Lando Norris expects his record-breaking pole position lap time for the Monaco Grand Prix will stand for many years.
The McLaren driver became the first person to lap Formula 1’s most famous track in less than 70 seconds when he claimed pole position for this year’s race. His lap of 1’09’954 kept Charles Leclerc off pole for his home race by a tenth of a second.F1 will introduce a major overhaul of its technical regulations next year. The 2026 rules permit lighter cars and require them to be narrower. Changes to the aerodynamic regulations and power unit specifications are predicted to lead to slower lap times.
Norris therefore expects his Monaco lap to remain the benchmark for a long time. “The ‘1:09, that’s very unlikely to be beaten for a very long time unless the track changes or whatever,” he said.
“The cars next year are nowhere near going to be as quick as this year. Hopefully, that lap time lasts for a very, very long time.”
He said he was especially proud to score a pole position at one of F1’s most demanding tracks. Norris had never previously taken pole position in F1 at Monaco and lost his only previous pole at the track in the Formula Renault Eurocup support race nine years ago due to a technical infringement.
“The meaning, the history, the people that have won here in the past – they don’t always go on to be champions, but most of them have,” he said. “And just to know in 30 years’ time I can say, ‘I mastered Monaco that one year’ – or hopefully a few more – but that one year is something I look forward to saying.”
Fastest lap times in Monaco, 2013-25
Lap times rose sharply in Monaco when the current V6 hybrid turbo power units were introduced in 2014, then fell quickly. Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 pole position time of 1’10.166 stood as the record for six years until Norris beat it.
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2025 Monaco Grand Prix
- Norris predicts his Monaco pole record should stand “for a very long time”
- Bearman is right: Formula 1 should let Monaco be Monaco
- Wurz’s proposed Monaco track changes would make ‘1 to 5%’ difference – Sainz
- Bortoleto claims his “put him in the wall” radio message was taken out of context
- I deserved penalty, deliberate rule breaking ‘should never be allowed’ – Russell
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
7th June 2025, 9:49
…So, are we gonna act totally suprised when F1/FIA completely panic after one team gets the regs right and the cars are a bit slow and they announce revolutionary 2029 regs?
Just checking…
Jere (@jerejj)
7th June 2025, 15:26
I doubt what basically happened for 2017 would happen again.
J3D89
8th June 2025, 3:29
What happened in 2017? Fia adding more downforce cuz their engines were far superior, but panicked as soon as Ferrari and redbull started breathing on their neck and remove all that aero in 2019 for more engine importance again..
Elvira
7th June 2025, 9:58
I’d have thought a narrower, lighter car with more on tap out of corners would have a good chance of being quicker at the shortest, slowest, wriggliest track.
Jere (@jerejj)
7th June 2025, 15:25
That should logically be the case, but we’ll see.
MichaelN
7th June 2025, 16:20
The 2026 cars are narrower, lighter, have inherently less drag and what is essentially infinite DRS, and also more total power (from about 560kW + 120kW to 400kW + 350kW). Energy recovery in Monaco won’t be a problem either.
We’ll have to wait and see, but I suspect much of this doom and gloom is overblown.
Where it is going to be more tricky is in the races, but Monaco has a huge advantage here since the MGU output is capped per lap – and the Monaco race has a ton of laps.
Jere (@jerejj)
7th June 2025, 16:33
MichaelN The lap amount is secondary because it’s usually the minimum for the same full km amount & in Monaco’s case for a shorter overall distance than anywhere else, but otherwise, everything is spot-on regarding the upcoming aero & PU regulations relative to Monaco’s characteristics.
MichaelN
7th June 2025, 20:33
This isn’t directly relevant to Norris’ point about the pole lap, but in the races the number of laps will be very important, actually. The ES can be charged (up to) 9 MJ/lap (my earlier post worded this slightly wrong, but the number is the same assuming the teams will use it every lap). In Monaco this would be 78×9=702 MJ to play with in the race, whereas at Silverstone it’s only 52×9=468 MJ. The more laps, the more energy the cars will have.
anon
7th June 2025, 22:23
MichaelN, the FIA has said that the normal limit will be 8.5MJ per lap at most circuits – that upper limit of 9MJ per lap appears to only apply in limited circumstances.
Additionally, the regulations indicate that the charging and discharging rates are not symmetrical. The regulations state that “The difference between the maximum and the minimum state of charge of the ES may not exceed 4MJ at any time the car is on the track.” – which implies that, even if you were able to send 9MJ to the battery (a somewhat optimistic figure), you would only be allowed to then utilise a maximum of 4MJ per lap.
Peter
8th June 2025, 19:03
Current ICE is around 640KW
Leo B
7th June 2025, 11:15
Norris should try for as many speed records as he possibly can, because he won’t be achieving any titles.
BenjaminS (@benihana)
7th June 2025, 12:44
Let’s debate this after the 26 rules come out and see how good or bad they are.
Jere (@jerejj)
7th June 2025, 15:25
I agree. The outright 2026 qualifying-trim lap times mightn’t necessarily even be massively slower than the late-current aero cycle equivalent
Jere (@jerejj)
7th June 2025, 15:24
The same is even more true for the Shanghai International Circuit & any other circuit with the outright record from either this or last season, including quite a few candidates among the remaining rounds, such as Spa-Francorchamps, Zandvoort, Baku City Circuit, Marina Bay Street Circuit, Las Vegas Street circuit, Losail International Circuit, & Yas Marina Circuit.
Kerry Maxwell (@kerrymaxwell)
7th June 2025, 16:33
I wonder if we’ll ever see Kimi Raikkonen’s record for slowest ever pole lap at Monaco (2005, 2’30.323) beaten?
Jere (@jerejj)
7th June 2025, 16:34
That’s only the combined time for both fastest qualifying laps rather than for a single one, which is what truly matters.
MarkWebber (@markwebber)
7th June 2025, 20:17
Should try to become the world champion, a title last forever.
Mayrton
8th June 2025, 14:14
It just might.