Round 6 – Tyre Selection

The Monaco Grand Prix is not just a sporting event, but also a social highlight that brings together history and glamour.
The circuit which has hosted racing since 1929, winds its way through the streets of the Principality: it measures 3.337 kilometres and features 19 corners some of them characterised by extremely tight angles.

The carriageway, which essentially coincides with the two lanes of normal urban traffic, is extremely narrow and almost entirely lacking run-off areas.
Safety barriers line the entire track and are often brushed by the drivers, who try to gain even a few centimetres by following the ideal racing line.

For Monaco, the softest tyre range is always selected, this year, C3 (Hard), C4 (Medium), C5 (Soft), to ensure maximum grip on a very smooth asphalt surface.
This year, the road surface has been resurfaced between Turns 19 and 1, between Turn 7 and the entrance to the tunnel, as well as on the entry to and exit from the pit lane.

The low level of tyre degradation on the Monaco track traditionally results in a one-stop race. An exception was last year, when the FIA introduced an experimental regulatory change obliging drivers to use at least three different sets of tyres, thereby enforcing at least two pit stops. The rule was subsequently abandoned and the classic format returns.

Strategies are influenced above all by neutralisations and red flags, which are quite frequent given the high probability of contact with the barriers and the difficulty of removing car without interrupting the race.