Once again May has passed and the F1 race in Monte Carlo has been run and won, with the usual lack of overtaking and moaning that inevitably goes along with it. In fact you could call it the Moanaco Grand Prix? Huh? Anyway, the FIA are talking about some Monaco Grand Prix Changes and while talking is a good start, but apart from giving away free sandwiches, what can they do to make the Monaco Grand Prix more exciting?
Whilst pointing out that the Monaco Grand Prix is still a great spectacle, and that fans in Europe shouldn’t complain as much as the poor fans who have to watch this GP approaching midnight, it hasn’t stopped us coming up with our own Monaco Grand Prix Changes which will have shared below.
We suggest a few tweaks to the track if that is possible, plus some tactical things that could be implemented to try and improve the on track action.
READ MORE – Our 2021 Monaco Grand Prix Review
READ MORE – Our 2021 Power Rankings – Monaco GP Edition
Monaco Grand Prix Changes – The Track
The beauty of Monaco is the unique layout among the buildings and around the harbour plus the absence of Tilke to ruin it, and there isn’t much you can do to the track to potentially improve overtaking. But there are a couple of minor things to try anyway.
MOVE THE CHICANE FURTHER DOWN THE ROAD
Coming out of the tunnel it seems like drivers don’t seem to get enough time to line up a move, so why not move it further down the road as above. The image shows there’s already a chicane ready to go. This would give the drivers a few more hundred metres to line up a move.
The chicane would also not be a double chicane which also seems to be half the problem with the current one as drivers then can make one move and not have to worry about going wide and potentially having to give the place back as they negotiate the second part of the chicane.
Of course there’s the safety side of it with reduced run off for out of the tunnel and increased speed, but technology has come a long way and Monaco should be able to come up with a solution.
One down side would be the magnificent corner Tabac would be ruined as a spectacle, but you can’t have everything.
REMOVE BUMP IN THE ROAD BETWEEN CASINO AND MIRABEAU
Most F1 fans will recall seeing the F1 cars jink to the left as they head towards the Mirabeau corner. But what if they didn’t have to move for whatever bump that caused the cars to avoid.
If that section was flattened so cars could stick to one line, imagine then a closely following car out of Casino darting out from under the rear wing of the car in front knowing they both don’t have jink left halfway down the small straight. Even add a small DRS zone if you can too.
Without an engineering degree we can’t whether anything could be done at all, but if it could surely not having to jink and throwing in the world’s smallest DRS section could potentially increase overtaking.
Monaco Grand Prix Changes – The Strategy
So there’s not a great deal you can do with the track, but perhaps some of the above proposed changes could add a little more overtaking, but at the end of the day it is still Monaco.
So why not add a few tactical elements to the race in addition.
Certainly not reverse grids to mix up the grid, as having faster cars behind slower cars at Monaco would not work on the whole. In fact Sprint Qualifying could make the spectacle worse as fans grow frustrated at their stars spending 20 odd laps behind one car ala Bernoldi-Coulthard from a few decades ago.
And if they can’t overtake during the race it won’t happen much in a Sprint Race either.
But here’s a few quick suggestions the F1 bosses could consider that they can implement.
SECOND MANDATORY TYRE PIT STOP
Since overtaking only seems to happen at pitstops, why not make the team do a second stop.
Of course you’d probably end up seeing all the teams pitting on the last lap and seeing the chequered flag waived in the pitlane instead of on track.
But an mandatory extra stop would mean more tactics, and not just have the dreary one stop races. Some cars might get the first stop done before the first ten laps or go long with two short sprints at the end. And with the extra stop, some drivers might get license to charge at the start rather than play conservative with their tyres to make them last.
This is by far the cheapest option to implement and the easiest.
Extra tyre sets would help this too.
EXTRA SETS OF TYRES
With the extra pitstop should come extra sets of tyres. And make it a free for all of any compound.
Yes F1 should continue cost savings, but surely exceptions can be made for one of their flagship events which has been a paint drying festival for way too many seasons now.
And not just one set, but two-three new sets for the race and another for qualifying.
Monaco is one of the richest places on earth, so why not let F1 splash the cash a little.
UNLIMITED DRS
Why not make DRS open slather and let the drivers use it wherever they can.
This of course brings in a safety element, but imagine that extra bit of advantage making just the difference it needs to going into Mirabeau or our new chicane or even the second half of the swimming pool.
ONE LAP FINAL Q3 QUALIFYING
While we did say that Sprint Race for qualifying would not be a good idea, why not have a top ten one lap shoot out for pole position.
This could potentially mix up the front of the grid a little without having the unfair nature of reverse grids.
And given how crowded qualifying can get, what a spectacle on the Saturday to see each of the top ten get their crack.
We think it should be implemented for every race with Q2 results determining the order for Q3 shoot out.
