Max Verstappen and George Russell both issued a blunt disapproval of Formula One’s attempts to enliven the Monaco Grand Prix by imposing mandatory pit stops. Verstappen compared it unfavourably to Mario Kart, and Russell dismissed the policy as having failed and the race an irrelevance to an audience that were “sipping champagne on a yacht”.
F1 had hoped that enforcing two pit stops would make for some jeopardy and create at least strategic interest in the 78-lap race through the narrow streets of Monte Carlo but it failed to do so. Nor did it address the fundamental problem which was once more painfully clear in the race on Sunday: that modern F1 cars are too big and too heavy to pass one another in Monaco. Only two overtakes on track were achieved in the entire race.
