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Monaco has become notorious in recent years for brutal races where the leader controls the pace from the front in an attempt to secure victory, making overtaking almost impossible.
Last year’s 78-lap race saw a total of four overtakes. 24 Grands Prix in 2025, discounting sprint average was 66.9.
F1 has taken on a new look this year, with levels of overtaking and on-track battles lasting many laps, with drivers repeatedly swapping positions.
Could this change the character of the race where overtaking is most difficult?
On paper, there is reason to believe it. A little, anyway.
Drivers have complained in recent years that the cars are too big – too long and wide – to race effectively on the tight confines of Monaco’s streets.
But this year there is unlikely to be any difference as the cars are slightly lighter and smaller.
Although 2026 cars are 10 cm narrower and slightly shorter, they are still 10 cm wider than cars of 20 years ago. And overtaking has been impossible in Monaco for at least half a century between competitive cars of the same type.
If anything is going to change the nature of racing in Monaco, it’s the new engine, with its nominal 50-50 split between internal combustion and electric power, and – most importantly – the new overtake mode.
‘Overtake’ gives a driver an extra 0.5MJ of electrical energy per lap within one second of the car in front. It’s central to the new character of racing this year and the battles many in the sport, including drivers, have described as “yo-yo racing”.
The cars ended up tied together for several laps as the rear car overtook the front using overtake mode. Just for convenience then to approach the car that was just overtaken when the overtake mode is on.
It has proven difficult for drivers to break free from this backsliding and there have been examples of this type of battle in every race this season.
As of Sunday afternoon no one knows how the overtake mode will affect the racing in Monaco. But if it makes a difference and enables drivers to at least get into a position to attempt an overtake, it can probably be combined with an offset of tire degradation.
If the car in front struggles with rear tire wear, and therefore has limited grip during acceleration, that, combined with overtake mode, can only make them vulnerable to the car behind.
But the nature of Monaco means some aspects of overtake mode won’t be in play this weekend.
The plethora of overtaking maneuvers this year has often resulted from the two cars engaging in different states of power deployment.
The extra power provided by ‘overtake’ mode means the car behind can deploy electric power longer than the car in front.
So, when a car has an extra 350kW – 480bhp – compared to its racing counterpart, it will be passed over. This is what led two-time champion Fernando Alonso to refer to many overtakes this year as “avoidance action”.
It’s a view shared by Max Verstappen, if expressed otherwise.
This arises because cars this year are fundamentally power hungry – they simply cannot recover enough electrical energy to enable a driver to get the full power they desire.
Monaco, however, is the least power-hungry track of the year. So this offset in power will be much less common.
