 2025 season, the team bosses met and concocted a plan to revitalise a grand prix where overtaking is nigh-on impossible. All drivers will have to run three sets of tyres in the 78-lap race on Sunday, making two pit-stops effectively mandatory – unless there is a red flag, like last year.
Suitably, on Thursday, Williams driver Carlos Sainz described the mystery element of the new rule as something of a 'lottery' for raceday. The typical raceday simulation plans all teams carve out beforehand will not be so straightforward now.
It has been described in some quarters as a 'gimmick' and, no doubt, the sport enjoys a fresh trick with an eye on spicing things up. In modern times, there was the ludicrous double-points on offer for the 2014 season finale in Abu Dhabi, meaning Lewis Hamilton had to finish second instead of sixth to guarantee the world championship. Fortunately, he won the race, while Nico Rosberg finished a lap down due to an engine issue. It was not repeated.
Bernie Ecclestone, coming to the end of his 40-year tenure in charge of the sport, did not digest the learnings for long, though. By the season-opening race of the 2016 campaign in Australia, a new one-by-one elimination qualifying format was widely ridiculed, resulting in a lack of cars out on track setting times. It survived for race two in Bahrain, but no further.
More recently, there was the 2019 introduction of a bonus point for whoever set the fastest lap in the race, provided they were in the top 10. Unfortunately, Red Bull taking advantage of their sister team and Daniel Ricciardo's final race in Singapore last year – where he set the fastest lap but came home last, thus not receiving the bonus point but taking it away from title contender Lando Norris – triggered a change for 2025. Fastest laps on raceday are now irrelevant.
We also have sprint races now – six a year – which add to the weekend spectacle. F1 has never been afraid to move the needle, in the hunt for excitement and eyeballs. This year's rule change in Monaco should be applauded; the easier option would have been to stand still.
Usually, qualifying in Monaco is the most important of the year and, whilst still vital, various strategies can now be at play across the grid with multiple pit-stops. For example, if you are at the back, could you stop on lap one and lap two and then race to the end? Meanwhile, at the front, when do you spread out your pit-stops? Who will blink first?
"I guess it can go both ways, where it can be quite straightforward, or it can go completely crazy because of safety cars coming into play or not making the right calls,' said Red Bull 's four-time world champion Max Verstappen.
Usually a hardline traditionalist, even the Dutchman seems intrigued by the new rule.
"I think it will spice it up, probably a bit more. Normally, when you have that one stop, once you have a good pit-stop and everything is fine, then you drive to the end. You just have to stay focused and not hit the barrier.
"But maybe with a two-stop, it can create something different. People gambling, guessing when the right time is to box. So hopefully it will spice it up a bit more."
Lewis Hamilton added: "I think it's good to try something different, if you keep doing the same thing over and over and over you're going to get the same result, so I think it's cool that they're trying something different.
"Whether or not it's the answer, we'll find out. It's definitely going to be different to what we've had in the past years. Whether that's better or not, I have no idea, I can't predict, but I like the way it's looking."
It could be a damp squib. Or it could change the game. Yet with a contract now in place until 2031 – the sport's traditional crown jewel event is going nowhere – Monaco needed to renovate and this unprecedented rule change will add a sense of mystery to proceedings come Sunday afternoon. And, ultimately, is that not what every sport craves?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
17 minutes ago
- BBC News
'I always practise that' - Bellingham fuels Jude comparisons with first Dortmund goal
Jobe Bellingham already knew the comparisons to big brother Jude were inevitable, especially after scoring on his first start for Borussia years, nine months and one week after Jude scored on his first start for the black and yellow - a 5-0 win in the German Cup - Jobe scored on his first 19-year-old scored 45 minutes into his full debut - a 4-3 defeat of Mamelodi Sundowns in the Club World Cup - 15 minutes longer than it took Jude against Duisburg back in September went on to score 24 goals in 132 games for Dortmund before joining Real Madrid in 2023, and Jobe certainly showed signs of his sibling's nack of arriving late in the box to goal in Cincinnati showed anticipation and poise, agility and ruthlessness. After timing his run perfectly, Jobe cushioned the ball away from his marker before firing past the goalkeeper, albeit with the help of a slight capped a fine display on his full debut, and by his own admission, it's something the former Sunderland midfielder has been working on. "It's a really nice bonus. I am glad we won but there are still a lot of things for me to improve on personally and for the team. I am really pleased with it," Bellingham told Dazn."I practise that so many times, not that exact finish, but arriving late on the edge of the box as a midfielder is something you need to be really good at."If you can score, if you can contribute those kind of goals a certain amount per season then you are doing really well. "I was really pleased because it was something I practised as a kid and at Sunderland so many times, during training, after training. So yeah, I am really proud of it." Comparisons to Jude are no doubt tiring for Jobe, but there is a reason they are fact, the timing of his runs into the penalty area are reminiscent of another English midfielder."It's easy sometimes as a midfielder to just pass the ball then stand still," former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel told Dazn. "But no, he wants to arrive late in the box. He wants to be there when the ball drops."He reminds me of a certain player I played with, Frank Lampard. 20-odd goals every season by being there and arriving at the right time. I think he's going to score a lot of goals for Dortmund."What I like about him is he's very direct. Once he has the ball he's looking up, he's passing forwards, running forwards. He wants to arrive at the box at the right time, and that's exactly what he did. "The chest control and the volley - he wouldn't have scored this goal if he hadn't passed and then run forwards."Former Italy and Inter Milan forward Christian Vieri said: "He's going to score a lot of goals because he's always going towards the goal - he looks like his brother, the movements are exactly the same."Should Dortmund and Real Madrid both win their respective Club World Cup groups and win in the last 16, then the Bellingham brothers would face each other in a quater-final clash in New Jersey.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Cult of celebrity feels like a fundamental tension at the heart of the game
It is in the details that the truest picture emerges. Quite aside from the endless politicking, the forever-war with Uefa, the consorting with autocrats and the intriguing broadcast rights and partnership deals, there has been, not a new, but growing sense during the Club World Cup that Fifa doesn't really get football. There is something cargo-cultish about it, creating outcomes without engaging in processes. Perhaps that is inevitable with Gianni Infantino's style of leadership; like all populists, he is big on vision and short on practical reality. It was there in the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams. OK: how will the tournament be organised? Sixteen groups of three. Won't that mean either lots of potential dead rubbers (one team from each group goes through) or opportunities for collusion (two go through)? Oh, actually, the four-team groups at the 2022 have worked so well, we'll go with 12 groups of four. Sure, but then you have eight best third-place teams going through which: a) diminishes jeopardy; and b) undermines sporting integrity by giving an advantage to teams in later groups because they have a clearer idea of what is needed to progress, again offering opportunities for collusion. No response, because all that matters is a bigger tournament equals more votes for the president and (in the short term) more revenue. One of the oddest aspects of the Club World Cup has been the way players are greeted on to the pitch individually, like swimmers before an Olympic final. At Ulsan HD v Mamelodi Sundowns, they may as well have gone on and introduced the crowd as well. Who needs this? Who wants this? Why does the first player out have to hang around for several minutes waiting for the 22nd player? For well over a century the two teams have walked out side by side. This has always been part of the gladiatorial ritual of football. This is the contest: one team against another. But as Fifa has sought desperately to improve attendances and stimulate interest, its focus has become more and more on the individual. That is why there was all that talk, much of it emanating from Infantino, about Cristiano Ronaldo potentially securing a short-term deal with a qualifier, and why qualifying was gerrymandered to ensure the presence of Lionel Messi's Inter Miami. But there is a potentially self-defeating short-termism to this. While the desire to see Messi is entirely understandable, especially as he enters the late autumn of his career, Inter Miami are sixth in MLS's Western Conference, their form having disintegrated since the end of March. From an MLS point of view, the ideal scenario would have been for one of their sides to beat a storied opponent, perhaps push on to the quarter-finals, generating interest in North America's domestic league. The best way of doing that would have been to have the best-possible MLS representation, but Inter Miami are in no sense one of the best three sides. As it is, none of the MLS sides won their opening game, although Porto's dismal form and Messi's dead-ball ability may get Inter Miami through anyway. It might also be pointed out that Auckland City are not the best side in New Zealand, nor are Red Bull Salzburg one of the best 12 sides in Europe, but the consequences are greater for the host nation, particularly when there is apparently so much potential for growth. The celebritisation of football is not new, but it is intensifying. When Paul Pogba returned to Manchester United in 2016 and, rather than speaking of the Premier League or becoming a European champion, said he dreamed of winning the Ballon d'Or, it felt shocking, a player elevating his own interests and a silly bauble above the glory of team success. But that has become normal. Improving his Ballon d'Or chances is one of the reasons Neymar left Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain; even Trent Alexander-Arnold mentioned the Ballon d'Or as a motivation for joining Real Madrid (good luck with that from right-back). Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion The marketing of football is almost all focused on individuals. That's been particularly so at the Club World Cup, but it is true of almost every competition. Even the way lineups are introduced on Sky's Premier League coverage, with the players performing a fake celebration, seems designed to introduce them as characters. Yet there is a tension there. While individual players are celebrated, the increasing use of data means image and self-projection may never have mattered less. The stats will find the talent, even if the talent has no gift for self-promotion. At the same time, the best teams have never been so cohesive, so integrated. PSG provide a useful case study. For years they signed stars with seemingly little thought to how they might play together. Although their immense resources won them the French league, they habitually choked in Europe. Then there was a change of approach, the money was spent not on Neymar and Messi but on players on the way up who still had a hunger for success and who could play together. The result was the Champions League and, despite their defeat by Botafogo, possibly the inaugural world title in the expanded format. If it was conceived as a two-stage strategy – build the brand through celebrity, then win the actual competitions – it has worked to perfection; in reality, it's probably trial and error that has brought them to this point. At Real Madrid, meanwhile, Florentino Pérez still seems locked in his galáctico vision of football, insisting on adding Kylian Mbappé to a squad that already contained Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo, resulting in imbalance and an expensive downturn in form. This goes deeper than transfer policies, though. This feels like a fundamental tension at the heart of the game. What, after all, is success in modern football? Manchester City for the past decade have been a much better football team than PSG, and yet they have nothing like the brand awareness. Is success winning trophies, or making money? Is it winning trophies or becoming more famous? Is it winning trophies or marketing the individual? The individual walk-ons only blur the lines further, suggest organisers who struggle with the concept that football, perhaps more than any other sport, is a game of the team.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Leigh survive scare to beat Catalans and go third
Betfred Super LeagueCatalans Dragons (6) 12Tries: Pangai Junior, Makinson Goals: Makinson 2Leigh Leopards (12) 26Tries: Niu, Brand, Ofahengaue, Armstrong Goals: O'Brien 5 Joe Ofahengaue and David Armstrong scored late tries as Leigh Leopards beat Catalans Dragons 26-12 to go third in Super had come from 12-0 down to level through tries from Tevita Pangai Junior and Tommy Makinson but fell to a sixth-straight league Niu and Keanan Brand had both crossed to help give Leigh a half-time ran away with the game when Pangai Junior was sent to the sin-bin for a late tackle, but Gareth O'Brien's performance with the boot was crucial as he scored a penalty before full-time to add to his four to follow Catalans Dragons: Tomkins, Makinson, Laguerre, Darrelatour, Cotric, Keary, Rouge, Satae, Da Costa, Maria, Romano, Seguier, PartingtonInterchanges: Pangai Juniorr, Bousquet, Sironen, DezariaLeigh Leopards: Armstrong, McIntosh, Niu, Hanley, Brand, O'Brien, Lam, Ofahengaue, Ipape, Mulhern, Halton, Trout, LiuInterchanges: Tuitavake, Davis, O'Neill, McNamaraReferee: Liam Rush
