A lot went down at the Monaco GP, from early retirements to unserved penalties, late red flags, and crashes. While Pierre Gasly finally crossed the finish line in P3, he was handed two five-second penalties for speeding in the pit lane, something multiple drivers were also charged with.  

This pushed the Alpine driver down to P7, while Isack Hadjar got promoted to P3 instead. In a brief statement shared online, the Alpine F1 team has requested that the Monaco Grand Prix results be reviewed.

“After the result of today’s Monaco Grand Prix, BWT Alpine Formula 1 Team can confirm it has requested a Right of Review from the FIA following the penalties applied for pit lane speeding.” 

A short clip has also surfaced on X, in which two crew members of the Alpine team can be seen investigating the pit lane by using a measuring wheel and a tablet logging measured values.

To monitor the pit lane speed, F1 uses laser sensors that are placed on the pit entry's fast lane.

According to reports, teams could gain an advantage by clipping a section of the pit entry corner, which means lesser distance for them to cover. However, the FIA’s timing system reportedly measured each car’s average speed over the entire length of the pit lane.

This has likely caused a discrepancy, and hence other drivers such as Lewis Hamilton, Oscar Piastri, Franco Colapinto, and George Russell were charged with similar offences. 

Gasly’s demotion to P7 prompted him to say it wasn’t fair to him, and he also added, “It’s been 10 years I do this, I have five podiums in my career, and it hurts when you pass the line on the podium, and then I don’t know.

"Hopefully they [Alpine] can fight it, hopefully they can appeal it, because I just feel like we’ve done everything we had to do.”

However, it seems as if Isack Hadjar will get to keep his podium finish, even though he came quite close to losing it. 

Hadjar Cleared Of Red Flag Rule Breach

The Red Bull driver was under investigation for potentially breaching a red flag rule, which could have taken his second podium finish away. After Charles Leclerc’s crash at Anthony Noghes caused a long red flag, all teams got a chance to fix their cars. 

Hadjar was under the scanner, as his crew was going to change the spark plugs and coils in his car. However, since they did not go through with it, there were no penalties to be handed. This meant Hadjar kept his podium. 

Regardless, it was a bittersweet day at the Red Bull camp, with Max Verstappen’s car stalling in the first few seconds of the race. He complained of inconsistent power delivery during the formation lap and the engine not sounding right, eventually becoming the first entrant on the DNF list. 

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Written by

Aaradhya Singh

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason