Formula 1 drops last year’s bad Monaco two-stop mandate

I wouldn’t go so far as to say I sympathize, but I understand Formula 1’s predicament with the Monaco Grand Prix. Now that F1 cars are the size of Suburbans, Monaco isn’t really a race anymore, it’s more of a parade that is sometimes interrupted by crashes or shuffled by bad pitstops.

Last year, they thought they could Mickey Mouse themselves a solution by requiring all cars to use three sets of tires — i.e. requiring them to stop twice — but as you may recall, midfield teams defeated this rule easily. They used one car to back up the pack so the other one could keep its track position in its pit stop. It sucked, and fortunately F1 realized that.

The 2026 cars are a little smaller, so maybe that will make a difference? They also won’t be suffering from the energy starvation they’ll have at tracks with long straights and few braking zones. That will create leeway to play with the rules around energy deployment, which could actually contribute to on-track passing.