Why Russell received a drive-through penalty at F1’s Monaco GP

The FIA explained why Mercedes driver George Russell was handed a harsher than usual penalty for overtaking Alex Albon off-track at Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix.

In the fight for the final points, Russell was frustrated by Williams driver Alex Albon, who had been driving slowly to create a gap for team-mate Carlos Sainz, who was ahead of him, to pit into.

On lap 50, Russell cut the Nouvelle Chicane to pass Albon, stating on the radio he had to avoid a collision after what he said was erratic driving from the Williams racer. But instead of giving the position back, Russell decided he would rather take the usual 10-second time penalty, so he could try and pull out a gap and stay ahead of Albon.

But the FIA’s race stewards had different ideas, as Russell’s radio message proved to them that he deliberately passed Albon off track. Therefore, the stewards handed out a much harsher drive-through penalty to foil the Briton’s cunning tactic.

The stewards’ verdict explained that race director Rui Marques had warned teams in advance that they would reserve the right to go beyond the usual guideline of a 10-second penalty if they felt drivers were exploiting the rules in Monaco, where track position is crucial and the usual time penalty isn’t always enough of a deterrent.

“Car 63 left the track at Turn 10 and overtook Car 23. He did not give that position back and maintained his track position,” the stewards’ verdict read.

“It was clear from the radio message where he said that he would ‘take the penalty’ that the overtake was done deliberately as he felt that he was being held up by Car 23 driving erratically.

“Anticipating that situations such as this might happen at this Monaco Grand Prix, all the teams were informed before the race by the race director (at the stewards’ request) that the stewards would look carefully at a deliberate leaving of the track at Turn 10 to overtake a car or a train of slow cars.

“That communication also made it clear that the guideline penalty of 10 seconds may be insufficient for this deliberate infringement and that the penalty applied may be a greater penalty than 10 seconds.

“We therefore considered that Car 63’s deliberate infringement warranted a drive through penalty, and we so imposed.”

Russell’s Mercedes team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli employed a similar tactic to pass Albon off-track on lap 52, but as the stewards had just given his team-mate a drive-through the Italian rookie was instructed by his race engineer to give the place back.

Russell eventually crossed the line in 11th, with Antonelli down in 18th after a late second stop.

The pair’s weekend was ruined after qualifying outside the top 10, with Antonelli 15th after a Q1 crash and Russell 14th due to an electrical problem in Q2.

The 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage was upped from five seconds as a consequence of last year’s Miami Grand Prix, in which Haas driver Kevin Magnussen was handed three 10-second penalties for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

Despite the long list of penalties picked up, the Dane kept Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton behind. In doing so Magnussen ruined his own race, but helped team-mate Nico Hulkenberg finish in the points.