Last Updated on May 27 2025, 7:32 am

By El Jefe Maximo – In response to the growing calls for Monaco’s removal from the Formula One calendar – The drumbeat is getting louder: Monaco is boring. It doesn’t work with modern F1 cars. Monaco should be dropped. However, before Formula One makes what could be its greatest mistake in decades, we should take a step back and ask a different question. What if the problem isn’t Monaco itself, but our stubborn insistence on treating it like every other race?

A recent article on this website highlighting Monaco’s problems struck a chord with many in the F1 community. Yes, Sunday’s Grand Prix was another processional affair. Yes, team bosses are ‘out of ideas’. And yes, something needs to change. However, the solution isn’t to abandon one of motorsport’s most iconic venues; it’s to embrace what makes Monaco special and build on that.

 

Embrace the exception, don’t eliminate it!

Formula One has spent decades trying to standardise itself. The same weekend format, the same car regulations and the same race distance. But Monaco has never been about conformity; it’s about being gloriously and impossibly different. Rather than fighting this reality, F1 should embrace it.

Monaco should be reimagined as Formula One’s one true ‘special event’ – the racing equivalent of Wimbledon’s grass courts or Augusta National’s unique Masters tournament. Just as tennis doesn’t abandon grass-court tennis because it’s different from clay or hard courts, Formula 1 shouldn’t abandon Monaco because it doesn’t fit the modern mould.

The principality offers something that no other venue can: a combination of history, glamour and sheer impossibility that has captivated audiences for over 70 years. Rather than forcing Monaco to adapt to modern F1, we should create a Monaco-specific formula that celebrates what makes it special.

 

 

The Radical Solution: Monaco-Only Cars

Here’s a proposal that will make purists gasp and progressives cheer: What if Monaco had its own cars?
While modern Formula One machines are marvels of engineering, they are also 2-metre-wide behemoths designed for purpose-built circuits with massive run-off areas.

They were never meant to thread through the needle’s eye that is Monaco’s streets.

For one weekend a year, Formula 1 could introduce ‘Monaco Specification’ cars: narrower, lighter and more nimble machines designed specifically for street racing. Think of them as Formula One’s answer to rally cars: they would have the same hybrid power units and fundamental technology, but would be engineered for the unique demands of the principality.

These cars could be 30–40 cm narrower than current machines, with shorter wheelbases and more aggressive aerodynamic packages designed for close-quarters combat rather than raw straight-line speed. Imagine the spectacle of the world’s best drivers wrestling genuinely challenging machines through Casino Square and the Swimming Pool complex.

For the truly adventurous, there’s an even more radical option: a one-off kart race featuring F1 drivers. Just as the Indianapolis 500 has maintained its unique identity within American motorsport, Monaco could host a spectacular karting exhibition combining the skill of Formula One with the wheel-to-wheel action demanded by narrow streets.

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The Knockout Revolution: Racing Redefined

But perhaps the most intriguing solution lies not in changing the cars, but in revolutionising the format itself. Monaco’s greatest weakness — the impossibility of overtaking — could become its greatest strength with the right approach.
Enter the ‘Monaco Elimination Challenge’: a knockout-style format in which groups of four to six cars start at five- to ten-second intervals, with only the fastest from each group advancing to the next round.

Imagine small groups of cars being released onto the circuit in waves, with each driver knowing that they must be faster than their immediate competitors to survive.

This format would create multiple micro-races within the grand event. Drivers wouldn’t be managing their position for 78 laps; they’d be fighting for survival in intense 15–20-lap sprints. The psychological pressure would be immense, the action would be more concentrated and the strategy would be completely different.

The beauty of this system is that it utilises Monaco’s limitations rather than working against them. Overtaking wouldn’t be necessary when outright pace is required. DRS zones would be unnecessary when raw driver skill under pressure is required. You don’t need tyre strategy when you just need to be faster than the car in front.

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Learning from Other Sports

This isn’t without precedent: Golf has The Masters, with its unique traditions and Augusta-only rules. Tennis has Wimbledon, with its grass courts and all-white dress code. Even motorsport has examples: the Indy 500 uses different regulations and the Le Mans 24 Hours operates under completely different principles to sprint racing.

Monaco could become Formula One’s equivalent — a race so special that it operates under its own rules, requires its own unique preparation and presents its own distinct challenges. Rather than viewing this as a compromise, we should recognise it as an opportunity to demonstrate the versatility of F1 and the adaptability of its drivers.

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The stakes are higher than just one race

The push to drop Monaco represents something bigger than just calendar management – it represents a choice about the future of Formula One. Does F1 want to be a perfectly optimised, standardised product where every race feels fundamentally similar? Or does it want to be a sport that can contain multitudes, thrilling fans in Austin’s high-speed sectors and captivating them in Monaco’s challenging corners?

The current generation of F1 fans fell in love with the sport partly because of its variety. They love the strategic chess match of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the raw speed of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the technical challenge of the Singapore Grand Prix, and yes, the sheer audacity of the Monaco Grand Prix. Removing this variety does not make F1 better; it makes it more predictable.

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A Call for Courage

What Monaco needs isn’t elimination; it needs innovation. F1’s leadership needs to have the courage to try something genuinely different, rather than taking the easy path of homogenisation.

The sport has shown that it can innovate when it wants to. Sprint races, cost caps and technical regulations designed to improve racing all represent F1’s willingness to experiment. Monaco deserves that same experimental spirit, not a death sentence.

Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer said he was ‘out of ideas’ for improving the situation in Monaco. Here are some ideas. They’re radical and different, and they might not work. But they’re better than giving up on one of motorsport’s greatest venues.
Formula One has room for Monaco — just not as it is. The question isn’t whether Monaco can survive in modern F1. It’s whether modern F1 is creative enough to deserve Monaco.

The principality has been hosting seemingly impossible races for over seven decades. It’s time for Formula One to rise to the challenge in return.

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MORE F1 NEWS – Monaco scrapping

Formula One is being forced to confront an uncomfortable truth – and it’s happening increasingly behind closed doors. For all its glamour, tradition and prestige, the Monaco Grand Prix is no longer be compatible with the modern direction of the sport. What was once considered untouchable is now being seriously, if quietly, debated at the highest levels: could Formula One actually drop Monaco from its calendar?

A decade ago, the idea would have been heresy. Now it’s an inevitable conversation. The race has become synonymous with spectacle, not sport – and as pressure mounts from fans, broadcasters and even the teams themselves, Monaco’s future is no longer guaranteed. A Grand Prix that once defined F1 now risks being defined by everything the sport is trying to move beyond…. READ MORE ON THIS STORY