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Formula 1 drivers have expressed concerns over the hazard posed by the championship’s expanded field in Monaco this year.
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At just 3.3 kilometres, Monaco is the shortest track on the F1 calendar, and is also the narrowest. F1’s field has grown to 22 cars this year, the most since 2016, when cars were also 10 centimetres narrower.
Charles Leclerc says the increased traffic at the start of qualifying, before any drivers have been eliminated, will present “a problem.”
“I mean, 22 cars on such a short track I think will be quite tricky,” he said. “Especially because with these cars, [although it’s] a bit less now, still whenever you are three or four seconds [apart] on tracks like this, you lose a bit of time.
“So it’s going to be tricky. It’s the same for everybody and we’ll have to adapt to it but it’s not ideal for Q1, I think.”
The difficulties posed by traffic in qualifying was a concern for some drivers even before arrival of Cadillac this year expanded the field to 22 cars. Grand Prix Drivers Association director Carlos Sainz Jnr has repeatedly called for F1 to use the same split qualifying format used by Formula 2 and Formula 3 in Monaco.
However Lando Norris says that approach would not be fair as it would inevitably disadvantage one group of drivers.
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“The thing is, when you do split it up into other sessions, and have two sessions, someone’s always going to be unhappy because you’re either going to be the first group and complain about the second group, or vice versa,” he said. “So I think you get more people complaining in some essence if you split it up into two different sessions.
“At the same time, if people just actually look in the mirrors and use the radio for the reasons it should be used for, which is to give the drivers information about people on quick laps, I think it should be fine.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be terrible,” he added, “but only if people get out of the way in the correct places and things like that. As soon as people try and take the mick with things, then it starts to become a big problem.”
Gabriel Bortoleto pointed out drivers in junior categories still have to cope with large fields on-track in Monaco during practice sessions. “Lando said it all for me,” he said. “If people look at the mirrors and listen to the radio and good communication, you can get away with 22 cars on track.
“In F3 it’s 30 cars. [Formula Regional European Championship] a few years ago it was 37 in [practice], so it was much worse in other series. I think we can get away with it.”
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