Max Verstappen quipped that Formula 1 needs to fully embrace the “Mario Kart” approach to spice-up the Monaco Grand Prix.

That comes after the first instalment of the event with a mandatory two-stop rule generated plenty of debate, the likes of Racing Bulls and Williams playing the team game on their way to double points finishes, while Verstappen finished where he started in P4, having waited until the penultimate lap to make his second stop.

Max Verstappen on the Monaco GP: Mario Kart the answer?

After last year’s Monaco GP saw drivers complete much of the race on one set of tyres following an early red flag, the FIA looked to inject some extra excitement into the 2025 Monaco GP by mandating that every driver must complete at least two pit stops.

The concept arguably failed to deliver the results hoped for, and in the midfield, it led to Racing Bulls and Williams taking turns with a driver as the slow-moving rear-gunner, which meant all four drivers finished in the points, even if it was far from full-throttle racing around the streets of Monte Carlo.

PlanetF1.com understands that there is a feeling within Formula 1 that the rule change did its job of creating something different, with an appetite for it continuing.

And following the race, Verstappen was asked by Sky F1 for his take on the Monaco two-stop rule’s debut.

“Yeah, but you can’t race here anyway,” he said. “So it doesn’t matter what you do, one stop, 10 stops.

“I mean, even at the end, right? I was in the lead, but my tyres are completely gone, and you still can’t pass.

“I think nowadays, with an F1 car, you can just pass a Formula 2 car around here!”

As for whether he was glad that Formula 1 at least tried to address the situation of limited racing action in Monaco, Verstappen replied: “Yeah, of course. I mean, I get it, but I don’t think it has worked.”

Key stats after the Monaco GP

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Verstappen felt like he was in a real-life version of the Mario Kart games during the Monaco Grand Prix, so quipped that is the route Formula 1 can fully embrace, complete with banana skin hazards.

Asked what he feels F1 needs to change to improve the Monaco GP spectacle, Verstappen said: “Honestly, we were almost doing Mario Kart.

“Then we have to install bits on the car, maybe, you know, you can throw bananas around. I don’t know. Slippery surface [laughs].”

2009 World Champion Jenson Button – on Sky F1 punditry duties in Monaco – was glad to see the sport try something to shake things up in Monaco, but felt the tactics deployed on track made “a mockery”.

At one stage, Mercedes’ George Russell straight-lined the Nouvelle chicane to clear the Williams of Alex Albon who was in hold-up mode to allow team-mate Carlos Sainz to escape up the road, Russell hit with a drive-through penalty as a result.

Albon would finish the race P9 and Sainz P10 in a double points finish, while for Racing Bulls, Isack Hadjar was P6 and Liam Lawson P8.

“When teams were using one driver to help the other and holding back other cars and going six seconds a lap slower, yeah, it looks a bit silly, doesn’t it?” Button stated.

“And then we had George trying to jump, obviously, it was an accident, but trying to jump Alex Albon through the chicane so that then he’s in front and he can push on six seconds before he gets his penalty. Again, it makes a little bit of a mockery of it.

“So it’s a shame it hasn’t worked. I love that we’ve tried it, because it needed something. But we need to work out a way how we can tweak it.”

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