'Chaos', 'lottery' - Drivers predict two-stop rule for Monaco GP - ESPN

MONACO — The usually processional Monaco Grand Prix could be turned upside down by a new rule change on Sunday — 2024 winner Charles Leclerc has predicted «chaos,» while Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton has said the final result could be a «lottery.»

For this year's race F1 has mandated a minimum off two pit stops for everyone, aimed at creating variation in strategy and stopping drivers from simply nursing a set of tyres all the way to the finish.

The rule has created an extra complication in strategy meetings — earlier this week, championship leader Oscar Piastri quipped his head was«still kind of untwisting itself» after a meeting discussing all the various permutations.

Piastri's McLaren teammate and title rival Lando Norris took pole on Saturday afternoon but admitted the change had left an extra degree of uncertainty about converting that into a win.

Asked how much of the job he felt he had done after pole at a circuit where overtaking is almost non-existent, he said: «I have no idea. It's impossible to put a number on it, especially here.

»I would have felt like a higher number if it was last year's rules. But obviously, this year, things have changed."

Leclerc, who starts alongside Norris in second, said: «I think it's going to be a bit of a chaos tomorrow, but we'll see how it plays out.

»I think there'll be a lot of strategy games and we'll see who comes out on top. But I think we might be under pressure of cars that we probably don't expect from the back, which might make everything interesting."

The amount of jeopardy the rules will create has been a talking point all week long in the build up to the race.

Seven-time champion Hamilton, a long-time critic of the dull Monaco spectacle, suggested the tweak could