Will new rule save Monaco from again being the pits?

Two mandatory pit-stops in the principality may spice up a race which is typically a procession

- Kieran Jackson

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, given the immovable parameters of the famous twisty street circuit. All drivers will have to run three sets of tyres in the 78-lap race tomorrow, 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 doublepoints 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.