Pierre Gasly did not receive his third-place Monaco Grand Prix trophy despite having his penalty controversially overturned as Red Bull Racing weighs up a potential appeal against the decision.
Gasly was reinstated to the Monte Carlo podium after a successful right of review over two post-race pit lane speeding penalties had dropped him down to seventh in the classification.
Alpine successfully argued that the pit lane had been incorrectly measured, which meant that the average speed calculation for Gasly was inaccurate.
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Though four other drivers were also pinged for speeding in the pit lane, the verdict applies only to Gasly as Alpine was the only team to appeal the penalty.
In similar situations where the podium finishers change position after the fact, usually the demoted team and driver present the trophy to the rightful podium-getter at the next race.
However, The Race reports that Red Bull Racing did not return the trophy Isack Hadjar claimed last weekend, with the team still yet to decide whether it will appeal Gasly’s reinstatement.
Both Red Bull Racing and McLaren immediately gave notice of intention to appeal the decision, though both have to decide by later today whether they will proceed with the process or drop the dispute.
Not only did Hadjar lose his podium from the penalty reversal, but Oscar Piastri dropped from fourth to fifth. Piastri is also one of three drivers pinged for speeding to have served their penalty during the race, meaning he has no recourse to have it expunged.
Red Bull Racing boss Laurent Mekies said teams were aware that the pit lane speed measurement isn’t always accurate and that it was up to them to avoid tripping the speed gun.
“No measurement system is perfect on earth,” he said, per The Race. “There is not one single way to measure speed, and they are all wrong.
“However, we have been working with that measurement system for a very high number of years. It was the same the day before [the race], the same on Friday and the same the previous years.
“We have all adapted to it, and 17 or 18 cars have managed to be legal, so we just need to make sure that, as a sport, we have a solid enough approach so that moving forward we get the right parity for the fans and to the competitors.”
‘It’s not over that’s for sure’ | 00:57
Red Bull Racing insists that it is arranging to transfer the trophy to Alpine, though it’s unclear why it couldn’t be done after Friday’s penalty decision. There is also reportedly some dispute about where the trophy is.
Mercedes, which said it was considering legal action over the Monaco result — with George Russell’s disastrous drive-through penalty stemming from a pit lane speeding infringement — is also petitioning for a right of review of the Monte Carlo classification.
Piastri described the situation as a “mess”.
“I’m pretty mind-blown by the decision,” he said, per the BBC. “How you can reverse a decision that was ultimately wrong but when other people have been penalised for the same thing and served a penalty in the race — how you can then change one penalty, knowing that probably five or six other races have been impacted by that — is astonishing.
“I’ve obviously lost a position, but you can only imagine how George is feeling, so I could not believe my eyes.
“Yes, I lost the position to Pierre because I served the penalty, so technically I should be P3. But then technically George should be P3, and the whole thing is now a mess.
“[It’s] quite the predicament they’ve got themselves into, and I don’t know how you get yourself out of that one, because now the precedent is: you don’t serve the penalty, you take it to court, you wait probably a few months to decide the race, and who the hell wants to go racing like that?”
‘This one is something else’ | 01:29
HÜLKENBERG’S BIZARRE RETIREMENT EXPLAINED AMID POINTS DROUGHT
Nico Hülkenberg’s best qualifying result of the year was undone by a freak accident triggered by Liam Lawson that caused his Audi car to shut down.
Hülkenberg started ninth after his first Q3 appearance of the year and was running behind Liam Lawson on lap 29 when the Kiwi dipped its left wheels into the gravel at the exit of turn 12, kicking stones into the path of the German behind him.
“Some of them hit our car and appear to have triggered the emergency safety switch, causing a complete shutdown of the system,” Hülkenberg said.
“Everything switched off instantly, and that was the end of our race. It’s obviously very frustrating because we were in a good position to fight for points.”
“It was a very unusual and unfortunate retirement.”
Hülkenberg was able to cruise back to pit lane to retire.
The emergency safety switch is on the engine cover of every F1 car and marked by a large ‘E’ symbol for visibility.
The switch instantly kills all systems in the car and triggers the fire hydrant in the event of an emergency. It’s designed to be used primarily by trackside marshals, especially in the even tof a fire.
Liam Lawson was shocked to learn of his role in triggering his rival’s retirement.
“Are you serious?! No way,” he said, per The Race, when told what happened. “Oh, that’s so unfortunate.
“Obviously I had no idea. If I could perfectly aim for something like that, it would be quite impressive! But I had no idea, I just knew that he dropped out.”
The retirement condemned Audi to a sixth consecutive scoreless weekend — Hülkenberg is yet to score this season — with Gabriel Bortoleto dropping from 12th to 17th on the first lap and recovering to 11th at the chequered flag.
Audi is on average has been the seventh quickest team over one lap this season, behind Alpine and Racing Bulls but ahead of the rest of the midfield, but its poor starts — believed to stem from its big turbocharger that struggles to spool up on the grid — have too often left it losing too many places off the line.
The German team, which took over from Sauber this year and has built its own power unit for the first time, has lost more places off the line than any other team this season, with a cumulative loss of 46 positions on the first lap including both sprints and grands prix.
The next worst team is Red Bull Racing, also fielding a first-time power unit, with 38 cumulative position losses.
Hamilton overcome after iconic victory | 01:27
FIA KEEN ON CHINESE F1 TEAM
Formula 1’s 12th team will be from China, says FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, amid interest in joining the grid from Chinese auto giant BYD.
Speculation has run for months that BYD is weighing up an involvement with Formula 1, with company vice-president Stella Li revealing in April that she had already held discussions with F1 CEO Stefano Domanicali.
Ben Sulayem has previously expressed a desire to see a Chinese manufacturer in the world championship.
Speaking at the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the weekend, he suggested that Chinese marques were already inquiring about the process of joining the sport.
“We see with China, they said to me will you, or are you going to, add another 12th team as an expression of interest,” he said, per The Athletic.
“It’s not about adding a team, it’s about adding the right team. And the right team, we can see it from China.”
Formula 1 regulations allow for up to 12 teams to enter the championship, though the process of expanding the grid is lengthy.
The FIA must first analyse and approve prospect entrants on their competitive merits as the sport’s regulator. If only one slot is up for grabs, only one bigger can be approved.
Formula One Management, the sport’s promoter, must then also ascent to the entry on commercial grounds.
The Cadillac team, in its original guise as Andretti Global, was approved by the FIA but knocked back by F1 for having insufficient commercial appeal. It was only over General Motors took over the team and rebranded it as Cadillac that it got the nod.
The first step, however, is for the FIA to formally open expressions of interest — something Ben Sulayem last did in 2023 despite the prevailing sentiment in F1 to keep the grid at 10 teams.
“It’s not something of a secret. When I opened the expression of interest, everybody went against it. It was like, I don’t know, I did something [like] a criminal act,” he said.
“But definitely, the message has been said that if there is a team, it will be from China, hopefully.”
BYD has held talks with Christian Horner, including around the Monaco Grand Prix, about its Formula 1 plans.
Horner is also linked to Alpine and the 24 per cent share that could be up for sale later this year, though parent company Renault has shut down negotiations after failing to come to an agreement with prospective buyer Mercedes about the team’s value.