Welcome to the Monaco Grand Prix – 2025
Hamilton concerned about the direction of regulations
Lewi Hamilton has expressed concern about the direction the sports regulations are taking from next season but says he is hopeful of being “surprised” by the 2026 cars. Radical new engine and design regulations are being introduced ahead of next season, with the proportion of power supplied by the electrical part of the engine increasing from twenty to fifty per cent.
However, there are discussions about lessening that because of fears cars could run out of electrical deployment on straights at certain circuits. Terms have already been reached that will allow engine manufacturers facing a performance shortfall the opportunity to catch up.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said, “I don’t think it’s going in the right direction, personally. But maybe I’ll be surprised next year. Maybe we’ll arrive and the cars are really nice. With the direction we’re going, we’re going slower. The cars are getting heavier. I mean, next year I guess they are getting lighter, but this generation of car is the heaviest car that I’ve raced in.”
The seven-time champion says while it’s a good direction to go in for sustainability, he admits the sound is not the same as the mid-2000s.
Hamilton says the upcoming ‘F1’ movie that he has helped produce is crucial to show children how diverse the sport can be in the future. The 40-year-old Brit worked as a producer on the movie starring Brad Pitt, which releases in June, following its premiere in Monaco on Wednesday.
He wants the movie to continue the work his foundation, Mission 44, has done in attempting to enable young people from all backgrounds to launch careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Hamilton said: “Everywhere I go, still to this day, I don’t see anyone that looks like me. Very, very few people that look like me. For example, the Formula 1 movie, diversity was an important topic when I started talking about working on the movie. It’s like we need to show what Formula 1 can be, should ultimately get to.
Talking Points Monaco
Round eight of the season marks a quarter of the way through the season with the most famous and prestigious Grands Prix in Monaco. There have been seventy world championship races in the almost hundred years since the first race in 1929, last year Charles Leclerc became the first Monacan in the world championship era to win the race.
McLaren has dominated the start of the season so far, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen throwing up a couple of surprises as the only other driver to win in 2025. Though they are the most successful teams on a circuit which has hardly changed in the last hundred years, they have not won since 2008.
Monaco is the ‘home race’ for not only Leclerc but the majority of the grid, including Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri. Monaco has in recent years faced criticism as the cars have got bigger, making overtaking even more difficult around the streets. Making overtaking almost impossible and notably, very little room for error in the tight corners. Therefore, Saturday’s qualifying session is usually the most important hour of the weekend.
This year, to increase the thrill for Sunday’s race, F1 has introduced a mandatory two-pit-stop rule, which means strategy should be equally as important as where drivers start on the grid. Monaco is a circuit which hasn’t changed since 1929 and would never get built today, qualifying is the most important of the season.
The slow-speed corners should play to the strengths of McLaren, making either Lando Norris or Piastri the favourite. Piastri’s extra confidence in the car when it’s on the limit this year is well documented, and for that reason, he’s our pick to win from pole position this weekend.
But could Max Verstappen’s win in Imola be the breakthrough they need to take the fight to McLaren because they are getting closer in both qualifying and races? The Dutchman is believed to be making the difference by regularly picking up solid points he’s showing himself fully capable of remaining in the championship battle throughout.
Ferrari will be hoping that Imola was a turning point as both drivers showed strong race pace and finished in the top six, a complete turn around from both cars dropping out in Q2 last weekend. the race pace was extremely strong. Charles Leclerc does have a podium to his name already this season, and Lewis Hamilton almost added his first in a Grand Prix (he has been first and third in the two Sprints so far this year) as he closed to just 1.4 seconds behind Piastri on Sunday.
Williams has been one of the other quiet surprises this year, strong performance in Miami was followed up by a similarly competitive outing at Imola, with Alex Albon firmly in the mix for a podium before he had to settle for a second consecutive fifth place.
Carlos Sainz showed the pace and potential to replicate Albon’s results in both races but had damage in Miami and then was left to rue his strategy last weekend, with Team Principal James Vowles admitting Williams were actually disappointed not to score bigger than fifth and eighth.
F1 Explained | Mandatory Two-stop race
This weekend, a new rule will be trialled to try and mix up the grand prix with a mandatory two-stop race, meaning teams will be required to run three different sets of tyres. There is no requirement to run all three compounds (C4 Hard, C5 Medium and C6 Soft) but they as usual will be required to run two compounds.
This change was brought in after last years effective no-stop race, when after the first lap red flag, teams went from medium to hard and thus had no further pit stops. This was made possible because Monaco is the slowest race of the season and you need to be two and a half seconds faster to have the possibility to overtake.
So, if you just drive that far off the pace, you can make the tyre last the whole race. So last year we had a Monaco where everyone stopped under the red flag, so there were very few pit stops. And then basically, the majority of the field ran the whole race without any other interaction.
If we get two red flags, we still won’t have any pit stops. Unless people have stopped before the red flag. Because the rules don’t say you need to have two pit stops. The rules just say you need to run three sets of tyres.
Pirelli has also changed the tyre allocation going one step softer than last year which should increase tyre degradation. With the two-stop, you’d be trying to stop under safety cars if you can.
there is a very high possibility of the safety car, meaning Monaco tends to be more of an overcut race. But that is historically based on the fact that someone behind you is managing their pace and going slower than you. That’s what makes it an overcut, people box into traffic.
Sainz believes race will be a “lottery”
Carlos Sainz believes the Monaco Grand Prix will be a “lottery” following the two-stop mandate, as explained above. The regulation change was introduced in an attempt to increase overtaking, which means each driver must make a minimum of two pit stops during the race.
It remains to be seen how successful the move will be, with some suggestions cars that qualify further back could pit twice early on and then run to the end on the hard compound. Sainz thinks it will add another potential unknown into the mix but also gave reason to be wary of team orders also being tweaked as a result.
The Williams driver said, “There’s an element of lottery that Monaco can always offer. I think this year, that element is going to be a bit bigger given the two-stop rather than the one-stop. I think everyone that is not starting on pole is welcoming the two-stop. Only the guy who will be on pole will be cursing a bit the fact that the year that he starts on pole is the year that is a mandatory two-stop, and a lot of unknowns could happen.
Nico Hulkenberg feels the move will still not alter the fact that position on track is vital – regardless of how many times a driver is forced to pit.
When asked if a driver from the midfield could get lucky. he said, “It is difficult to say and to predict. It can be. But I think it all depends on where you start, your track position at the time, the timing of things. But it definitely adds another variability into the race that can go your way or really against you, I guess.”
Colapinto hopes to find confidence on the limit
Franco Colapinto says he his heading into his second race for Alpine looking for mor confidence in the car over a single lap. The Argentine made his debut for the team last weekend at Imola, where he finished sixteenth following a crash in qualifying before being hampered by a yellow flag in the race.
Colapinto’s Q1 shunt underlined that while he has built up experience in the simulator and in two-year-old Alpine cars in private testing, getting a handle on with the 2025 car at the absolute limit is still a work in progress. His challenge this weekend the most difficult race of the season, around the tight and technical Monte Carlo.
He told Motorsport.com, “I think Monaco, Baku, Singapore are very high-confidence tracks, and you need to pick up the confidence during laps or in the sessions, and it’s not very straightforward. Even less so for me, given that I’m still lacking a bit of that confidence with the car – that is normal after only during one race weekend.”
“There’s a lot of pace and a lot of confidence still coming with the car. Here, where you are brushing the walls in every corner, you need that and I think it’s going to come after FP1 a bit more, after FP2 even more, and just keep building up like I’ve done in Imola. I started a bit far in FP1, but then got closer and closer by the end of FP3.”
But Colapinto believes the biggest weaknesses he has is that he has only had four hours in the car compared to seven races and a maximum of a day and a half of testing other drivers have had. He also has changed teams which has been difficult for drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz.
Asked about the online abuse a small minority of Argentinian fans have been subjecting his colleagues Jack Doohan and Yuki Tsunoda to, repeating his request for supporters to show respect to all drivers. he said, “I try to do my best to calm them down and that’s all I can do, help them understand that it’s not the right thing to do. Of course, they have all the freedom and liberty to write what they feel and what they want but always keeping the respect and sticking to a certain line and not going over that.”
Doohan ask for harassment to stop
Jack Doohan has asked fans to “stop harassing” his family, while his Alpine team have issued a statement condemning “online abuse”. The Australian was dropped as a race driver in favour of Franco Colapinto ahead of last weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and replaced by Franco Colapinto.
The Australian, even since being dropped, has been subjected to online abuse, which he believes is coming largely from Argentine driver Colapinto’s fan base. Doohan posted two examples of social media posts on Monday that he said contained false information and portrayed him and his family in a “negative light”.
Doohan wrote on Instagram: “As you can clearly see, the story circulating above is completely false. it was fabricated by Argentine fans attempting to portray me and my family in a negative light. They edited the original content to make it appear as though my father posted it, which is entirely untrue.”