Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has come up with a way to make the Monaco Grand Prix more suitable for modern F1.

In a bid to enliven the usual procession that is the Monaco Grand Prix, a rule change was introduced this year to mandate the drivers to make at least two pit-stops in an effort to stamp out the practice of conserving tyres.

Christian Horner highlights Monaco’s ‘fundamental issue’

With Monaco being particularly easy on the tyres due to its low-speed nature, the usual tactic in recent years has been for drivers to drive at a certain lap time and conserve their tyres to make a one-stop strategy work, knowing that track position is key due to overtaking being all but impossible around the narrow street circuit.

With the F1 cars of today being particularly big compared to those from even 15 years ago, it is an issue that has become increasingly problematic as the ‘race’ usually becomes a procession – this year’s race produced just a single on-track overtake on the last lap.

Such is the extent of the problem, Daniel Ricciardo was able to win the 2018 race while driving with a failed Energy Recovery System (ERS) on his Red Bull – the lack of horsepower would have rendered any other race pointless but, due to the difficult in overtaking, was able to hold off Sebastian Vettel and even pull away by the chequered flag.

Attempting to introduce a new variable for this year’s race, the FIA brought in a mandatory two-stop rule to attempt to head off drivers conserving their tyres and merely circulating around at a set delta time.

The potential for some wild strategy risks was thus opened up, particularly if the usual Safety Car or a potential red flag came out.

However, in the end, the two-stop made little material difference. Aside from intra-team tactics at Racing Bulls and Williams to delay their rivals and give their lead drivers ‘free’ pit-stops, the leading drivers all ran a typical two-stop strategy.

Max Verstappen attempted to hang it out on track on a single stop, hoping for a Safety Car or red flag event that never came, but was forced to pit again on Lap 76 – falling back to the fourth place that had looked like his bare minimum from early on in the race.

He was less than impressed with the two-stop experiment, branding it “Mario Kart” racing, while Lando Norris said he “hated it” before Oscar Piastri asked “whether this is what we want from F1”.

With the two-stop experiment, an attempted patch on the issue that is trying to make the Monaco Grand Prix exciting again, Mercedes’ team boss Toto Wolff proposed introducing “Monaco-specific” rules to prevent delaying tactics amongst teammates, but Red Bull boss Christian Horner had a different view on the matter.

“I’d say it was an improvement. It was strategically more interesting. There was more jeopardy to it, certainly better than what we saw last year, where there was just a procession,” he told media, including PlanetF1.com, after the chequered flag.

“The fundamental problem is you cannot overtake here, and you can drive around three to four seconds off the pace. So that’s the fundamental problem. That’s circuit-specific, we’ve known that, it’s been on the calendar for 75 years.

“I don’t think I saw a single overtake in the race (sic). The only way to really encourage any sort of overtaking is to try creating a bit more of a braking area, either on the exit of the tunnel or at Turn 1 if there was any way of creating a longer braking zone somewhere.

“We really should investigate it. The cars are so big now you just don’t have a chance to get alongside.”

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While traditionalists may argue that the layout of the Monaco circuit shouldn’t have to change, it wouldn’t be the first time the circuit has been revised. La Rascasse, until 1973, used to be a 180-degree hairpin along the waterfront, while the Swimming Pool exit has been completely opened up since 2003.

The Nouvelle Chicane was a revision of the old chicane, made in 1986, while Ste. Devote and Anthony Noghes used to be tighter corners than they are now.

While the fundamental road layout hasn’t changed much over F1’s 75-year history, Horner believes it’s time that changes are explored – after all, other historic venues used since 1950 such as Silverstone, Spa, and Monza have all had significant changes made to improve safety and the racing spectacle.

“I think everything has to move with the times,” he said.

“It’s an iconic historic circuit. But, if you look at how Monaco has changed, how much land they’ve reclaimed it from the sea over the 72 appearances here, I don’t think you would need to do too much.

“It just needs to be one area. But everybody knows that coming here, the race was pretty much done yesterday.

“We’ve introduced another dynamic with the pit stop which, ultimately, for the top 10 – other than retirements – nobody really changed position.

“I think these cars are just too big for this circuit. You can barely get them side by side, and that’s Monaco. We know that, we all want to be here, we’re all here because it is Monaco and the prestige and the cache that goes with that.

“But everything has to move with the times at some point.

“The marshals are fantastic here, they put on a great event, it would just be really cool to have at least one area where there was a chance of an overtake because, even in Formula 2 now  and in the support races, it’s very similar.”

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