“Maybe throw bananas” – why Verstappen felt F1’s Monaco GP pitstop rule was like Mario Kart

Max Verstappen says the mandatory two-pitstop rules turned Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix into “almost Mario Kart”, and reckons the experiment hasn’t worked.

In an attempt to avoid the usual procession, after a 2024 race in which the top 10 drivers finished in the same order they started, F1 decided to impose a rule forcing cars to run three different sets of tyres, effectively turning the race into a two-stopper.

The additional pitstop added jeopardy to the race and caused unusual tactics, with the Racing Bulls and Williams cars driving slowly to create gaps for their team-mates.

Meanwhile Verstappen was waiting until the final lap to make his second stop in the hope a late red flag would hand him a chance to change tyres for free and win the race instead of finishing fourth.

Verstappen acknowledged that F1 and the FIA had to try something to make the Monaco race more interesting, but didn’t feel it worked.

“Of course I get it, but I don’t think it has worked,” Verstappen told Sky Sports F1. “You can’t race here anyway, so it doesn’t matter what you do. One stop, 10 stops. Even at the end I was in the lead, but my tyres were 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.

“We were almost doing Mario Kart. Then we have to install bits on the car. Maybe you can throw bananas around. Yeah, I don’t know. Slippery surface.”

Verstappen and Red Bull lacked the pace this weekend on a street track that exposed Red Bull’s long-standing weaknesses over bumps and kerbs, qualifying seven tenths behind polesitter Lando Norris in fifth, which became fourth on the grid after a grid penalty for Lewis Hamilton.

With no other options to move up, Verstappen felt his decision to delay his final stop until the very end was at least worth trying in case a red flag would come out.

“Yeah, there was nothing to lose, right?” he said. “I had a big gap behind. It was still the same position for me, but that’s Monaco for you. Qualifying is super important. Normally, when nothing bad happens you don’t really move forward.

“And if you just do normal pitstops, you just keep your position, and that’s exactly what happened today.

“I also don’t think we had the pace anyway to fight the guys ahead, because every time I tried to stay with them, my tyres were wearing and graining a bit too much. But yeah, P4 is definitely the maximum we could do.”

Verstappen heads to next weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona 25 points behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who saw team-mate Norris move to within three points by grabbing his second win of the season around the streets of Monte Carlo.