Oy, I was forced to watch the fucking kids commentary. Still better than Danica, but Jesus Christ, I wanted to pull my hair out listening to their dumb ramblings. And the babysitter lady was so cloyingly stupid.
Anywho, I’m happy for Chucky despite it being an F1 parade instead of a race.
Man I hate Monaco. 98% of the time who ever has pole wins the race. It’s only interesting if it rains, or Haas makes a dumb move.
No idea why it’s so “special”. Well I do, it’s the spectatcle around the race, but the race is almost always boring.
MtM
Yeah, that was laps of Suck. They weren’t even pretending.
1)It was the only option on the ESPN app that didn’t require ESPN+. And I was too lazy to look for bootleg streams.
2)I still wanted to hear the cars
3)no. I’m pretty sure I’ll never be the same.
I don’t understand how Magnussen bounced off the wall into Perez and there was no investigation.
There’s always a lot more leeway given at the start of the opening lap - there is so much for the driver to manage and information to take in they generally give them the benefit of the doubt. I agree though he was lucky, any other lap and that’s a slam-dunk penalty.
The problem with Monaco seems to be that the cars are getting increasingly longer and wider making overtaking almost impossible. This might be a daft question but why can’t they just, y’know, make them smaller?
Lewis Hamilton suggested the same thing I’ve been thinking for years. Make them stop at least twice during the race. At least then the strategies will come to the fore.
Then there’d be less space for advertising! We can’t have that!
IIRC, the new regulations in 2026 actually make the cars shorter by ~8 inches and thinner by ~4 inches. About 5% reduction in both directions.
While the “use all three compounds” rule could be fun, I’d rather they cut the points in half and make it a kart race. As it stands, the exciting part of Monaco ends with qualifying.
Safety, mostly. The cars now need a whole race’s worth of fuel on board because refueling was dangerous. Crumple zones have improved, and the regulations have been updated to account for taller drivers.
As Chisquirrel says, effort is being made to reverse the trend, but that’s why we’re where we are right now.
Purists would probably complainne, but if the cars were smaller and the tires thinner, sppeds would be lower than they are now, which means less violent collisions and better fuel mileage. So the crumple zones and fuel tanks could be smaller.
I’m not sure if any change could really improve the racing at Monaco. Would a redesign of the Nouvelle Chicane make that a legitimate passing zone? Maybe remove the hump in the road after Casino so you could get alongside another car into Mirebeau.
Something else occurred to me while watching the race this year. If I ever go to Monaco, who do I need to know to swim in the swimming pool? No one is in it during the race, but the rest of the year could I just show up in my swim trunks and take a dip?
So my French is nonexistent, but it looks like the pool is open to the public from May to October, from 9 AM to 5 PM. There are 1m, 3m, and 5m diving boards and a water slide. Entrance fee is 12 Euros for non-residents. You can even have a birthday party there for 146 Euros! SOURCE. That website makes navigating in anything other than French downright impossible, just so you know.
I’d be down for removal of the Nouvelle Chicane and making that a second DRS zone, if they can sort out how to do it safely with the tunnel. From what I’ve read in the past, F1 cars can lose up to 40% of their downforce in the tunnel.
I like the “Good Old Days”. Multiple tire manufactures, refueling, none of this bullshit DRS and mandated stops.
Strategy was Go Fast. 
Thanks for checking on that. That is just the kind of weird thing I’d do, just to say I had.
I remember before the chicane was redesigned; it was just a very quick left-right through a break in the curbing. If they got rid of it entirely I think the speeds would re unacceptably high for the next left turn along the waterfront.
I’ve thought of that, but most of the racing series that allow refueling during pit stops have some means to limit how fast the fuel flows. NASCAR uses hand-carried fuel cans, and I think Indycar requires that fuel flow is powered by gravity only. They also limit the number of people who can work on the car, so even if they could speed up the fuel flow, they’d probably still have to wait for the tire changers to finish before releasing the car.
An F1 pit stop takes about 2 seconds. if they did add refueling to the stops, it would have to be pressurized to flow very quickly into the car. If the refueling rig didn’t connect correctly, or there was a break in the hose, there’d be fuel spraying out everywhere. Either that, or stops would take a lot longer than they currently do.
I’m not saying refueling can’t happen, but I think there would have to be a lot of other changes in the sport to go along with it.
F1 used to have refueling and once the fuel did spray out everywhere and the effect was a fireball…
Not quite as hilarious as the Conan O’Brien episode (but what ever could be?), but this is an entertaining show.
I saw a parody of this on SNL. I didn’t know it was a real thing. Interesting…
I just found this nine-minute recap of the 1962 race, shot on 70mm film and digitally remastered to 4K. Amazing image quality and an incredible look at how the race – and Monaco – have changed in 62 years.
That was great! Thanks for posting.
I kept waiting to hear about that blizzard that nearly canceled Christmas.