25/05/2024
NEWS STORY
Lewis Hamilton believes the Monaco weekend would benefit from a change of format.
Overtaking has always been difficult in the Principality - just ask Nigel Mansell - but the longer, wider, heavier cars of the current era make it damn nigh impossible. Consequently, this weekend's race is likely to be as processional as last weekend's at Imola.
Admitting that making the Monaco weekend a Sprint would not be feasible, Hamilton - a three-time winner in the Principality - believes that a revised format would improve the event.
"Whether or not we have sprint weekends or... they can definitely come out with a specific weekend," said the Mercedes driver, who insists that Monaco is "more special than any other street circuit".
"You've got the Sprint things that they've added," he continued, "but for this particular weekend, I think they should come up with some new formula for it rather than it just be the same. That's just my opinion.
"Do you guys not fall asleep on Sunday watching the race?" he asked the assembled members of the media. "Yeah! So, creating something else somehow, I don't know how you do it."
One idea he has mulled is tyres that degrade faster, thereby necessitating more pit stops... a move that would surely lead to even more bad PR for Pirelli.
"Monaco continues to be Monaco, it's not really changed much," he said. "But, the cars are getting bigger. You can't really overtake without the risk of colliding, so I wish we had bigger roads and the track could be wider, but I don't think that's ever going to be the case in Monaco because it's just a small place.
"The race is continuously pretty much the same," he sighed. "It's a one-stop race. I would say maybe special tyres for this race, so you have more pit stops that create more variability."
Or how about a race on the super wide streets of Jakarta, Seoul or Bangkok... eh Greg!
Check out our Saturday gallery from Monaco here.