- George Russell thinks Monaco qualifying is the real race, not Sunday’s main event.
- His 2025 weekend ended in penalties, frustration and a finish outside the points.
- The FIA tried fixing the format last year by forcing two stops, but it did not work.
George Russell wants Formula 1 to rethink its most famous race. The Mercedes driver and Grand Prix Drivers’ Association director has argued that the Monaco Grand Prix barely functions as a race, and that qualifying is where the real competition lives.
His comments, first made to Motorsport.com after the 2025 event, have come back into focus as the sport returns to Monte Carlo for the race on Sunday, 7 June.
What George Russell actually said
Russell’s proposal is direct. He believes the Saturday qualifying session delivers the drama that the Sunday race cannot. “For all of the drivers, qualifying is the most exhilarating moment of the weekend,” he told media after last year’s race.
“Do we accept that? There should be no race, and it’s a qualifying race.”
He went further than simply criticising the existing format. Russell suggested replacing the race weekend with two separate qualifying sessions, both carrying championship points.
“You do one on Saturday, one on Sunday,” he explained. “The guy who qualifies pole gets some points and gets a little trophy, and the one on Sunday gets some more points.” His view was that this would give fans what they already watch for.
Russell also acknowledged the unique nature of the Monaco crowd. Most people there, he said, are not watching the racing at all, noting that “99 per cent of the other people in Monaco are here sipping champagne on the yacht, so they don’t really care.”
Why Russell reached the boiling point
Russell’s frustration had a specific origin. A suspected electrical problem in qualifying left him starting 14th, a position that Monaco’s narrow streets make nearly impossible to recover from. He finished the race in 11th.
The low point came when he spent lap after lap stuck behind Alex Albon’s Williams, which was being driven deliberately slowly. Russell eventually cut the Nouvelle Chicane to pass the car. The stewards ordered him to give the place back, but he refused, accepting a drive-through penalty instead.
His anger went beyond that single moment. Modern Formula 1 cars are so wide that passing on Monaco’s streets has become nearly impossible.
Russell made the point plainly: the circuit is so forgiving of pace differences that he said you could “put an F2 car out there and they’ve got a chance of holding up an F1 car.”
The failed experiment behind the rant
The 2025 race was supposed to be different. The FIA had mandated a two-stop strategy, requiring every driver to use three sets of tyres in an attempt to shake up the running order. The results did not match the intention.
The top finishers still crossed the line in roughly the same order they started. Teams used the strategy rules against the spirit of the rule change, slowing their own drivers to create tyre-change windows for teammates. That tactic was precisely what trapped Russell behind Albon.
Russell did not hide his verdict on the experiment. “We definitely need to have a real think about what the solution is here in Monaco,” he told media. “I appreciate trying something this year in the two-stop. Clearly, it did not work at all.”
Where things stand for 2026
The two-stop rule has been dropped for this year’s race. The FIA has instead made a technical change for the new generation of cars, removing the active aero feature known as “Straight Mode” from use around the circuit, citing safety concerns.
The 2026 cars are also marginally narrower, though few in the paddock expect that alone to transform overtaking.
Russell’s proposed format change has no path forward at present. Monaco’s contract ties the race to the Formula 1 calendar until 2035, which means Sunday’s event will go ahead regardless of how the debate over its format develops.
Russell is not entirely alone in his thinking. Max Verstappen has also said qualifying is the highlight of his Monaco weekend, though without the same forcefulness. For now, the race stays. The argument, just as reliably, stays with it.
