New for the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix is a mandated two-stop strategy designed to spice up the racing and perhaps introduce a bit of variability in the running order.

No one quite knows what to expect from these changes, but Max Verstappen and Alex Albon both raised their own concerns in the FIA press conference ahead of the race.

Drivers raise Monaco Grand Prix pit stop concerns

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

For decades, the Monaco Grand Prix has been the crown jewel of the Formula 1 schedule.

The narrow, twisting streets of the Principality have consistently made for challenging racing — the kind that separates the good drives from the great.

But as F1 cars have ballooned in size over the past several years, the racing hasn’t always been particularly compelling. The final straw seemed to come in 2024, when the top 10 drivers on the grid finished in the same order they started, with no major on-track passes for position.

In an effort to revive the excitement of the race, the FIA World Motor Sport Council has determined that every driver must make two pit stops during the 78-lap race.

The goal is to introduce an additional strategic layer that could introduce more unpredictability.

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However, the decision isn’t a guaranteed hit. In the pre-race press conference ahead of the event, several drivers were asked for their opinion on the new rule change, and it seems to be a mixed bag.

“I guess it can go both ways, where it can be quite straightforward, or it can go completely crazy because of safety cars coming into play or not making the right calls,” Max Verstappen said.

“I think, yeah, it will spice it up, probably a bit more, because normally you know when you have that one stop, once you have a good pit stop, and everything is fine, then you drive to the end, you just have to stay focused and not hit the barrier.

“But maybe with a two stop, yeah, it can create something different. People, gambling, guessing, you know when, when the right time is to to box. So hopefully it will spice it up a bit more.”

Those are some bold hopes — and Alex Albon of Williams isn’t fully convinced we’ll see something audacious.

“I think the biggest thing is — obviously, we’re doing this to shake it up,” he said, “and the worry is that it doesn’t shake it up and it just creates, like you’re saying, a lap-one situation where everyone starts to come into the pits and just tries to take some of the space and use lap two, three, four, five – whatever it may be – to push.

“Who knows?

“The biggest thing if you speak to the team, and I think every strategist, is that we don’t really know how it’s going to play out. Especially in the midfield, it’s team-mates and how they help each other.

“A good example would be Jeddah last year with Haas, when Kevin [Magnussen] made a race where he basically parked the bus and allowed Nico [Hulkenberg] to have a free stop.

“When you do work that around a track like here with two stops, that’s definitely possible. You don’t want a race like that.

“That’s not to say I think it’s a bad idea to do a two-stop. I think we need to try something — but it may not really change the style of the race.”

Would changing the style of racing be such a bad thing? Many might argue that the Monaco Grand Prix is in dire need of something to spice up what is often a very straightforward race.

Whether the two pit stop mandate solves that concern, though, remains to be seen.

Read next: What do all-new Monaco GP pit stop rules actually fix?