Alpine has secured its first victory in the battle against the Monaco penalties: The request for a review has been approved—FOM has even admitted to an inaccuracy
Alpine has cleared the first hurdle: At the initial hearing, which took place on Thursday afternoon ahead of the Barcelona Grand Prix, the stewards granted the request for a review (“Right of Review”). Now the FIA will have to officially address the case once again.
Following last Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix, the team had requested a review of the two five-second time penalties imposed on Pierre Gasly for allegedly exceeding the maximum permitted speed in the pit lane. As a result, the Frenchman lost his third-place finish and a potential podium spot.
However, Gasly was just one of a total of six drivers penalized during the race for allegedly exceeding the speed limit in the pit lane. This raised concerns about potential issues with the timing loop system used to monitor speed.
Some of the violations were recorded even though the drivers involved claimed they were driving particularly cautiously. This included speeds well below the 60 km/h limit as well as a different line choice when entering the pit lane. That is why Alpine also decided to file a request for review.
FOM admits to measurement inaccuracy!
During the first video conference between Alpine and the stewards, which was also attended by most of the other teams, it was determined that the measurement system “was inaccurate and overestimated the speed of Gasly’s car.” This is based on evidence presented by FOM (Formula One Management), which is responsible for timing.
This crucial evidence was only submitted by FOM on Wednesday. This means it was not available to the race stewards during the race—which is the main hurdle to granting a “Right of Review” in the first place
Alpine also argued that “the FIA and FOM, but not the race stewards, were aware of a problem with the timing loops even before the race.” However, representatives from both sides rejected this claim by the team.
Explosive: After the third penalty in the race—an already extremely unusual number of infractions—the stewards had even asked race control whether a problem with the timing system was known. At that point, this was still denied.
What does the decision mean for Mercedes?
Although the actual hearing for the review began shortly after formal approval on Thursday, the verdict is not expected until Friday. Such a review process covers various aspects and also involves the group of stewards who were on duty at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Typically, the stewards take the opportunity to inform all teams involved in the hearing of their verdict before officially announcing the result. This could trigger a significant domino effect, as other drivers were also affected by the faulty system and may therefore have been penalized unfairly.
For example, Mercedes driver George Russell’s race went completely off the rails: He was also penalized for speeding and subsequently received a drive-through penalty because he had not served the first penalty correctly. This knocked the title contender out of the points.
Gasly, who had actually crossed the finish line in third place, described the demotion as “the toughest moment of his career in terms of racing,” while Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar was instead able to celebrate on the legendary Monaco podium.