FIA announces hearing as Alpine seeks to get Gasly’s Monaco podium back

The FIA has confirmed that Alpine’s attempt to overturn the penalties that cost Pierre Gasly a podium finish in the Monaco Grand Prix will be heard later this week

After the race in Monaco, Alpine issued a statement confirming it had requested a Right of Review from the FIA in an attempt to overturn the result of the grand prix, in which Gasly finished third on the road but lost a podium due to two penalties for pitlane speeding.

On Tuesday, the governing body published two separate documents confirming that Alpine has submitted two petitions for review relating to the five-second penalties handed to Gasly during Sunday’s race.

The hearing is scheduled to take place virtually on Thursday at 1pm CET.

Alpine’s main challenge will not be to prove that the penalties were incorrect. Under Article 14 of the FIA International Sporting Code, the team must first convince the stewards that there is a “significant and relevant new element” that was unavailable at the time the original decisions were made.

The FIA documents make clear that the hearing will be split into two parts. During the first phase, Alpine will present evidence and submissions aimed at demonstrating that such a new element exists. Only if the stewards are satisfied that this threshold has been met will they proceed to a second stage and reconsider the merits of the penalties themselves.

Gasly crossed the finish line third in Monaco after what he described as one of the strongest drives of his Formula 1 career, having climbed from ninth on the grid into podium contention.

But his result did not stand after two separate five-second penalties for exceeding the 60km/h pitlane speed limit by 0.1km/h and 0.4km/h respectively were applied.

The penalties were part of an unusually large number of pitlane speeding offences recorded during the race, triggered by the unique configuration of Monaco’s pitlane and the way speed is measured there. Rather than relying on an instantaneous speed reading, the FIA calculates an average speed through the so-called fast lane using transponders and timing loops embedded in the track surface. The system effectively caught drivers who shortened their route through the curved pitlane and therefore covered less distance between timing points, despite travelling at the permitted speed.

Once the 10 seconds were added to his race time, Gasly dropped from third to seventh in the final classification. The revised result promoted Isack Hadjar onto the podium, while Oscar Piastri, Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad also gained positions.

The scale of the drop means Alpine effectively needs both penalties to be overturned if Gasly is to reclaim third place.

After the race, an emotional Gasly described himself as having been “robbed” of a podium finish and insisted the result had been taken away for “unfair reasons”.

“I don’t think there is anything that could hurt me more right now,” he said. “It’s ten years I’m f*****g working my ass off for this type of moment.

“We did everything right today, standing on that podium in front of all the fans that turned up. This is the type of moment that for me can’t be taken away from us by unfair reasons.”

Alpine’s case will now hinge on whether it can present evidence that meets the FIA’s strict requirements for a right of review – a hurdle that has often proven difficult for teams to clear in previous cases.

It is unusual for a Right of Review request to succeed in Formula 1, as teams seeking to overturn decisions often fail to provide evidence that stewards consider both new and relevant. One notable exception came last year, when Carlos Sainz’s penalty for a collision with Liam Lawson at Zandvoort was rescinded after Williams submitted onboard footage that had not been available to the stewards during the race.

It remains unclear what evidence Alpine intends to present in support of its case.

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– The Autosport.com Team