Formula One grand prix in Monaco to shorten to three days from 2022

• ‘The track is a great race track, it’s not always a great race track’ • ‘There’s no pleasure to increase the grid a bit more’

The next Formula One Grand Prix will be held at a truncated three-day format from 2022, the Monaco GP track’s president, Jean Todt, has said.

Most importantly for Fernando Alonso, who won the race two times in the early days of F1 in 2005 and 2006, the process will still be a road race.

The race was held over the weekend on the high street outside the harbour entrance on the island’s south coast until 2009 when it was expanded to its current calendar length.

A three-day event has long been considered preferable as a way to keep it at its birthplace and ensure crowd numbers are not down. However, previous proposals have faced opposition from local residents who feared the impact on traffic flow on a famously busy French island.

The track’s president has long said this run of races – a problem in itself due to lack of parking – will soon be reduced to just two days with Monaco’s two-day weekend also shifting to Fridays in 2020.

“The fact that the race season will be shortened to just three days will allow us to reduce the traffic chaos at the track and also make the Marina Circuit more of a tourist attraction,” he said in a statement.

“Our aim is to keep the benefits that race weekends and the Grand Prix have brought to the commercial and economic life of Monaco but also to balance the pageantry with a more civilized day.”

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