MONACO - A rules tweak for the Monaco Grand Prix teased drama and chaos but ultimately left Formula 1's drivers bored, angry or frustrated, with Carlos Sainz saying the new format was too easy for teams to "manipulate."
Monaco's race was loaded with jeopardy in the early stages with a mandatory two-stop minimum imposed on every driver, in a bid to spice up the spectacle.
But the final product was little different to previous years, with little overtaking and a finishing order largely in line with the qualifying result from Saturday.
Williams' Sainz, who finished 10th, said: "I think, ultimately, the sport should look at a way where manipulating a race outcome with the pace shouldn't be allowed, when it's as obvious as it was today."
Asked on Sunday evening if F1 should persist, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton said: "Definitely. They need to keep on trying with this one. [But] it felt very similar to the previous time."
Many in the paddock suggested F1 can tighten up loopholes in the two-stop format going forward.
Coming into the weekend, teams had identified the possibility of using their two drivers to work together to secure points.
Red Bull sister team Racing Bulls did so most effectively, with Liam Lawson dramatically backing up the field in order early to effectively give teammate Isack Hadjar two free pit-stops due to the clear track left between them.
Hadjar finished sixth and Lawson managed to finish eighth, ahead of Williams pair Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.
Lawson's tactics had forced both Williams drivers to also slow right down, prompting team boss James Vowles to apologise to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff during the event as George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli got stuck behind.
"[We were] four seconds off the pace at some stages of the race," he said. "Ultimately, we were victims first from Lawson, that managed to lose 40 seconds, to Isack, two pit stops that Isack could do in front of us. We were victims of that situation, we had to, in the end, do the same thing as Lawson did, both times with Alex and myself, to make sure we brought the two cars to the points."
Sainz said Racing Bulls' tactics had exposed the biggest problem with the rules tweak.
"The spirit of the sport, I don't think, should be to manipulate a race outcome. In the past, there were huge penalties for manipulating a race, I remember," referring to the 2008 'Crashgate' scandal.