The outcome of last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix has been plunged into fresh uncertainty several days later after Alpine successfully navigated the initial stage of their Right of Review application. Shortly after the conclusion of last Sunday’s Monte Carlo race, the team announced it had triggered its Right of Review regarding two penalties issued to their driver Pierre Gasly during the Grand Prix.
Gasly was among a number of drivers sanctioned during the race for exceeding the pit lane speed limit. The Frenchman was actually penalised twice, both for speeding infractions recorded at less than 0.5kph above the 60kph limit in the Monaco pit lane, though he was incensed about it and insisted that he had activated his speed limiter well before crossing the line marking the pit lane entrance.
Gasly crossed the line third on the road and believed he had secured a podium result for Alpine. However, his second five-second penalty still needed to be applied and that relegated him to seventh in the final standings. He responded furiously and described the situation as “unfair”, while his team triggered its Right of Review into the matter.
For that to advance, the team was required to present new and relevant evidence that had not been available to the stewards at the time of the ruling. That is a demanding threshold which typically sees most Right of Review cases rejected but, in this instance, it has now been confirmed that Alpine have met it.
In this instance, Alpine contended that, while the FIA and Formula One Management were aware prior to the race that there was a problem with the timing loops in the pit lane used to measure the speed of cars passing through, the stewards themselves had not been informed. As such, this constitutes a fresh and pertinent piece of evidence upon which they were unable to act during the Grand Prix.
Alpine also submitted data confirming that Gasly had activated his speed limiter before the pit entry, along with a witness statement from the Frenchman revealing he had been alerted to the issue by his engineers, and had therefore adopted “a cautious approach” when entering the pit lane.
Crucially, Formula One Management, as the sport’s official timekeepers, furnished evidence that the distance between the timing loops used to calculate car speeds was inaccurate, resulting in Gasly’s speed being overestimated — along with that of several other drivers — throughout the Grand Prix.
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The matter will now move forward to a second hearing, where Alpine will contest that the penalties handed to Gasly ought to be quashed. Should they succeed, the outcome of the Monaco race could be revised — potentially triggering fury amongst other teams who received comparable penalties.
Alongside Gasly, George Russell was among those to face serious consequences stemming from the speeding penalty. Russell failed to correctly serve his five-second penalty and was subsequently handed a drive-through, which ultimately saw him fall outside the points. Just how that potential situation will be resolved remains, for the time being, unclear.
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