The 2023 Method 1 Monaco Grand Prix is now behind us and the F1 circus rapidly turned its consideration to the following races on the calendar. However as we at all times see with the occasion across the streets of Monte Carlo, there have been numerous questions on whether or not the observe ought to retain its place on the calendar.
That dialogue has been finished to loss of life and there’s little or no contemporary floor to go over. So, till anybody within the decision-making ranges of the game decides to verify both method, that Monaco query will stay unanswered.
The fact is that the status, historical past, and exclusivity of the principality will proceed to make it a lovely location for sporting occasions, not simply Method 1. For instance, the European Poker Tour has been visiting Monaco for one of the best a part of twenty years. Yearly, it sees hundreds of one of the best skilled poker gamers come collectively to compete in varied occasions that cowl virtually the entire hottest poker variants, together with Texas Maintain’em, Omaha, and H.O.R.S.E. However along with providing a problem to proficient professionals, it stays a well-liked occasion on the tour as a result of gamers get a taste of the high life once they take a break from the tables, hopping on helicopter rides across the harbour, watching world-class circus occasions, and becoming a member of excursions across the Prince’s Palace.
Comparable occurs in the course of the Method 1 weekend with lots of the world’s super-rich docking their superyachts within the harbour and an extended listing of A-list celebrities wandering across the unique bars, golf equipment, and eating places that line the Monagasque streets.
The issue for F1 in recent times has been that the precise on-track motion is overshadowed by this pomp and pageantry, resulting in the Grand Prix itself being a humid squib. Nonetheless, the 2023 Grand Prix was truly an entertaining one with motion and jeopardy happening all through, even when the highest three ending positions had been a carbon copy of the beginning grid.
However that pleasure was introduced on, largely, by the opening of the heavens onto the observe, which created a strategic dilemma for the groups on whether to pit for wet tyres or try to courageous it out on slicks.
Had the race been a dry one, it’s possible we wouldn’t have seen the identical stage of pleasure, in order that leaves a query round what else may very well be finished to boost the racing.
Make it Rain?
Whereas having the drivers carry out a rain dance on the grid forward of the Grand Prix is unlikely to attain various puzzled seems to be, the concept of creating races extra thrilling by randomly simulating precipitation shouldn’t be a completely new one.
Again in 2011, the previous F1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, urged that race tracks must be fitted with sprinkler systems to create fake rain within the hopes of selling overtaking. As you’d anticipate, it was rapidly and extensively pooh-poohed, but it surely possible would yield ends in Monaco.
Nonetheless, it’s nonetheless simply pie-in-the-sky pondering, because it was again then, so maybe there’s one other method.
Prolong the Monitor?
At present, Method 1 automobiles battle to overhaul in Monaco as a result of they’re not designed for the slender and twisty streets. There are additionally no locations that naturally lend themselves to overtaking; most notably, there’s a lack of lengthy straights that lead into heavy braking zones which causes processional races. The DRS zone on the pit straight can be not lengthy sufficient, so an extended one may very well be helpful.
One resolution may very well be to increase the circuit earlier than the tunnel. After dropping right down to the hairpin from On line casino Sq., the drivers might proceed driving in direction of the French border, surpassing the present Portier nook, creating an extended(ish) straight and a hairpin earlier than the automobiles double again onto an extended run in direction of and thru the tunnel.
This could create a much bigger braking zone into the Nouvelle Chicane the place we already see many overtaking makes an attempt. Alternatively, that nook may very well be eliminated to increase the DRS zone proper down the waterfront.
There can be security issues to beat with at the least a few of these adjustments, however they tick all of the theoretical packing containers for what circuit attributes promote overtaking.
Change the Format
If the purists are adamant that the circuit ought to stay the identical and we shouldn’t attempt to play the function of Mom Nature, then an alternative choice may very well be to vary the format of the weekend.
Method 1 is already doing this with its chosen Dash Weekends the place there’s a further race, so a particular Monaco format may very well be created to raised swimsuit the circuit.
Some concepts for this embody creating the choice for joker laps the place drivers get to take a shortcut a set variety of occasions in the course of the race (one other Ecclestone concept), just like what we see in Rallycross. For instance, they might observe the previous Method E observe structure after flip one as an alternative of continuous up the hill.
This could assist drivers to overhaul once they’re caught behind a slower automotive and create extra strategic challenges for the groups.
Different choices might embody inserting extra emphasis on qualifying, maybe by mandating tyre compounds in periods, making a shootout, and even combining a number of codecs and averaging out the outcomes.
Whereas all of those concepts could seem just a little on the market, they might all assist to boost the weekend. In the event that they work, then the entire negativity in direction of them would rapidly fade away, securing Monaco’s place on the calendar for a lot of extra years.
