Fans will be happy to hear that they weren't the only ones bored by Sunday's snooze-fest... so was world champion Max Verstappen.

"After the red flag our strategy was ruined," said the Dutchman, who ended the afternoon exactly where he'd started, in sixth, "as we had to put the medium on to the end as everyone had a free stop, and that meant that we had to save a lot.

"I just tried to follow George and we were so off the pace trying to manage the tyres," he added. "That is of course quite boring out there, driving literally half-throttle on the straights in some places, a gear higher than you would normally do and four seconds off the pace, so that is not really racing."

Indeed, days after Lewis Hamilton suggested Monaco would benefit from a revised format, Verstappen agrees.

"I would like to try to - if there are possibilities - change a few things," said the Dutchman. "because it'll make the excitement even better.

"Overall the weekend is really cool," he added, "just the Sunday is a little bit boring unfortunately, but the scenery is still great. If we can find a way to race a bit better, why not? That would be my preferred solution."

Asked about changes to the layout, which wouldn't be easy considering the size and layout of the actual Principality, he said: "Yes, because you cannot pass at the moment. If they ask for my opinion I will try to see what is possible, but it also depends what roads you are going to take."

"It was a very static race," agreed Christian Horner. "The top ten is as it started.

"The red flag effectively killed the race," he continued, "because everybody just was going to run to the end of the race.

"It's something that we should collectively have a look at," he admitted. "It's not racing as such when you're just driving around three or four seconds off the pace because the other car hasn't got any chance of overtaking.

"Monaco is such a great place to come racing. But the cars are so big now that we just need to look at 'can we do something that introduces an overtaking area' or at least the potential of an overtake because the top ten is exactly as it started on the grid and not a single overtake in the top ten.

"It's such a great place, so much history here, but everything evolves. The cars are so big now, if you compare them to cars of ten years ago they're almost twice the size."

Great history and scenery, but the 'racing's' crap... welcome to F1 2024 folks!

Check out our Sunday gallery from Monaco here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Francis, 29/05/2024 22:27

"Most major American sports have a mid-season pause called the all-star break. The most famous and decorated players in the league come out each year to play a meaningless game, that is more exhibition than completion, for their fans and everyone fakes having a good old time. That is Monaco for me - the all star break for F1.

That is the only joy you get... It is an entertainment spectacle with no racing. "

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2. Posted by Spindoctor, 28/05/2024 8:30

"Pretty smart from Max, though hardly new or original, especially with the vissicisitudes of these lardy cars. His "problem" is that this sounds like sour grapes because he couldn't just swan off into the distance as per SoP. Drivers spent much of the "race" managing tyres, that's a *part* of, but surely not the be all & end all of F1 driving...
Smaller cars & sensible tyres could bring a little ex itement back..... "

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3. Posted by BillH, 28/05/2024 1:32

"Even Formula E was more interesting and those drivers just basically "do a Monaco" every race until 10 laps to go.
One change that has to happen is that at least for Monaco, there must be a change to the alternate tire after a red flag race has restarted.
This way the teams can fix the cars, change tires as they do now however once the race restarts, they must change tires again.
That could be for any race, not just Monaco, and while I'm on a rant, make the teams use all the dry tire compounds per race which will mean two pit stops per race."

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4. Posted by Mad Matt, 27/05/2024 13:32

"@Schrodinger's cat: You forgot one important point, we watch the procession, hoping for rain or a crash :-)

More seriously, the first 20 minutes I'm amazed to see how fast they drive so close to the barriers and for the rest of the race I'm bored. Even without the red flag we've had drivers driving at F2 speed and nobody can pass.There's then 20 second of excitement as tyres are changed and then we're back to boredom."

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5. Posted by Schrodinger's cat, 27/05/2024 12:30

"Monaco should be removed from the calendar, because most 'races' are not actually a race! Just a boring two hours of watching a procession of Formula One cars. This 'race' is just a advertising event."

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6. Posted by Motorsport-fan, 27/05/2024 12:04

"Cannot agree more."

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Verstappen "bored" by Monaco procession

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