P1 with Matt and Tommy - The Monaco GP is here to stay!

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

To all the Tom Bellinghams out there: rejoice! F1 have announced that the Monaco Grand Prix will be staying on the calendar until 2031. Why have they made the decision? Why are people so divided on the race? And would we make any changes to the format? Join us as we dive into the most controversial race on the calendar.Join us for our End of Season tour across the UK this December! There are still some tickets available for London, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol right here!Sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to bonus episodes, our classic race podcast series, every P1 episode ad-free, early access to live tickets and merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with other F1 fans!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast, emergency-ish, I guess, kind of. But either way, we're here to discuss some news that has come out today where Monaco, the Grand Prix, is staying until 2031 in our beautiful Formula One calendar. Now, of course, the intro, which YouTube would have seen. A bit of fun, right? I respect Monaco very much. but I know Tommy literally dreams of just constantly having like a full season of Monaco and nothing else. Absolutely not. But you have one.

But I love Monaco being on the calendar. I make no, I don't hide it. I don't want a Monaco every time. But like I say, I think the calendar needs variety in history. And that's what Monaco provides, even if it provides stinking races. is, but we'll get into that. Well, first thought, shall we? I think we've always said, haven't we, that Monaco has a special pass in Formula One.

It's spin the track, I think, that's paid the least to be on the calendar for a very long time as well. So yeah, Formula One respect the heritage, the history of Monaco, the challenge that it brings for Formula One drivers as well. And am I surprised? No, not really. I think from a Formula One perspective, Monaco is the jewel in the crown and all of this good stuff. What happens to the Triple Crown?

If Monaco gets binned off from Formula One, what do we replace it with? Like an iraicing victory or something? I don't know. But I think that I'm not surprised in the slightest. It is a great track on Saturday. And I think we can respect that. Yeah, I am surprised, actually.

I think the way Formula One is going. I'm not like absolutely, oh my God, I can't believe they've done that. I can't believe you've done this. But it is surprising that they've announced it for so long because there were talks of particularly around Vegas about, oh, is this their opportunity of making a new Monaco and sort of letting their heritage go. So I think it's good from Formula One that they have done this.

I know a lot of people will not like it, and I respect that people don't enjoy Monaco and are happy for it to be booted off the calendar and never be seen again. But Formula One, as it's growing and protecting and becoming more of an entertainment brand, I'm glad they're still respecting the heritage because it's a circuit like no other.

It's very unique. I don't, like I say, I don't want loads of them on the calendar, but having won in a 24, 25 race calendar. is fine and there's no other circuit that you can watch every single grade of the past do essentially exactly the same lap you know you can watch at and senna driving a lap around monaco and it's more or less exactly the same circuit as lewis hamilton doing it or max stepan doing it and i think that's important in formula one no other circuit provides that it's funny i put a tweet out after the news basically trying to garner some thoughts from

from everybody out there in the in the wonderful community and it's so funny just reading the sort of just the polar opposite replies. One person said, absolutely horrible. Monaco is the worst robbery of the year. There isn't zero excitement. Next one is good to see the sport, appreciate its roots.

Then it's more sleepy afternoon while watching it. DRS training coming. Nothing surprising if only Hamilton wins. I mean, I don't even know where that's come from. Make the car smaller and it works, and that's something I guess we can talk about. The first question comes in from cricket soccer F1. They should at least change the format from a race to something else.

Any ideas and what could make it interesting? Okay, right. I see where people are coming from. Change the format. Do something different with it. Can you imagine if Formula One announced that the Monaco Grand Prix is scrapped and we're going to have three qualifying sessions? I believe we will get more of an uproar by the fact that Monaco then isn't a race

than if we continue with this format or whether there is small things we can do to potentially make it slightly more interesting but changing the race to something else, what are they going to do? A cart race? That's still a race. Let's have seven practice sessions.

Oh, just what I love. That is literally a lot of people's hell loop, I reckon. Yeah. It's called the Monaco Grand Prix. It's a grand prix. It's not a qualifying. Qualifying, like we mentioned at the start, it's the best part of Monaco hands down every year. And I've said this many times that I think that sometimes more often than not snooze fest that we get on Sunday is worth it to have the best Saturday of the year.

It always delivers. And Saturday you get the most exciting qualifying session of the year every year. And it's so exciting. You're watching drivers push to the limit that you never see anywhere else. And one little mistake is really punished. Now, to actually change the format, I'm not against in terms of you don't need to make it a time trial, you don't need to make it three qualifying sessions, which I know you're joking about. But in a world where we have sprints and things now, and they do mix Formula One up, and Formula One has evolved and changed a lot throughout the years. Monaco used to be 100 laps.

Imagine that people would be even more, have a longer snooze on the Sunday. but I'm not against them trying make it a mandatory two-stop or whatever and mix it up a little bit, but it has to be a race in my opinion. And I don't think that, and people will tell me, you know, jog on because I know the people that really don't like it, don't like my sort of opinion of that in a weird way, having one race where it's impossible to overtake could actually be quite novel and fun because you think of all the drama. I know you don't agree but it's so true

because Daniel Ricardo right I've said this a million times the Daniel Ricardo in 2018 wouldn't have won that race he gets breezed pass and it's a boring race everyone remembers it because you can't overtake Pierre Gasly winning Monza was awful race

no one overtook it was boring yet everyone loves it because someone different winner so why not embrace the fact that it is almost impossible to pass You have to do something crazy and you could have multiple stops. It mixes it up and then you might get something different because it actually provides a different element to Formula One.

It's a world championship. Every race should be different. Interesting. I can't think of many occasions where I've sat back seeing no overtaking and gone, that was good. That's really scratched the itch on my back of Formula One. You say that, but then at the end of Spa there was no overtaking,

and we were all saying it was the best race ever where Piastri, as Singapore is a great example. We loved that race where they were all in a massive train, and they couldn't overtake each other. Don't get me wrong, Morocco doesn't exactly deliver that. I know we have the Daniel Riccardo example, but it's not as if Monaco.

No, I'm not saying it does, but it could, because if you actually mixed up tire strategy, and things like that. Yeah, yeah, but you're saying if we do this, that and the other. I'm taking Monaco at face value right now of what it is. I'm not arguing that it shouldn't stay exactly. It should not stay exactly the same because there needs to be something to mix it up, I think. Interesting.

You say a mandatory two-stop. So you mean a mandatory two changes of tyres? Two changes of tires. Yeah, easy. So do we change, do we bring a C-1, C-3-C-5 so that we've got, differences in pace because everybody stays out until the very last minute because nobody can overtake and all this good stuff. But what if, yeah, there is this bigger discrepancy in tyres.

Now, I think, you know, there is a very fine line between it becoming a bit of a joke and a bit of a let's just throw and spin the wheel and see what happens. But also, I think Monaco does need that. And I think we need to appreciate if we're going to keep Monaco on the calendar. We also have to, it has to remain in the modern day times with the N. entertainment expectations from Formula One fans. Now it does that in qualifying. But yeah, I'm interested to see if they do anything for the race.

I doubt it. I just think they will be like, suck it up. It's one race a year. Deal with it. Every driver seems to say it afterwards, though, that because if they had a race where they did have to make multiple tire stops, they wouldn't be allowed to bumble around at 20% speed because people would get their tire stops out the way,

catch the back of the pack and then you wouldn't be able to just control the pack like you do. So I think if in that sense it would stop people doing that. And I do agree with the drivers that if you implemented that way, you had more stops because let's be honest, the only jeopardy in the race is waiting for that tie stops. That's why the race last year was, sorry, this year was so poor because it completely eradicated because of the red flag that stop. But if you had more of them, you're always waiting for the next.

jeopardy moment because I think in a way Monaco pit stops mean more than anything and we've seen races many times with lots of drivers losing it in the pits and that's what creates such jeopardy so you need that excitement Charlotte Claire Daniel Ricardo Lewis Hamilton it's not it's happened to a lot of them thanks that's great just that I'd remind you yeah cheers ladies won now it's fine and the worst race of all time I think that's probably the problem as well here right is that

they're announcing this 2031 extension after the literal worst race I have ever watched from an entertainment perspective. Obviously, the end result was incredible and very, very happy for Shal. But yeah, maybe that's where some slightly more knee-jerk reactions of, oh, we can't do this for another six years are coming from. And I completely understand that. Hopefully, Formula One is going to be open to trying something. Because I don't think it becomes too much of a farce if we implement the fact that you have to change

your dry compounds twice. and I think it would open it up a lot. So let's see. Next question, P1 Patreon member, Tony Soprano. Would a sprint weekend at Monaco result in races with a little more action because the drivers have had less practice or just two boring races instead of one? I think a sprint weekend would provide. Okay, let's go to the positives first.

A sprint weekend, as Tony has mentioned here, less practice, which means perhaps we get a. starring qualifying. We get that scenario that you've mentioned, Tommy. Someone's in front of everyone else that's slightly slower in the race, but they can't get through. That's what a sprint weekend could potentially provide with that less practice.

But yes, I believe that we would just get two boring races instead of one. Yeah, definitely. You'd get two great qualifying sessions. You'd essentially have double the action at Monaco because qualifying is the best bit every year. So you'd get two of them. But the sprint format would not work

because the sprint format would be a shorter version of the race you got this year because the pit stops are the jeopardy, which is why that's why the drivers have been saying it, and I agree with them, that the pit stops are the thing that changes Monaco and will make it a more exciting and better race. So there needs to be more of that, not more, you know, not adding formats. Because it's never going to be this overtaking fest. Like, you just have to accept that.

Let's go to the next question. P1 patron member Lumixion. Will Monaco be a race worth watching in 2026 when the new smaller cars are about? Okay, let's not get excited here. The cars aren't reducing in size that much. They are a slightly smaller chassis. So let's not get too excited. I think they're 30 kilograms lighter as well, aren't they?

the Formula One cars. But unless they were chopping them in sort of taking about a third off of them, then we might have some kind of action. If you look at the difference in size between that mid-2000s to now, it is astronomically different. And even then they couldn't overtake particularly well around Monaco. Look at the very, you know, the iconic moments back in the 80s, 90s, where Monaco you couldn't overtake.

So it depends what you, when you sit down and you're ready to enjoy Monaco, you need to change your perspective. If you can do that, then it is a race worth watching. If you're sat down and you expect the most overtakes we've ever seen, then you're going to be disappointed no matter what. Exactly. You don't, you have to expect that to be the case. I think to say that smaller cars are going to fit. it is unrealistic. The 2026, like you say, they're not changing that much. It's always been hard to overtake, you go back. You know, all the most famous races at Monaco are the fact that people get stuck and it's the drama in the pits and the strategy. You know, it's Nigel Mansel

trying to get past Sena, but it can't, it's very, very, very rare that we see overtaking and there's not really been much overtaking since the 50s where the cars were absolutely tiny compared to what they are now. So to think that just making them a few centimetres or whatever they've done smaller, they're going to start diving down the inside of each other and it's going to become the greatest circuit for overtaking is completely unrealistic. It will never be that. Next question.

Hugo Cavalero. If the current cars produce such baller. racing around Monaco and they insist on it because of the heritage, why not make the cars even smaller than the 2026 rules require? Formula E is fantastic around there. Yes, I will admit, Formula E is fantastic around Monaco. They have much smaller cars. They have a lot less aero and therefore, and also they just dive bomb at every single occasion you can possibly think.

So Formula E is a different kettle of fish, I would say, when you're watching wheel-to-wheel racing. and with Formula One, they're much more fragile. We can't just be sending it down the inside and sort of wheelbanging and getting away with it. So there's so many things that Formula One has to hit in terms of manufacturers and hybrid engines and ground effect and everything that they've kind of moved towards, they can't just slash the cars in half

because it would take away from a lot of those things that they've kind of agreed to do moving forward. So it's not as simple as just rewriting the rule book completely, because I think the Formula One teams as well, they would be like, well, we don't have the resource to look into this from an R&D perspective if you're going to change the cars completely and sit within this cost cap that has been implemented. I know there was talk, I say not serious talk,

but after the Monaco Grand Prix, there's always, you know, everyone has their opinion of how to make it better and what can be done and things like that. and there was talk of smaller cars, why not have a special car for Monaco because Formula E? But that's completely unrealistic, like you say, because there's budget caps. You wouldn't make a whole new car for one year.

And if you did, then it's not becoming a Formula One race anymore. It might as well be a non-championship race that the teams enter for a bit of fun, and it doesn't count towards the World Championship, which I think would be a shame. Well, yeah, exactly, because then you lose their heritage, which is the biggest.

thing about the whole race anyway, so you lose that. You're never going to, I think now the fact that the cars are never going to be tiny, like Formula One cars will never be tiny enough again to have great racing around Monaco where you can battle each other and go side by side through corners. That's just not going to happen. And some people like it, some people hate it. That is Monaco. It is the Marmite race. I personally, like the novelty of it, particularly in practice and... I love Marmite. There you go.

There you go. They're qualifying. You're watching cars that are far too big for the circuit. And people have every right to think it's ridiculous. But I love it. It's like watching one Premier League football game a year where the pitch is a bouncy castle. It's just like it is ridiculous. Do we have that? Is that a thing?

No, well, that's what I'm comparing Monaco to. You would support it. It's just ridiculous. And it's novel. If a tradition was to, you know, play football on a bouncy castle. But I digress. What's an incredible example that was. But it's novel.

And like I said at the start, you get to watch all these great champions from history. Carry on. even though the cars aren't suited anymore, I watch practice and I love it and I don't normally enjoy practice as much, well, I don't enjoy practice anywhere near as much as I do at Monaco because you get to watch the cars pushing. There's the jeopardy of qualifying, you know,

they're skimming the barriers and you know that one little mistake is going to cost them. And I understand that it doesn't quite work in the race anymore because they're allowed to basically, you can just drive as slow as possible, which is just what Formula One, has become a lot of the time anyway is being kind of reserving your power and your tyres and all this kind of stuff.

Next question from SMK Kanga. Could we possibly see any changes in the track layout within this period? No, absolutely not. Monaco is on the calendar because of its history. But if we then keep it because of its history and then change the layout, it then loses a lot of that history and I feel as though Monaco in particular, just look at it. What are you going to do with it? Are we going to go racing underwater? There are a few roads that we could go down instead, but the race is going to be the same. You can't do anything to Monaco that will make it

so much better. And even then, you know, even with straight Singapore, there's no overtaking. So there's nothing that we can really do about that. And I think I would be against changing Monaco for the sake of it, losing the history of what it is, but then also having a rubbish race, so I feel like we'd actually take a step back. I completely agree with you. You're basically destroying the character of it,

and then you're not going to have a good race anyway. So what is the point? If you actually, you know, we've been very fortunate ourselves to go to Monica a few times with Formula One, Formula E, and been able to walk around the track. And I think from the TV, you maybe can't quite see just how impossible it would be. Because everyone, you know, as soon as you get a bad race at Monaco,

everyone loads up Google Maps and they're like, look, look, they should do this. And you're like, well, that's a building there that's been there since 1910. Like you can't just knock it down and things like that. And people don't realize that there's, you know, shops and things like slightly raised a level down and all this kind of stuff that it's just built. Monaco is kind of just grown and built around the circuit and there's nothing you can do. But even if you could, like you say, if you're changing the circuit completely for the sake of entertainment, there's literally no point having the Monaco Grand Prix because you can have a good race at, well, very, very, very. Vegas is a great example. There was a fantastic race there.

I know we all roasted the circuit when it first happened, but I think it proved itself was a good circuit for racing. And it's like, well, why would you, you know, you're getting the whole point of Monaco is it's Monaco and it's the same circuit that's been there since the 50s. So to scrap it, you kind of just have to get rid of the whole thing if that's what you want, which you shouldn't. How day.

You shouldn't. No, listen to Tommy. He loves Monaco. I'm happy to have Monaco on the calendar. Sometimes I'll chop and change, especially straight after the Monaco Grand Prix when you've seen zero overtakes in 78 laps. But even then I was questioning just how much entertainment Monaco brings.

But it is that novel thing that you say, Tommy. It is a one weekend of the year where we almost celebrate Formula One history in some ways. And I get newer fans, ones that haven't watched Monaco that many times, and then sit down and do that, and you're like, well, that's absolutely abysmal. So I can understand where more recent fans would have that opinion. But for us, Tommy, you know, we've watched since the 90s.

So it has a slightly different feel, and we have a slightly different relationship with that. I mean, you have a bit of a weird relationship with Monofer. Actually, I'm not going to lie to you. But, yeah, I'm happy to keep it. And qualifying is so, so good. I think I know I can't convince people, and I don't expect to convince people to change.

their mind but it's not like you have a whole Formula One weekend where it's terrible. The qualifying is always absolutely awesome. Exactly. So you're still getting one, you know, sometimes Formula One, you can have an absolute stinker of a Grand Prix weekend where you have three practice sessions, the qualifying is terrible and the race is terrible. And then yeah, you might go back next year and you get a good race. But Monaco, you can always get. guarantee that the race is going to be trash and the qualifying is going to be awesome. Crazy. But the qualifying outweighs, in my opinion, it makes it worthwhile because qualifying is so good

and it's historic that it's worth. Let's have five Q sessions rather than three. Let's really extend out on the Saturday. Disregard everything we said about not changing it to Grand Prix. We've decided 10 qualifying sessions. We fixed it. Just two changes of the dry compound tire. Yeah, make it mandatory, boom.

That I think we're on to something, and I'm not sure why Formula One wouldn't try it. Race first. Race on Saturday. They have a race. Then that decides who goes out first in qualifying to get the worst track conditions, and then qualifying decides the Monaco Grand Prix.

Perfect. That sounds good for me. No, I know. That's Charlotte Claire champion of the world. Thank you very much. But yeah, that's a very interesting discussion. Tommy, what are your final thoughts? My final thoughts are we actually did a poll, so I'll reveal the results now.

Are you happy that Monaco will still be on the calendar in 2013? Yes, 64% no 36%. So a few people more, but it's still very decisive. And I understand why it's decisive. You know, everyone has their opinion. Divisive. What did I say? Decisive.

Decisive. Divisive. I was like, wait, where to go with this? I understand why people don't like it but there's a lot of people that do and I think it deserves a place on the calendar when there's so many races.

And my final thoughts are to add to this whole two stop mandatory or two dry attire, whatever, they have to use the C1, the C3 and the C5 at some point during the race. Boom, lovely. That would be perfect. Great race on your hands until everybody does exactly the same strategy and we keep the same queue for 78 laps

but that's fine. We can figure that out when Formula One undoubtedly do not implement this. Thank you, everybody. We'll see very soon. Lots of love. Take care. Bye. Goodbye. So, you're back. We're back. And I hope, right, look, listen, your refrigerator, we need to talk about it. What's wrong? What's happened? Why are you making a face, Tommy? What's wrong?

genuinely thought you were talking to me there? No, no, I'm not talking to you. Well, you might need to, but you need to clean out your refrigerator. There's a few things in there that have gone past their sale by date. That tomato is not looking so fresh. No, no, it's not. And that yogurt, I know you think it's okay, it's not. Throw it out, okay? It's going to start growing some serious mould.

And yeah, that gutter as well really needs cleaning. So get around to it. All those leaves. All those leaves in the gutter. And yes. And oh, look, there's Tom Bellamings. Oh my God, I've absolutely missed that. I was going to say there's Tom Bellingham's opinion.

in there as well and I've gone from Wellingtonham I've actually bottled it but it's going to stay in anyway you know you know what I was going to say so yeah

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