However, after that rule was put in effect for the race this season in the Principality, it was clear that it had some flaws. As a result, it came under fire after the race, with it only causing teams and drivers to race far slower than usual to open up pit stop windows in a strategy battle.
Lando Norris took his second win of the 2025 season in Monaco after qualifying P1 on Saturday
Brundle unpacks the mandatory stop issue
“I won’t criticise anybody for trying in good faith to improve the show,” Brundle started by saying in his column for Sky Sports.
“However, I was a little surprised that it wasn’t mandated for one of those stops to be taken by, say, half distance, or maybe earlier,” he continued, posing an idea that could have changed the race.
The former driver, who raced around the streets of Monte Carlo during his time in the pinnacle of motorsport, then explained why the mandatory pit stop rule failed to be of effect.
“Teams could use one car as a sacrificial lamb, driving slowly to help their other car have the necessary 21-second gap to take a pit stop. That’s pretty much what happened, although the extent Racing Bulls and Williams were prepared to slow one of their cars down was quite alarming. But you can’t blame them,” stated the Brit.
“It’s highly usual for the leader to go slowly and, in fact, back up all 19 cars in the early stages here, so that nobody has a pit stop window, before gassing it at some point to create their own pitting opportunity.
“Instead, we saw selected cars four seconds off the pace with a frustrated queue behind them. Not pretty, or impressive, but effective for some. But hardly what F1 stands for,” concluded Brundle.
