Why time isn't up on Monaco's place on the F1 calendar

The Monaco Grand Prix is well known for never really delivering good racing.

The tight and twisty track, and current wide, heavy, aero-sensitive cars and temperature critical tyres that we have in Formula 1 are a perfect combination for resulting in a train of drivers following each other for two hours on a Sunday afternoon.

Each year (with the odd exception) we get a procession, and each year the questions begin to get thrown up about whether or not Monaco deserves its slot on the calendar? The critics argue that F1 would be far better off racing at places that give us overtaking and a greater spectacle for fans...

While I’d be the first to support any moves by F1 to try to tweak the circuit layout to at least allow the tiniest sniff of overtaking, there is an element of Monaco’s value that goes beyond the race that is delivered on a Sunday.

If you were offered a grand prix where five different teams started in the top five places, the surprise pole position man crashed in qualifying and had been unsure of starting from the front spot only to then have it snatched from him in the final minutes, the world championship lead changed hands, and frustrations boiled over as teams made strategy errors, most people would snap it up.

Monaco is much more than just what happens on Sunday afternoon; it’s about storylines, surprises, success and heartbreak.

Sure there is the glamour aspect, with the yachts and the parties and celebrities that all serve to heighten the wider interest in F1’s most famous race.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B, Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes W12, Carlos Sainz Jr, Ferrari SF21, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M, and Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri AT02

Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images

But, in terms of a sporting spectacle, Monaco offers a driver challenge and racing mindset that isn’t delivered anywhere else.

Seeing drivers pushing to the limit, brushing the barriers, blasting through the tunnel and, most importantly, paying a heavy price when things go wrong rather than running wide on a piece of asphalt, means that Monaco’s practice and qualifying days are far more exciting than they are at other venues.

The high-downforce dependent, bumpy, low-speed circuit also plays to different strengths on the cars, for a machine that is well suited to super-fast venues like Silverstone and Spa may not be so good here.

Monaco’s lack of overtaking opportunities meant Mercedes couldn’t just simply use a quicker car to overhaul rivals who had done a better job on the strategy

How refreshing was it to see Ferrari and McLaren actually be in the mix over the weekend, and genuinely prove to be a thorn in the side of Red Bull and Mercedes, who have had things too much their way at the front in recent years?

There was no suggestion from Ferrari that its Monaco step forward was anything more than its car’s downforce and balance characteristics being ideally suited for the streets, plus helping it switch its tyres on in a perfect manner for those crunch high-speed laps.

But having different teams up there on different types of circuits is an essential piece of variety that F1 needs as the calendar expands. If every track had the same demands and played to the same strengths on each car, then there would be no way that the order could be shaken up and we would just get copy and paste results.

Carlos Sainz Jr, Ferrari SF21

Photo by: Erik Junius

And, while the Monaco race on Sunday did not have the kind of tyre strategy spectacle that Bahrain and Spain offered us this year, nor the wheel-to-wheel action of Portugal, what it did offer was still a tense build up to the first stops, and the dilemma that teams faced in terms of who pulled the trigger first.

PLUS: How strategy proved key in F1’s Monaco midfield battle

With the gaps not opening up behind the race leaders as they would have liked, it is always a tricky choice for teams on when to throw in the towel and get the fresh tyres on – and the potential is there much more than other tracks for the timing to be wrong. Pit first at Barcelona, for example, and it is always guaranteed that the undercut will allow you to jump the cars ahead of you.

Monaco is different. The lower energy corners make it harder to switch tyres on, and the fact that track position is king means that the safer bet is sometimes going for the slower and more durable tyre. It also ensures you have more options when it comes to an unexpected safety car.

So, when Mercedes pitted Lewis Hamilton to switch from the soft to the hard, its hopes of being able to undercut Pierre Gasly ahead of the world champion did not materialise. And, worse, the error was compounded when Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez were able to utilise the overcut and jump Hamilton/Gasly by running longer.

Monaco’s lack of overtaking opportunities meant Mercedes couldn’t just simply use a quicker car to overhaul rivals who had done a better job on the strategy.

Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri AT02, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

So, just as the venue punishes drivers who make mistakes in the cockpit, so too teams face a battering if they get their car stuck in traffic. It’s part of the appeal of the challenge of winning the Monaco GP.

What’s also important to state is that, while Monaco is not the greatest of layouts for overtaking, the current generation of cars are especially not suited to it.

Masses of downforce and a shed load of horsepower are great for watching the cars when they are alone on flying laps. But 2021-spec F1 machinery is not good for what’s needed to make Sundays come alive.

It will be fascinating to see what type of Monaco Grand Prix we get in 2022, when ground-effect cars and a different type of tyre are the norm in F1

The aero sensitivity means that cars simply cannot follow in each other’s wheeltracks. As soon as the front wing begins losing performance, then it means the tyres start sliding more, they overheat and the degradation goes up. It leads to a situation where, unfortunately, the best way to get to the end of the race is to sit there around two seconds behind the car in front, and hope you can do something around the pitstops.

Give drivers cars that are not so sensitive to the wake thrown off by their rival in front of them, and tyres that they can push on without fear of badly overheating them and needing to pit early, and there would be a totally different vibe to the race.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M

Photo by: Erik Junius

Drivers like Hamilton, who sat there and hoped for the best behind Gasly, would be much more able to try to put pressure on the cars ahead of them. And, if they still could not pull off a normal overtaking move, then they would at least be able to try to make the guy ahead mess up and get past that way.

It will therefore be fascinating to see what type of Monaco Grand Prix we get in 2022, when ground-effect cars and a different type of tyre are the norm in F1.

Even if race day 2022 isn’t a thriller in itself, the drama, incident, storylines, spectacle and challenge of the track that is delivered over the course of the whole weekend, is what ultimately matters.

Throw all of those elements together and it beats a lot of other events on the calendar, and shows why it truly deserves its place on the F1 schedule.

Fans watch as Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF21, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB16B, and Carlos Sainz Jr., Ferrari SF21

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images