Alpine’s Pierre Gasly has been stripped of his initially reinstated Monaco Grand Prix podium, almost three months after the event, restoring Isack Hadjar into third place.
Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix was dogged by controversy amid several drivers receiving time penalties for allegedly speeding in the pit lane.
Gasly received two five-second time penalties, dropping him from third on the road to seventh, but Alpine lodged a post-race appeal and a few days later the sanctions were overturned.
It emerged afterwards that Formula 1 Management had erroneously measured the pit lane distance—which therefore determines the average speed of a driver through the timing loop points—but rival teams were unhappy as they had used that as the benchmark while also factoring in a margin of error.
McLaren and Red Bull Racing took the decision to the FIA’s International Court of Appeal, an independent jurisdiction, which convened on August 25 for a hearing.
On Friday, the ICA’s decision was released, with the document stretching to 101 points across 26 pages, effectively outlining that the stewards’ decision to initially rescind the time penalties was incorrect.
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The pit lane at Monaco.
It concluded that Alpine’s remeasuring of the pit lane distance post-race was “insufficient to displace the evidentiary result produced by application of the contemporaneous official benchmark.”
It was also outlined that other drivers had served time penalties during the race “under a common parameter that was repeatedly represented by FOM as correct” and that “selectively applying a different post-race parameter to Car 10 [Gasly] would mean that competitors who calibrated and competed against the common benchmark would be judged by one standard, while Car 10 would ultimately be judged by another.”
Gasly is thus demoted to seventh, with Hadjar third, Oscar Piastri fourth, and the Racing Bulls duo of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad fifth and sixth.
Piastri was one of the drivers who received and served a time penalty during the race, along with Lewis Hamilton (who was second), George Russell (who was on course for a potential podium but dropped out of the points), and Gasly’s Alpine teammate Franco Colapinto.
The outcome has no impact among the leading drivers and teams in the Constructors’ Championship, but has a big influence further down the table.
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Isack Hadjar’s third place at Monaco is restored.
Alpine, which was three points behind Racing Bulls in the fight for fifth in the standings, is now 14 points behind its opponent.
“The team expresses its disappointment and frustration with the outcome reached by the FIA International Court of Appeal relating to the result of the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix,” read an Alpine statement.
“While we disagree with the decision, and still fully maintain that Car #10 did not exceed the Pit Lane speed limit at any point during the race, the team acknowledges the decision of the judging panel from the recent hearing in Paris.
“While the result is not what we had hoped for, as we feel that we have been unjustly punished, the team is firmly focused on continuing to improve its performance on track and remains in a close and very competitive Championship fight.”
Alpine and the FIA must share the financial cost of the hearing, and the governing body said it will undertake a review to avoid a repeat in the future.
“The FIA is reviewing the methodology and operation of the current Formula 1 timing system and the related regulatory matters,” read a statement. “It will also be reviewing other judicial procedures and operations including the right of review and the appeal processes.
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“The FIA is fully supportive of the Stewarding process and the independence and objectivity of the diverse panels of Stewards who are an integral part of global motorsport.
“Stewards’ decisions are taken in a different environment to that of the Court, whereas the Court has access to extensive and additional legal counsel input, arguments and evidence.
“The FIA Stewards constantly review their processes and take part in extensive professional development. Every decision of the ICA is carefully examined by FIA Stewards ensuring a process of continuous improvement.”
U.K.-based Phillip Horton started covering Grands Prix while still at university and swiftly deemed that writing about Formula 1 and the behind-the-scenes machinations was much more engaging than reading centuries-old novels. Degree gained, he went on to cover the sport full-time from 2014 and is as intrigued and excited by the destinations Formula 1 visits during its lengthy annual world tour as the racing itself. Phillip joined Autoweek in 2021 and while he has just about learned to spell in American English he has yet to find anywhere in America that makes a proper cup of tea.