23/05/2025 11:00
The Monaco Grand Prix this season has an additional feature that differentiates it from the other events on the F1 calendar - but also from its former self. This is because, for the first time, the FIA has introduced the obligation for each driver to serve a minimum of two pit stops, in an attempt to liven up the race. In recent years, the annual F1 trip to Monte Carlo has rarely produced an entertaining spectacle during the grand prix itself, with proceedings almost always reduced to a procession of the order established by the admittedly high-drama qualifying session. In any case, this is a change that the teams must take into primary consideration, as it determines greater variability in race strategies by broadening the range of choices available to the teams. Ferrari's preparation for this event, for example, has seen extensive use of the simulator, as usual. However, in addition to the usual qualifying preparation, the Italian team has also been using it for race simulations. This, coupled with use of the Scuderia's remote garage, affords the Prancing Horse the opportunity to run through as many different scenarios as possible that could occur during a race that has the added jeopardy of a strategical step into the unknown. Considering the short length of the circuit, traffic will be a significant factor. Therefore, Maranello has been attacking the twin tasks in the run up to the Monaco Grand Prix of trying to determine the optimal set up and understanding tactical variability. The strategic simulations of the various race scenarios, precisely based on the choices available to the individual teams, with multiple random distributions of pit stops in the time windows linked to the degradation of the tyres of each of the Pirelli compounds, should allow pit walls, including Ferrari, to implement consolidated procedures, different for each race scenario in terms of traffic and track conditions. In short: teams will have compiled comprehensive studies of the different, intrinsically-linked factors pertaining to the mandatory two-stop strategy facing them - and how to adapt and react to them. Although, it is important to reiterate that this exercise only partially replaces, or aids, intuition in the moment, based on analysis of real-time data. Contemporary F1 is, after all, foreseeing every possible scenario in order to be able to respond instantly and without uncertainty.
