Lewis Hamilton says boring Monaco Grand Prix needs more pitstops

Despite Pirelli's new ultra-soft tyre making its debut this weekend, the belief is drivers will only need to make one pitstop on Sunday given its durability.

Following practice on Thursday Hamilton scathingly described the ultra-soft as "pretty much the super-soft with purple paint".

Addressing the concerns of the race around the streets of the principality being boring, Hamilton said: "Unfortunately, most likely, it's going to be exactly the same as the years before.

"There are no real great decisions being made that are going to make this race any better.

"The last three or four years it's been a one-stop race, which is the most boring.

"Everyone here knows if you have pole position you are going to win, and with a one-stop race it's a procession.

"I was messaging a friend the other day and he said 'I'm not coming to Monaco' because it's a train.

"I said 'Yeah, I'm in it, and hopefully at the front'.

"I was just thinking the other night 'Why don't we have more stops?'

"For me, the ultra-soft is not soft. We need ultra, ultra, ultra, ultra soft, four times softer tyres so we can do more stops. That would mix it up here.

"In my first years when there were more stops it was way more exciting, but they won't do that.

"We'll be two seconds faster this year than we were last year, but overtaking is still going to be the same."

Following practice Red Bull is threatening to usurp Mercedes' dominance of this race over the last three years, with team-mate Nico Rosberg aiming for a fourth successive victory at the track.

Hamilton was forced to settle for second best by six tenths of a second to Daniel Ricciardo on Thursday.

"Everyone that's expecting a good race should know this is a track that you really can't overtake on, so qualifying's going to be the race," added Hamilton.

"You're going to see a procession, a train, on Sunday. Some things can happen as they did last year.

"But generally you're not going to see us battling, you're going to see cars following.

"Hopefully, because it's so close, whoever's first, second and third will be close and it'll come down to that one pitstop."