Alpine have requested a right of review from the FIA for penalties applied for pit lane speeding during the Monaco Grand Prix after their driver Pierre Gasly was demoted from a podium finish.
Gasly was among an unusually large number of drivers to be penalised for exceeding the 60 kilometre per hour pit lane speed limit in Monaco, with two separate infringements for the same offence by the Frenchman resulting in a pair of five-second penalties that dropped him from third at the chequered flag to seventh.
Gasly was among several drivers to question the cause of the penalties after the race, saying he was “heartbroken” and urging the FIA to investigate the situation.
Shortly after the race, a statement released by Alpine said: “After the result of today’s Monaco Grand Prix, BWT Alpine Formula One Team can confirm it has requested a Right of Review from the FIA following the penalties applied for pit lane speeding.”
Alpine will be required to present the FIA with new evidence relevant to the sanction which was unavailable at the time of the stewards’ decision, if they are to earn a further hearing.
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Highlights from the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after his demotion, Gasly said: “Right now honestly I’m just heartbroken. I don’t have the words. I have too much emotions to process. I just can’t get my head around what happened. It just doesn’t sound fair.
“Triple checking with the team they set the right speed in the car. On both occasions, I’ve put the pit limiter way before the line.
“We’re all working so hard for these moments. 10 years I do this, 10 years I’ve tried to grab every opportunity, I have five podiums, which is nothing in my career. And we pass the road in third position in front of all the French people and it gets taken away from us. Right now, I just don’t know what to say.
“I hope they can have a look into it and just make the right decisions. As I say it from our side, I know I haven’t done anything wrong and I was 200 per cent sure I was before the line. The team set the right speed from what they said, and hopefully they can investigate it.
“But it won’t give me that moment. I’ve just been watching the podium and I definitely feel I should have been up there. The team will obviously fight it. It’s nine points that we’re losing, a podium. I have no idea.”
Russell: Clearly a problem with pit-lane software
Gasly’s assessment that a podium had been stolen away from him failed to take into account that Mercedes’ George Russell, who had been running ahead of him, also had his race ruined by the same penalty.
Despite having been penalised for speeding during his first pit stop, Russell had been on course to finish fourth before a late Safety Car caused by Lance Stroll crashing set off a disastrous chain of events for the Brit.
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Anthony Davidson was at the SkyPad to explain why George Russell was given a drive-through penalty for not serving a previous speeding penalty
Mercedes brought Russell in under the Safety Car but instead of observing the rules by not touching his car for the first five seconds, his mechanics immediately started changing the tyres, which incurred the Brit an even more severe drive-through penalty that had to be served within three laps of its issuing.
That meant that after the standing restart in the closing stages, Russell had to come into the pits and dropped out of the points, continuing a terrible run that has seen him drop 68 points behind his team-mate Kimi Antonelli at the top of the standings.
Like Gasly, Russell appeared to question the FIA’s pit-lane technology.
He told Sky Sports F1: “Firstly, I’m not too sure why we got a penalty because I was on the pit limiter before the line. I released it after the line. But clearly there’s a problem in the software and many drivers got penalties.
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Lance Stroll crashed his Aston Martin into the wall to bring out a Safety Car at Monaco since 2017.
“Ok, five seconds, not ideal but not the end of the world. And then in the pit stop, just major confusion, and getting a drive-through (penalty) – the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. So, P3 down to P14.”
During the red flag stoppage that followed Charles Leclerc crashing his Ferrari out of the race at the initial Safety Car restart, Russell visited the stewards to urge them to consider a less harsh punishment.
Russell explained: “I just asked, ‘can we review it afterwards?’ Because I said, ‘if I serve the drive-through now, the race is done.’
“And I was willing to serve the five-second penalty on the following lap. I had a 20-second gap behind me to Gasly. I probably gained a tenth of a second through the pit lane with that software glitch, and ended up losing 12 positions because of it.
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Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was left furious after he crashed out of his home race in Monaco following the safety car restart.
“(They said) the rules are the rules, if you don’t serve the penalty, it’s a drive through.
“I don’t really know what to say. It’s two races in a row – could have won the race last week, could have maybe been P3-P4 today, it’s 40 points down the drain for things outside of my control.”
More to follow…
Formula 1 heads straight to Spain for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix with live coverage on Sky Sports F1 from this Friday. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
