Formula 1 reserves its share of surprises for the 2025 season. A new rule will be specially applied to one of the most prestigious races on the calendar.
The 2025 Formula 1 season is approaching and it promises to be exciting. While the stables and the pilots are preparing to battle one last time before the major regulatory upheaval scheduled for 2026, the transfers of the offseason have already caused a lot of ink. Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, Liam Lawson at Red Bull, Carlos Sainz at Williams or the young Frenchman Isack Hadjar at Racing Bulls, so many changes that will be very followed by fans.
In addition to these movements in the paddock, a new rule may well change the situation on one of the most emblematic circuits of the championship: that of Monte-Carlo housing the Monaco Grand Prix. Indeed, the World FIA Motor Sports Council has endowed an unprecedented measure at the end of February. The displayed objective is clear: to energize the spectacle on the close urban and winding layout of the Principality where the overruns are becoming increasingly rare, a fortiori since the introduction of F1 with ever more important dimensions.
The measure thus aims to force the teams to make a minimum of two stops at the stand during the Monegasque race, whatever the weather conditions. Concretely, each pilot will have the obligation to use at least two different types of tires, without being forced to go through the three types of gums available to each race. Enough to restore suspense with more changes in leaders and strategy possibilities to a race that needs it as the GP has shot the procession in recent seasons.
It will therefore be a small revolution in the Principality that did not fail to react the local pilot Charles Leclerc, precisely winner of the Monaco GP in 2024. “The strategy will become a little more important, I think it is a good thing,” said Ferrari driver on the sidelines of pre-season tests in Bahrain. “Monaco is super exciting on Saturday, for us the pilots, it is incredible, it is the best qualification of the year. Then, on Sunday, it can become a little … (it cuts). It doesn’t happen much. So I think it’s a way to add a little bit of spice.” The Monegasque, however, asks the FIA to listen to the feedback from the paddock and to be flexible if this change is not concluding in 2025.
The Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM) also praised the initiative, describing this “experimental measure” as an opportunity to make the race “more competitive and attractive.” Bingo? Answer on May 25 on the occasion of the 82nd Grand Prix of Monaco.