I have been a fan of Formula 1 since around 2011. I'm not sure exactly when I got interested in F1, but I certainly remember watching Jenson Button's win in the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix, which is one the most epic (and epically long) F1 races. Being American and having become a fan long before Drive to Survive was released, that makes me an elderly statesman.

F1 races around the world on a variety of tracks, some new and some old. One of the most popular and historic is the Monaco Grand Prix, which takes place on the streets of the eponymous city-state. The first race was in 1929 when race cars were quite small. In the decades since, the cars have gotten much bigger, and due to the narrow streets, it is very difficult for cars to make contested passes during a race. After the first lap the Monaco GP is a procession of cars that can't change order even if a following car is much faster than the one ahead of it. This last weekend a F1 race was held in Spain at a new track that suffers from even less passing than Monaco. The "Madring" is a mixed street and purpose-built race course. Somehow, in 2026, with a century of knowledge, an even less-racey race track than Monaco was built and used. The race was tremendously boring.

I would like to propose a modification to how F1 races work at tracks like Monaco and Madring that might them more interesting than they are now.

In velodrome cycling there is a kind of race called the pursuit. As a reminder, velodrome cycling is done on banked ovals using fixed-gear bikes with no brakes. In the pursuit two riders, or teams, start on opposite sides of the velodrome and the winner is decided by who rides the full race distance the fastest. The race can end short of the full race distance if one rider/team catches the other.

I propose that for tracks like Monaco, F1 can adopt a modified version of this. At the start of the race cars would be evenly spaced around the track in an order that rewards qualifying performance. The first two in qualifying would be placed on opposite sides of the race course:

1, 2

Then the next two such that the slower of the two is behind first place:

1, 4, 2, 3

Then the next four, again rewarding first with the slowest behind them, second with the next slowest, and so on:

1, 8, 4, 5, 2, 7, 3, 6

Here’s how it would look for 22 cars (the number of cars currently in F1):

1, 22, 16, 8, 9, 4, 19, 13, 5, 18, 12, 2, 21, 15, 7, 10, 3, 20, 14, 6, 17, 11

Using the Madring qualifying results the start order would be:

Norris, Stroll, Albon, Lawson, Colapinto, Hamilton, Pérez, Ocon, Leclerc, Alonso, Bortoleto, Antonelli, Bearman, Tsunoda, Piastri, Lindblad, Verstappen, Bottas, Gasly, Russell, Sainz, Hülkenberg

Again, the cars would be evenly spaced around the track at the start. Because this is circular, Hülkenberg would be chased by Norris.

Here's a Python function to calculate the start order based on number of cars:

def starting_order(n: int) -> list[int]:
    """Starting grid order for n cars, by qualifying rank (1 = pole)."""
    if n < 1:
        raise ValueError("n must be >= 1")

    order = [1]
    k = 1
    while k < n:
        m = min(k, n - k)  # full doubling, or whatever's left
        # rank j (== rider j, for j in 1..m) gets rider (k+m+1-j) behind it
        inserts = {j: k + m + 1 - j for j in range(1, m + 1)}

        # It's not Joy Division, it's
        new_order = []
        for rider in order:
            new_order.append(rider)
            if rider in inserts:
                new_order.append(inserts[rider])
        order = new_order
        k += m

    return order

The winning driver finished the Madring race averaging just under 100s per lap, meaning that at the start cars would be spaced by about 5 seconds apart at race pace. This would give a fair number of laps before the real action would begin.

Because passing, or even getting alongside cars, is nearly impossible on these tracks, I propose that a trailing driver would eliminate a car in front by being behind the car under some time threshold for a number of consecutive detection zones, kind of like DRS detection zones. For example, if a trailing driver stays within 0.7s of a driver ahead of them for three consecutive detection zones, the ahead driver is eliminated from the race and must quit to the pits immediately.

Of course, any full pass would result in an immediate elimination of the passed driver.

Here’s how I see a race progressing:

• At the start of the race all drivers would be on full gas, not wanting to be caught from behind. Over time, faster drivers/cars would gain on the slower ones ahead, and eliminations would happen.
• Eventually, enough slower cars would be eliminated so that the remaining cars are now spaced far enough apart so that they would essentially be doing maximum effort, qualifying laps, every lap. Who doesn’t want to see that in a narrow track?!
• It would get super exciting if any of the top drivers started a battle. Who doesn't want to see any of the top drivers and cars try to catch one another?
• There would still be a required pit stop to change tire compounds, but with a maximum pit stop time. Why a maximum? You could imagine using a slow pit stop to fall behind a fast-approaching car, and this would help prevent that (or at least ensure pit stops were properly strategically accounted for).
• The winner would be the last remaining driver, or the driver that covered the full race distance the fastest. Lower placings would be in reversed order of elimination, or ranked time to complete the full race distance.

Here are the benefits as I see them:

• Monaco and Madring are clearly genuine driving challenges, but they do not allow for actual racing. If we take away the need to pass to make it a race, we leave the drivers with a clear challenge: drive as fast as you can and you lessen your chance of being caught. Isn’t that what we want to see in a race?
• Especially earlier in the race, there could be a dozen mini-battles between cars happening simultaneously. This is the opposite of the current Monaco race, where battles almost never change anything.
• As the race progresses and we’re (hopefully) left with more evenly-matched front-running cars, every lap would count. The timing boards would show overall pace and gaps that would ebb and flow as drivers made mistakes and tires degraded. There could be tension for lap after lap!
• There would still be room or pit stop strategy. Even with a maximum pit stop time, teams could be smart and pick a time to pit that puts a driver behind, or way ahead of, a main rival.

There are demerits:

• A good number of cars would not get to race a full race distance. Teams want to have as much race-pace as possible to collect data, and rear-running teams would be especially against this plan.
• Races could still be predictable: the fastest drivers/cars would win, and slower drivers/cars would not factor into the race meaningfully. Passing lapped cars, even with blue flag assistance, is part of F1, and this would remove that aspect.
• It’s more complicated and confusing for teams, drivers, and fans. Instead of asking “who’s first?,” it would be “who’s fastest?,” “who is close to catching another car?,” or “if car A stops now, and pits for 17.3 seconds, can they make enough dirty air (but stay out of the 0.7s catch zone) to force car B to get caught?”

I’m sure I’ve missed some benefits and demerits.

There will also have to be some special rules. For example, I can imagine a just-eliminated driver playing shenanigans, impeding the driver that just caught them. Perhaps a driver would be given one lap after performing a catch where they could not be caught and eliminated.

I have zero optimism that this would ever be adopted, but I think it's an interesting idea, all the same.