'So painful': Does F1 need to liven up the Monaco Grand Prix?

But once the champagne stopped spraying, F1 fans around the globe recognized an uncomfortable truth: that for all its history, pomp and circumstance, the Monaco Grand Prix had become little more than an expensive parade.

Monaco has always been a difficult track for overtakes and wheel-to-wheel racing due to its narrow width and comparatively low speeds; drivers know that their qualifying position will influence their Grand Prix result more than anything they do during the race itself. But Sunday's Grand Prix was a new low for Monaco's competitiveness. For the first time in F1 history the top 10 cars finished the race in exactly the same positions they started it and never once wavered from that order. There were just two overtakes in 78 laps of racing and both came from the back of the field.

"F*** me, this is so boring," Max Verstappen groaned over his radio midway through the race, according to Nate Saunders of ESPN. "I should have brought my pillow!"

After a dramatic first-lap crash that saw the race red-flagged, each of the remaining 16 cars in the Grand Prix switched out their tires with the goal of finishing the 77 remaining laps on that set. To do so, the drivers were forced to move slowly, piloting their vehicles well below their limits to preserve the integrity of their tires and avoid losing 20-plus seconds to another pitstop.

"I mean, it was so slow, it was so painful," Williams driver Alex Albon said to ESPN after the race. "It's actually hard to stay focused when you're driving that slowly because you're just not even near anything. You're not near any limit."

McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who finished second and third, took their irritation a step further. They napped on the couches in their post-race press conference to telegraph their frustration to the reporters in attendance.

The Monaco Grand Prix is a historic event for motorsport, serving as F1's entry into the infamous Triple Crown. But what can be done to improve its excitement and competitiveness?

"I wish we had more, bigger roads and the track could be wider, but I don't think that's ever going to be the case in Monaco because it's such a small place," Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton said, according to The Guardian. "I would say maybe special tires for this race, so you have more pit stops that create more variability."

McLaren's Lando Norris agreed, but suggested that car sizes might also play a role. "The reason we can't race now is because the cars are too big and too heavy," he told The Guardian. "They are so wide it's almost like half the track is taken up by just one car. To overtake is almost impossible."

The Monaco Grand Prix is set to remain on the calendar through 2025, but its organizers have yet to commit to more years beyond that. If it remains an F1 race, it may want to take Hamilton and Norris's advice under advisement to improve the quality of the spectacle.

Otherwise, fans will be treated to more weekends like this one: yawn-inducing parades to the finish line.