Monaco has change into infamous in recent times for soporific races through which the chief controls the tempo from the entrance in an try and safe the victory figuring out that overtaking is nearly not possible.
Final yr’s 78-lap race had simply 4 overtakes in whole. The common for 2025’s 24 grands prix, discounting sprints, was 66.9.
F1 has taken on a brand new look this yr, with elevated ranges of overtaking and on-track battles lasting for a lot of laps, with drivers swapping positions repeatedly.
May this variation the character of the race the place overtaking is most troublesome?
On paper, there are causes to consider it would. A bit, anyway.
Drivers have complained in recent times that the automobiles have been just too huge – too lengthy and huge – to race successfully within the tight confines of the streets of Monaco.
However the truth that the automobiles are barely lighter and smaller this yr is unlikely to make a distinction.
Whereas the 2026 automobiles are 10cm narrower and barely shorter, they’re nonetheless 10cm wider than the automobiles of 20 years in the past. And overtaking has been all however not possible at Monaco between automobiles of comparable ranges of competitiveness for a minimum of half a century.
If something goes to alter the character of racing in Monaco, it’s the new engines, with their nominal 50-50 break up between inner combustion and electrical energy, and – most significantly – the brand new overtake mode.
‘Overtake’ offers a driver inside a second of a automobile in entrance an additional 0.5MJ {of electrical} power per lap. That is central to the brand new character of racing this yr and the battles that many within the sport, together with drivers, have described as “yo-yo racing”.
Vehicles have ended up tied collectively for a number of laps as a result of the automobile behind passes the one in entrance with assist from the overtake mode. Just for the benefit to then move to the automobile that has simply been overtaken, when it will get overtake mode.
It has been proving troublesome for drivers to interrupt freed from this back-and-forth, and each race this season has had examples of this kind of battle.
No-one is aware of how overtake mode will have an effect on racing in Monaco till Sunday afternoon. However whether it is to make a distinction and allow drivers to a minimum of get right into a place to attempt an overtake, that is prone to be together with an offset in tyre degradation.
If the automobile in entrance is battling rear tyre put on, and is subsequently restricted on grip throughout acceleration, that, mixed with overtake mode, simply may make them weak to the automobile behind.
However the nature of Monaco signifies that sure points of overtake mode won’t be in play this weekend.
The plethora of overtaking manoeuvres this yr has typically been attributable to the 2 automobiles concerned being in numerous states of power deployment.
The additional power offered by ‘overtake’ mode means the automobile behind can deploy electrical energy for longer than the automobile in entrance.
So, when one automobile has an additional 350kW – 480bhp – in contrast with the one it is racing, it is going to get previous. That is what has led two-time champion Fernando Alonso to seek advice from many overtakes this yr as “avoiding actions”.
It is a view shared by Max Verstappen, if expressed another way.
This arises as a result of the automobiles are essentially power starved this yr – they merely can’t recuperate adequate electrical power to have the ability to have full energy always a driver would need.
Monaco, although, is the least energy-starved observe of the yr. So this offset in energy will probably be far much less frequent.
