How To Make the Monaco Grand Prix Interesting
People have been complaining about boring races in Monaco for years, but 2024 has really raised (or lowered!) the bar. The closeness in performance of all the cars and drivers combined with the lack of pit stops to give us the worst race in living memory. Yet for similar reasons, qualifying was thrilling.
In his C4 interview, George Russell suggested different tyre rules as a solution, for instance a requirement to use all three compounds during the race. With all due respect to George (who is the best thinker in F1) that would help but would still leave it as a race of strategy and not speed.
I think the excellence of qualifying is the clue to the way forward. Run the Grand Prix as a time trial. Here's one idea, but others may think of something better:
Send the cars out five at a time. One warm-up lap and then they start from the pole position spot at 10 second intervals. Run for 5 laps. On current performance no-one will catch or even get close to the car in front in 5 laps, so no problems of being held up or even encountering dirty air. After the five laps, repeat the process with the next 5 cars, and do the whole process 3 times. Results to be based on aggregate times for the 15 laps.
Obviously this would negate qualifying, except to set the running order for Sunday. In order to maintain the importance and intensity of qualifying, give good points for Saturday too.
In his C4 interview, George Russell suggested different tyre rules as a solution, for instance a requirement to use all three compounds during the race. With all due respect to George (who is the best thinker in F1) that would help but would still leave it as a race of strategy and not speed.
I think the excellence of qualifying is the clue to the way forward. Run the Grand Prix as a time trial. Here's one idea, but others may think of something better:
Send the cars out five at a time. One warm-up lap and then they start from the pole position spot at 10 second intervals. Run for 5 laps. On current performance no-one will catch or even get close to the car in front in 5 laps, so no problems of being held up or even encountering dirty air. After the five laps, repeat the process with the next 5 cars, and do the whole process 3 times. Results to be based on aggregate times for the 15 laps.
Obviously this would negate qualifying, except to set the running order for Sunday. In order to maintain the importance and intensity of qualifying, give good points for Saturday too.