Alex Albon has voiced strong support for former Formula 1 driver Alexander Wurz’s Monaco layout proposals, describing them as “sensible” and advocating for additional DRS zones to enhance overtaking.
The GPDA chairman released a video on X detailing specific changes to the track he would make to improve the standard of racing around the streets of Monte Carlo.
After attempts to spice up the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix with a mandatory two-stop race failed to impress, multiple drivers and teams expressed their disapproval of the changed ruling.
Drivers and team principals weighed in with fixes, from Max Verstappen’s cheeky Mario Kart–style banana peel idea to McLaren’s Andrea Stella pinpointing the cars’ size as the real problem.
However, through his own track design company – Wurz Design – the Austrian has come up with several proposed alterations to the layout of the circuit.
One key idea is extending the straight into the Nouvelle Chicane right after the tunnel to boost overtaking opportunities.
Other changes included revisions to the hairpin and into Rascasse, which Albon endorsed ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix while also offering additional suggestions.
“I think they’re very sensible,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“I don’t know how Turn 1 is in terms of buildings and kerbs and whatnot.
“But I think Turn 1 could also… there’s a bit of a kink.
“I don’t know if you see how we turn into Turn 1, but there’s a closing wall on the outside of the track.
“It makes Turn 1 much narrower than what it could be if it was parallel the whole way through.
“So there’s also that, but I think that they’re sensible.”
Albon explains why moving the chicane and DRS tweaks matter
When asked specifically about the idea of moving the chicane, Albon explained why he believes this change would significantly improve overtaking opportunities.
The Thai-British racing driver pointed to the difficulties drivers face braking downhill into a bumpy section, which limits their confidence and ability to make bold moves.
“I think half of the issue is that it’s braking downhill and it’s bumpy into that chicane,” he added.
“So it’s really hard to be that committed on the brakes to overtake the cars.
“So that idea of having the 80 metres and following it down the track to a braking area that would be flat would give drivers far more confidence to send it on.
“I think you’ve seen it, but as soon as you brake late, when it’s going downhill, when you add pitch to a car, which is then downhill, so you add more pitch, you create all this extra rear limitation in the car.
“That’s when you get these big crashes where cars lose the rear.
“So that would work well.”
He also floated the idea of extending driver control over DRS use through the tunnel and Turn 1 as another potential way to boost overtaking.
“Another thing, I don’t know if F1 would ever consider this, but we do DRS into Turn 1,” he said.
“In China and Japan, we’ve done that and it’s up to us to manually switch it off.
“I know they’re not really for these things, but if we had control over the DRS, it’s up to us, we want to take the risk to use DRS through the tunnel, then we can turn it off when we get through the corner and open it back up again as we exit.
“It could help as well; so I think there are some things we can try, or at least talk about.”
READ MORE – GPDA Chairman pitches plans to improve F1 Monaco GP
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