Alpine have requested a “right of review” from the FIA after being “robbed of a podium” during Sunday’s chaotic Monaco Grand Prix, which had a record number of pitlane speeding penalties meted out.
On a day when the race attracted sharp criticism for the state of the surface, with a 40-minute delay required at one point so that marshals could carry out repairs to a pothole, it was the pitlane speeding penalties which proved most consequential.
In total, six separate five-second penalties were issued to five drivers, with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly (see video below) copping two of them.
The Frenchman had delivered one of the standout drives of the race, climbing from ninth on the grid to cross the line third after overtaking McLaren’s Lando Norris at the start and then passing Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar at the final restart. But the 10 seconds added to his race time dropped him to seventh overall.
Gasly’s team-mate Franco Colapinto, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes’ George Russell were the other drivers to fall foul of what appears to have been a quirk of this year’s Monaco configuration.
The configuration at the pitlane exit was slightly different this year, with an extra team in Cadillac, tempting several drivers to stray over the line denoting the fast lane as it curves left towards the exit.
With FIA’s sensors measuring an average speed, cutting the line by just a few centimetres could shorten the measured distance, making a car look like it was exceeding the limit even if it was not. All the drivers penalised were adamant they had their limiters on and were below the 60kph limit.
“That’s probably the most simple setting you can put in a Formula One car,” fumed Gasly who was found to be 0.1km/h and 0.4km/h over the limit for his two penalties. “I don’t think there is anything that could hurt me more right now. It’s 10 years I’m f------ working my ass off for this type of moment. We did everything right today [for] standing on that podium in front of all the fans that turned up.
“This is the type of moment that for me can’t be taken away from us by unfair reasons. What’s going on right now is not right and hopefully they can make the right choice.”
It is thought Alpine’s chances of success are minimal as the threshold for overturning penalties is very high and drivers were cautioned to keep their noses clean at the pit entry and exit specifically because of this issue.
Gasly was far from the only angry driver on a wild day in the principality. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc lashed out at his car’s brakes after smashing into barriers at Rascasse following a safety-car restart, missing out on a podium of his own.
The Monegasque said “three of his four brakes” had failed, describing it as “borderline dangerous”. “Honestly, I’m not even going to take the f------ blame,” he had screamed over the radio after hitting the barriers. “These f------ brakes.”
He later expanded on his feelings in the mixed zone: “I look like an idiot. And when you look like an idiot for a mistake of yours, it is fine, but [this] is borderline dangerous.”
Meanwhile, Monaco GP organisers were criticised after Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and and Leclerc both drove through what appeared to be a newly-formed pothole in the track surface before their crashes.
There was a red flag delay of approximately 40 minutes, with 10 laps remaining, while marshals worked to carry out repairs to the surface and clear up.
Although neither Stroll nor Leclerc blamed the track directly for their crashes, McLaren chief Zak Brown was critical of the track surface.
Former F1 driver, Karun Chandhok, joked on X: “We’ve got the solution to making the Monaco GP more exciting!! Get that cheap patch surface all the way around the track and give them rally tyres.”