2025 Monaco Grand Prix - Monte Carlo, May 23 - 25

[erudite450]

I have watched this sport long enough to know that chaos never occurs when it's expected. This is going to be a straightforward race for the frontrunners. They will pull away in the front creating enough gap to drop into when they pit.

But now that you set this expectation, aren't we back for a good chaos race?

Hahahaha
Let's hope I have jinxed the boring race.

[CjC]

Could we see a short opening stint which someone already suggested but also a short final stint? Is there any benefit to that?

[1158]

What about pit somewhat early then ride around managing tyres. Wait for everyone else to pit, take the lead then build a gap big enough to pit in without losing a place. 2nd stop at start of last lap.

Of course this strategy has serious pitfalls. A late race SC kills it and you would have to be sure of being P1 when it was time to go flat out. Its a very risky strategy, but could it be worth it?

[Cs98]

If I'm the leader I'd probably just control the pace early, keep the field compressed. Then when I see that cars in the midfield start taking their stops it means that soon a gap will open up behind and someone will try the undercut, that's when I drop the hammer and go all out. Second stint will be similar, just manage the pace and always keep the tyres in good condition, whenever they start boxing behind you up the pace to protect. The undercut doesn't work if the leader has saved their tyres.

[dren]

If Gasly finds himself in the front just as the leaders have pitted for their 2nd stop, and Colapinto is still somewhere in the race, we know what radio message he will get from Flavio.

Colapinto has been crashing on purpose leading up to this very moment so it will be believable when he crashes out at Monaco.

[amr]

If we have a starting grid similar to Imola with some good race speed cars out of position, say Ferrari and Tsunoda, those could start on hard tyre.
Then they have the option to go long depending on what others are doing, or they could force a strategy change for everyone by pitting super early for soft and then in free air use their speed to pump in some qualifying laps. Using the free air and putting some banger laps will force others at the end of the pack to pit to prevent getting undercut.
If the end of the pack starts pitting, then the middle of the pack will be forced to pit, and then this will propagate further to the front, forcing everyone to pit eventually. The car that starts all this might gain a few positions depending on how fast others react.
If the end of the pack is not pitting to cover, the car starting on hard and pitting first will get rid of the hard and be able to use soft for the rest of the race to deploy pace when needed. It will come back at the back of the pack and overtake the cars at the back when they pit.
Depending on how gaps open up, the car triggering this strategy could do a similar thing by pitting super early for the 2nd time to use free air and force others to pit and change their preferred strategy.
At the front, the lead car will probably drive as fast as possible to open up gaps for himself to pit into while also protecting their tyres and keeping them in good shape in order to defend from an undercut. They will pit when a suitable gap is opened or when the tyre loses enough grip and they feel like they couldn't defend from an undercut.

I think this will be the baseline. No reason to plan around a SF/RF as you don't know when or if they happen. If it happens, you will try to see if it can be incorporated into this base strategy or if you just take it on the chin and stick to the base strategy.

[hollus]

Hard to imagine than none of the 10 strategy departments will not opt for stopping one driver in laps 1 and 2 while stopping the other one in laps 76 and 77, can one even push that to 78 if you pit before the finish line?
Interestingly, that strategy would work best if you pit your slowest driver first, setting him to (win?) the race.
And it even works if you just happen to qualify well below your natural position and try the 1-2 stop, hoping that another team puts one driver in the 76-77 strategy, perhaps improvising, so you did not rig the game, just hoped for a hail Mary that then happens to happen.

The potential for a royal clusterf**k is there, investing in pop-corn now might be advisable.

[SB15]

Hard to imagine than none of the 10 strategy departments will not opt for stopping one driver in laps 1 and 2 while stopping the other one in laps 76 and 77, can one even push that to 78 if you pit before the finish line?
Interestingly, that strategy would work best if you pit your slowest driver first, setting him to (win?) the race.
And it even works if you just happen to qualify well below your natural position and try the 1-2 stop, hoping that another team puts one driver in the 76-77 strategy, perhaps improvising, so you did not rig the game, just hoped for a hail Mary that then happens to happen.

The potential for a royal clusterf**k is there, investing in pop-corn now might be advisable.

Get a lawn chair just in case.

[hollus]

Noooo! Alonso might use it, and don’t want that!

[basti313]

Hard to imagine than none of the 10 strategy departments will not opt for stopping one driver in laps 1 and 2 while stopping the other one in laps 76 and 77, can one even push that to 78 if you pit before the finish line?
Interestingly, that strategy would work best if you pit your slowest driver first, setting him to (win?) the race.
And it even works if you just happen to qualify well below your natural position and try the 1-2 stop, hoping that another team puts one driver in the 76-77 strategy, perhaps improvising, so you did not rig the game, just hoped for a hail Mary that then happens to happen.

The potential for a royal clusterf**k is there, investing in pop-corn now might be advisable.

Sorry, but this is nonsense. Everyone pitting late will be screwed. Middle of the race, you can take the running order and cross out everyone in top 10 without a 30sec gap to the tenth driver that has done his two stops.
How should a slow driver win anything? He would need to be ahead of everyone else.

[hollus]

Pit in laps 1 and 2, have your teammate running 3 seconds off the pace, catch that train, see everyone needing to pit twice, yet stuck in that train.

[AR3-GP]

Pit in laps 1 and 2, have your teammate running 3 seconds off the pace, catch that train, see everyone needing to pit twice, yet stuck in that train.

Then the car just in front of the early stopper can just slow massively to help their own teammate find a gap to pit into.

[Cs98]

Pit lap 1, have your teammate further ahead drive well off the pace, once you've caught back up pit immediately again, catch back up, hold track position the rest of the race

Could be a sh**show, but the strategy should be entertaining.

[basti313]

Pit in laps 1 and 2, have your teammate running 3 seconds off the pace, catch that train, see everyone needing to pit twice, yet stuck in that train.

So you need to have P1 in Q to do this? Or for a backmarker, have a lead car in Q3 and screw this car for getting the slower car in the end on the position of the faster car? Yes...that strategy makes sense

It simply does not make sense to stop on the first 2 laps, unless you are anyways around P15. And even then you can only profit with a lot of luck. A lot of luck means some drivers in front completely out of pace and no safety car.

It only makes sense to stop earlier, if you still can extract a tire benefit. Means you can then run faster and make up the pitstop deficit.

Forget about P1 running as slow as possible. This may only be the case for a very limited amount of laps. Lead car needs to go full bean to get a 30sec gap to early stoppers in the backfield. So latest lap 10 they will go full pace.
Redbull might do something with Yuki if he is out in Q1 as usual. But this will not work. If they pit him early, he will get stuck and will be quickly 30sec away from any McLaren once they raise the speed for the pitstop.

[organic]