McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has weighed in on the persistent overtaking struggles at the Monaco Grand Prix, attributing the lack of on-track action to the fundamental design of Formula 1’s current cars rather than to the famous street circuit’s winding layout.
Stella’s comments come in the wake of a race that once again delivered little in the way of excitement, despite the FIA implementing a mandatory two-stop rule in a bid to shake up strategies and boost entertainment
McLaren’s Lando Norris converted pole position into a commanding win, and while delighted with the outcome, Stella acknowledged that the result did little to mask the underlying issues with racing on the Principality’s tight streets.
But the Italian pointed to the size and grip of Formula 1’s current cars rather than to the track’s topography as the primary culprits behind Monaco’s overtaking conundrum.
Strategy Can’t Fix Structural Problems
In the absence of Safety Cars or red flags in Sunday’s race, Norris, Charles Leclerc, and Oscar Piastri finished exactly where they started, a stark reminder that strategy alone can’t overcome physical limitations of the track and cars.
“I think we should praise the fact that Formula 1 and the FIA made an attempt to improve racing in Monaco,” Stella said after McLaren’s first win in Monaco since 2008.
“I think the main limitation remains the fact that you cannot overtake. This is quite structural as a limitation and I am not sure exactly how this can be modified, can be changed, just simply by imposing a certain number of pit stops.”
With Formula 1 set to introduce in 2026 radically different regulations that will result in smaller, less grippy cars, Stella is optimistic that the sport might finally see improvement in on-track overtaking –even in Monaco.
“What I’m interested in seeing is next year with the smaller cars and with cars with less grip, therefore all the braking zones will be much, much longer,” he added.
“Cars that will have a completely different power unit, deployment strategy.
"So, we are fundamentally changing the cars and I would hope that this change of the cars will make overtaking possible even at least when you are three seconds faster.”
“There’s Just Not Materially the Space”
Stella offered a clear technical explanation of why overtaking is nearly impossible at Monaco with the current generation of cars.
“Because at the moment, if you are three seconds faster, still you cannot overtake,” he said. “But I think this has very much to do with the size of the car, with the speed of the car and the grip, which means that the braking zones are anyhow very, very short. There’s just not materially the space in braking.”
While many in the paddock have debated changes to race formats or circuit layout modifications to boost excitement, Stella believes that focusing on the cars themselves is the most meaningful path forward.
“So, I think more than looking at the strategy, we should look at the cars and see if we can create opportunity to overtake,” he concluded.
“I think this is what we should focus on. I’m not sure there’s anything that can be done from a track layout point of view.
“To be honest, I’ve never thought at this aspect, but maybe there’s something that we should consider even from that point of view.”
Stella’s comments echo growing sentiment in the F1 paddock that without fundamental changes to the machinery, even the most dramatic rule tweaks may not be enough to shake Monaco’s long-standing reputation for processional races.
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