The penalty saga
The 2026 Monaco Grand Prix opened somewhat of a Pandora’s box for Formula One when it comes to the distribution and handling of penalties. During the race, a total of 7 penalties were handed out to 6 different drivers for allegedly speeding in the pit lane. Drivers involved in this whole mess include Pierre Gasly, George Russell and Oscar Piastri, with Gasly being handed two of the penalties. FIA documents posted after the race showed that the drivers only exceeded the 60 km/h speed limit by 0.1 km/h, except the one where Gasly was 0.4 km/h above. The speedometer in the pit lane suffered from reliability issues, and so the drivers given penalties most likely won’t have deserved them.
Alpine successfully challenge FIA
Following the race, Alpine requested a right to review regarding the two penalties Gasly had received. Gasly was running in P3 on the track and so was on for a podium until the ten seconds he had accumulated in penalties dropped him down to P7, promoting Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar onto the podium.
The FIA granted Alpine the right to review, and, just under a week after the race, their inquiry became successful. A meeting between Alpine and the FIA took place last Thursday in Barcelona, and on Friday morning the news came that Gasly’s penalties had been rescinded and his podium reinstated.
While the news brought great excitement to Pierre Gasly and Alpine team members, the FIA’s decision to remove the penalties left everyone feeling rather confused. Alpine had the ability to appeal the penalties as Gasly hadn’t served them during the race, but rather they were added to his race time once the chequered flag came. The other drivers with the penalties didn’t have the same luck as they’d actually followed the usual procedure of serving their respective penalties during the race itself.
Mercedes back out of appeal
Following the overturning of Gasly’s penalties, Mercedes put in their own request for a right to review, which the FIA promptly granted. George Russell found himself among the drivers with a 5 second penalty, however he was also hit with a 20 second drive through penalty when Mercedes failed to serve the original 5 seconds correctly during his pit stop under the safety car. Of course Mercedes are to blame for the drive through penalty as they failed to follow regulations, however this was all a domino effect of Russell being incorrectly given a speeding penalty in the first place.
The initial meeting was set to be held this Saturday, and people were eager to see what would come of this. However, it appears we’ll never know as Mercedes released the news yesterday that they have decided to back out of their appeal, despite having the FIA’s go ahead. They put out this statement on social media this morning:
McLaren and Red Bull still in the fight
Although Mercedes have made the decision to leave the matter as it is, McLaren and Red Bull are not of that same mind, as both teams appealed the Gasly decision and are sticking with it. Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar was stripped of his podium thanks to Gasly’s penalty removal, and so it’s only natural that Red Bull would choose to question the decision.
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri should have finished ahead of Gasly if not for serving his penalty during the race, which obviously cost him time. He therefore commented on the matter saying: “I’m pretty mind-blown by the decision. When other people have been penalised for the same thing and served a penalty in the race, how you can then change one penalty, knowing that at least five or six other racers have been impacted by that, is astonishing. I’ve obviously lost the position, but I can only imagine how George is feeling. I could not believe my eyes. I lost the position to Pierre because I served the penalty. Technically I should be P3, but then technically George should be P3. The whole thing is now a mess.”
With these appeals still going ahead, nothing is certain as we anxiously await what decision the FIA will eventually come to. The only thing that seems to be certain about the Monaco Grand Prix is how uncertain the result is.
Feature image courtesy of Formula 1