However, speaking ahead of this weekend’s Spanish GP, several drivers agreed that no change to the circuit is likely to make a difference and that the public should accept that the races will not produce much action.
“I don’t think you can really change the race apart from if you make the cars half the size of what they are now,” said Lando Norris, who won the race from pole on Sunday.
“I don’t think it needs to change that much. It’s never been anything else than what it has been now. So I think people should just be happy with what it is.”
He added: “Monaco has never been a race that’s been good on Sunday. Never has. Yet it’s the race everyone wants to win. It’s always been like that. Even some of the best races that you’ve ever seen, zero overtakes.
Alonso has raced at Monaco more than any other driver
“I don’t think you’re ever going to get it to be a great race. It’s never been, not saying it can never be, I’m just saying it never has been. Yet everyone still knows it as just the best race of the season.”
Fernando Alonso, the most experienced driver in F1 history and a man who has raced at Monaco 21 times, said Monaco’s races had always been the same, claiming the wider current cars are not the problem.
“I never overtook any car. You see one overtake every 10 years,” the Aston Martin driver said when asked about Max Verstappen‘s comments about Monaco being boring.
“And this has been the Monaco nature. I think Max spoke about this because you asked Max about Monaco; the last thing that Max has in his head now is the Monaco race.
“But there is this constant talk about how bad is something instead of how good is something. Maybe there are a couple of ideas that between all involved in the sport, drivers, FIA, teams that we can think about Monaco, but I don’t think that there is any need to think something.
“And it’s only because, as I said, there is a lot of content now to be created. And drivers are too nice, so we answer every question.
“Because if 40 years ago you ask Senna and Prost about Monaco after one week they would be less polite than we are now.”
Mercedes driver George Russell added: “Monaco has always been the same. I think I have seen some of the proposed track changes that definitely will not make it worse. Because the small problem you have in Monaco is the one overtaking opportunity which is out of the tunnel.
“The natural racing line is you’re going from the left, braking through the middle of the track and then you pull over to the right. So it’s very easy for a driver to position his car.
Russell leads a train of cars in Monaco
Grand Prix Photo
“But I honestly right now I don’t have the answer. Maybe the manual override would be a solution and you know you’ve to do all of this management through the race and if you’ve got a lot more power just to pass somebody in an unconventional space, it isn’t going to make the show worse.
“But part of me just thinks we need to accept Monaco for what it is. Formula 1 is better by having Monaco on the calendar. It is the most exhilarating qualifying of the season.
“And the race is always pretty boring, but it also makes us appreciate the other races as well.”
Haas’ Oliver Bearman agreed that the key to make Monaco more enjoyable was to accept that qualifying is the most important of the year.
“I think people just need to accept that the thrill of Monaco is on Saturday in qualifying. It’s always going to be a boring race with a track of that size and unfortunately with the cars of this size, nothing’s going to happen.
