Lando Norris
McLaren
Mercedes
Red Bull
Ferrari
Williams
Racing Bulls
Aston Martin
Haas
Alpine
Formula 1 implemented a one-off rule for the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix that required drivers to make two pit stops, but it saw Racing Bulls and Williams game the system.
The FIA and F1 agreed to try to spice up the Monaco GP this season with another strategical aspect to combat the lack of overtaking chances on the tight streets of the Principality. It did not work, though, as Lando Norris won the 2025 Monaco GP in a race with very little action.
All of the talk throughout the race was about strategies, rather than overtaking. Few drivers were also able to complete legal overtakes on Sunday, other than Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Gabriel Bortoleto’s fight on Lap 1 and Lance Stroll’s move around Nico Hulkenberg’s outside.
McLaren star Norris even lapped everyone except the top five once and everyone except the top eight twice. The Briton picked off his rivals while they were held in traffic, as Racing Bulls and Williams gamed F1’s new rule so both of their drivers secured points in the Monaco GP.
F1 should change its red flag rules over enforcing two mandatory pit stops like for the 2025 Monaco GP
Racing Bulls initially sacrificed Liam Lawson to back the field up and create enough space for Isack Hadjar to complete his two mandatory pit stops in the Monaco GP. So, Williams copied their tactic with Carlos Sainz first helping Alex Albon out before the Thai returned the favour.
Lawson’s role as Racing Bulls’ B-driver on Sunday saw Hadjar earn his best F1 finish so far with P6 in the Monaco GP. But how the 20-year-old capitalised on qualifying in P5 left a sour taste in the mouths of many who saw Racing Bulls game F1’s bid to improve the Monaco GP.
Yet F1 and the FIA did not need to implement the two-stop rule they trialled with the 2025 Monaco GP given there was a much simpler solution to the real reason that the one-off rule was introduced, which was Charles Leclerc winning the 2024 Monaco GP without a pit stop.
Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen’s Lap 1 crash at the 2024 Monaco GP caused a red flag period, which gave the entire field a free pit stop. Leclerc then nursed his tyres through until the end of the race and beat Oscar Piastri from pole position for an emotional home victory.
But while F1’s red flag rules allowing teams to change their drivers’ tyres without losing any time like for a live pit stop has been a topic of debate for years, BBC Sport reports that there is ‘no momentum’ to change it ‘at the moment’ given the rule is in place on safety grounds.
Time penalties for changing tyres under a red flag improves the show without risking safety
F1 is opposed to preventing teams from changing their drivers’ tyres under a red flag as it is considered potentially dangerous to send a car back out on heavily worn tyres. There is also the risk a driver could have a puncture if the red flag was caused due to debris from a crash.
But F1 and the FIA have an easy solution to not only improve the Monaco GP by preventing a repeat of the circumstances behind Leclerc’s 2024 win but all Formula 1 races by issuing a time penalty for any driver who changes their tyres and/or requires repairs under a red flag.
It could potentially be extreme to enforce a drive-through penalty for a driver changing their tyres under a red flag to replicate the time lost during a live pit stop given the field would be bunched back together, but a time penalty will stop teams changing tyres because they can.
A time penalty for changing tyres under a red flag would also remove the risk of a repeat of the 2024 Monaco GP. With a 10-second penalty, Leclerc would have fallen to fourth instead of winning the race by managing his pace to get to the end without requiring a live pit stop.
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