The “Monaco Trick”: Why F1 Needs to Abolish Its Most Cynical Loophole

 Abstract

A mandatory two-stop rule introduced specifically for Monaco in 2025 was designed to generate strategic variety on one of the calendar's most processional circuits. What it actually produced was coordinated, deliberate slow driving (one car dropped several seconds per lap below race pace to manufacture a pit-stop window for its team-mate), exploiting the structural impossibility of overtaking at Monaco. This tactic has not got a name until today and I want to call it “Monaco Trick”. The real issue behind this situation is not the FIA's own regulatory framework because it already provides the tools to eradicate this behaviour. The real problem and only missing ingredient are the will to apply them.

The Rule That Created the Problem

The Monaco-specific provision mandating a minimum of two pit stops and three different tyre sets was ratified by the World Motor Sport Council and applied for the first time at the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix.[1] Its stated objective was legitimate: prevent the tyre-conservation procession that had made Monaco increasingly difficult to justify as a competitive spectacle during Sundays. The diagnosis was not wrong. The cure, however, failed to account for the circuit's defining constraint. At Monaco, the car ahead stays ahead regardless of tyre age, because overtaking on track is structurally near impossible. The only real variable is the pit-stop window, and that is exactly where the teams found space to operate.

Racing Bulls were the first to execute the tactic. With Isack Hadjar ahead and Liam Lawson positioned in the train behind him, Lawson deliberately dropped his pace by over four seconds per lap, blocking the faster cars behind him and opening enough of a gap for Hadjar to complete both mandatory stops without losing position. Williams, stuck behind Lawson and unable to pass, faced a choice that was really no choice at all: replicate the tactic or concede the points. Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon took turns slowing the group, each giving the other a free stop. Both cars scored. Both drivers expressed immediate discomfort. Sainz's post-race summary was unambiguous: "Ultimately, you're driving two or three seconds off the pace that the car can do. You are ultimately manipulating the race."[2] Albon added that it was not how he or Sainz wanted to go racing.[3] James Vowles, Williams' Team Principal, called it the most uncomfortable he had felt as a team boss.[4]

The FIA acknowledged the failure by removing the mandatory two-stop provision before the 2026 season began. What it did not do was address the underlying loophole, because the loophole was never in the tyre regulation.

 

Monaco 2026: The Trick Survives Its Own Cause

The mandatory rule was gone. The Monaco Trick was not. At the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix, Williams deployed the same tactic with no regulatory compulsion to do so. Albon yielded his position to Sainz on team instructions, then slowed the chasing group to manufacture a pit-stop window for his team-mate. The execution was familiar enough to require no introduction for anyone who had followed the 2025 edition.

The significance of this is precise: the tactic does not need the mandatory two-stop to survive. It needs only Monaco, two cars in the points zone (or at least one), and a pit stop to protect. The mandatory stop was the catalyst. The circuit is the condition. And the condition has not changed.

 

The Tools Already Exist

The Monaco Trick is, at its core, deliberately slow driving coordinated for competitive advantage. Article B1.8.5 of the 2026 F1 Sporting Regulations states that at no time may an F1 car be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person.[5] The 2026 Driving Standards Guidelines reinforce this provision explicitly under the heading of impeding. Article 12.2.1.l of the FIA International Sporting Code covers any infringement of the principles of fairness in competition, behaviour in an unsportsmanlike manner or attempt to influence the result of a competition in a way that is contrary to sporting ethics.[6]

That second article has precedent. At the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix, the stewards penalised Lando Norris five seconds for slowing under the safety car to create a gap between himself and team-mate Oscar Piastri, allowing both McLarens to pit on the same lap. The speed differential recorded was approximately 50 km/h over one sector.[7] The stewards found that sufficient to constitute unsportsmanlike conduct under Article 12.2.1.l.

The logical extension to the Monaco Trick is direct. If a 50 km/h delta over one sector under a safety car meets the threshold, a sustained reduction of three/four seconds per lap, held for multiple laps, coordinated by radio, and openly described as race manipulation by its own executors, does so by a considerable margin.

 

Conclusion

Scrapping the mandatory two-stop was a necessary correction, but an incomplete one. It removed the rule that had generated the tactic without addressing the tactic itself. Last Sunday’s race has demonstrated that the Monaco Trick requires no regulatory invitation to reappear. A formal clarification that Article B1.8.5 applies to strategically motivated slowdowns, not only to accidental impeding in qualifying, would close the gap. The precedent from Montreal 2023 provides the framework. What is currently missing is the institutional will to apply it, and the longer the FIA delays, the more teams will treat the Monaco Trick not as a regrettable exception, but as an established component of street-circuit strategy.

---

[1]FIA Formula 1 Sporting Regulations 2025 — Monaco-specific provision (mandatory use of three tyre sets). The clause was subsequently removed from the 2026 Sporting Regulations before the season began.

[2]C. Sainz, post-race press conference, Monaco Grand Prix 2025, quoted in: "Sainz: Monaco GP two-pitstop rule 'manipulated' the race", Autosport, May 2025.

[3]A. Albon, post-race statement, Monaco Grand Prix 2025, quoted in: "'It's not how we want to go racing' — Albon rues frustrating 'tactical game' in Monaco", Formula1.com, May 2025.

[4]J. Vowles, quoted in: "Williams surprised by Monaco GP two-stop return for F1 2026", Motorsport.com, August 2025.

[5]Art. B1.8.5, FIA Formula 1 Sporting Regulations 2026, Issue 05, February 2026. The provision is also explicitly referenced in Point E (Impeding) of the 2026 FIA Formula 1 Driving Standards Guidelines, February 2026.

[6]Art. 12.2.1.l, FIA International Sporting Code 2026.

[7]FIA Stewards, Document 42, Canadian Grand Prix 2023, citing Art. 12.2.1.l of the FIA International Sporting Code.