Monaco’s Mundane Finish Could Call for F1 Rules Change

Do the Formula 1 Red Flag Rules need a Tweak?

5 March 2020

If you haven’t heard by now, the final stretch of the Monaco Grand Prix was on par with the national paint drying watching championships and just as predictable.

It wasn’t always going to end up like that though, for the few laps that led up to the incident on the 72nd lap of the 78 lap Grand Prix it was set to be an absolutely nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat viewing extravaganza. Sebastian Vettel, the race leader at this point, had already 40+ laps on his tyres and according to McLaren engineers were on the brink of falling apart. Fernando Alonso in second place had a fresher set but still at a point where they weren’t performing optimally. Jenson Button followed him in third with an almost brand spanking new set of tyres ready to out grip the two in front of him and blast into the lead. However, it was not to be; the incident on the 72nd lap brought about red flag conditions and a race restart. The infuriating thing about this though, is during the time the cars are on the grid ready to restart they’re allowed to have a fresh tyre change. This allowed Vettel and Alonso to get fresh rubber and ultimately the rest of the race looked like a sped up version of the conga with every car nose to tail in almost every corner. Should there be a slight amendment to the red flag rules stipulating that only tyre changes be allowed if the conditions of the track warrant them? i.e. very heavy rain.