What a Sunday it was in Monaco! The Grand Prix took an unexpected twist due to a heavy first-lap crash involving Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen, and Nico Hulkenberg, which brought out a red flag. As a result, drivers exploited the opportunity to change tyres, and this loophole ended up putting a damper on the entire race, according to some top drivers.
Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso are among the notable drivers advocating for changes to Formula 1’s red-flag tyre rules. They believe these rules ruined the Monaco Grand Prix. Verstappen was particularly vocal, saying, ‘After the red flag, our strategy was ruined as we had to put the medium on to the end as everyone had a free stop and that meant that we had to save a lot,’ finishing in sixth place.
Lando Norris echoed Verstappen’s frustration, explaining, ‘There’s just nothing you can do, especially with the red flag at the beginning. I think that ruined any other opportunities that might have come my way with strategy and tyre-saving, so a bit of a shame.’
Even Alex Albon, who benefited from the tyre change rule, admitted the rules need a rethink. ‘Yeah, we need to figure out what’s going on. I think that if it’s a lap-one red flag, still have a mandatory pitstop in there or something. It worked in our favour to be fair to you, so I won’t complain too much…’
Fernando Alonso added that the red-flag tyre rule killed the strategic element of the race, which is often the only suspenseful part of a Monaco GP. ‘The only point of interest in a Monaco race is the pitstops that you have to do. If you remove that excitement of a pitstop, then it becomes nothing. Maybe it reopens the conversations of when there is a red flag, not changing tyres or being obliged to have the same tyre or something, because if not, there are certain occasions that the race is compromised.’
In Monaco, overtaking is notoriously difficult and pitstops often introduce the only real drama. Historically, botched pitstops or bold strategy calls have thrown surprises into the mix, but the current rule of allowing tyre changes under red-flag conditions takes that element away. Alonso summed up the sentiment when he said, ‘I don’t know. There are many things that they have not changed, probably because they don’t listen to the drivers.’
It’s clear that some F1 drivers are dissatisfied with the current red-flag tyre change rule and are eager to see it revisited. Whether the governing bodies will heed their calls remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the excitement and unpredictability of the sport depend heavily on these kinds of strategic elements, and without them, races like the Monaco GP risk becoming processional affairs.
Source: Motorsport
