An endless GP: previous episodes
Two and a half months after the conclusion of the Monaco GP the final result of the race in the Principality is back in question: on August 25, two days after the end of the Zandvoort weekend, a hearing has been scheduled at the International Court of Appeal (ICA) to discuss the appeal filed by McLaren and Red Bull against the final result of that Grand Prix and in particular against the reinstatement of the third position to Pierre Gasly, who had originally been stripped of the result obtained on track due to two 5-second penalties each that had dropped him to seventh place.
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The FIA, in the document released to announce the August 25 hearing, briefly retraced the steps of the case, decidedly controversial in its development: “Originally the stewards had decided to impose two 5-second time penalties on Car No. 10, driven by Pierre Gasly (Documents 73 and 75), for exceeding the speed limit in the pit lane during the race, with speeds recorded at 60.1 km/h and 60.4 km/h respectively, in violation of Article B1.6.3a of the FIA Formula One 2026 Regulations – Section B“.
Alpine review accepted
The right of review exercised by Alpine had however dramatically led to the overturning of this assessment, sparking a storm of controversy: the Federation had admitted that the distance used to calculate the official timing (and therefore the speed in the pit lane) was inaccurate and overestimated the speed with which Gasly had covered the pit lane.
The same penalty given to Gasly had also been imposed on Piastri, Colapinto, Hamilton, and Russell, with the latter even receiving a double sanction for not serving the first one correctly. Unfortunately, according to the FIA’s own findings after examining the elements provided by Alpine, all these penalties would have been assigned incorrectly.
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However, Gasly was the only one of these drivers who did not serve the penalty during the race but had the seconds added to his final time at the end of the race; therefore, he was the only driver for whom the error could be ‘repaired’. On June 16, McLaren and Red Bull finally filed an appeal before the ICA against the stewards’ decision to return the podium to Gasly. On August 25, finally, the final word on this story will be written.
The hearing will take place at 09:00, the decision will be announced immediately after the conclusion of the hearing and by decision of the Panel – as also requested by the parties involved in the case – for confidentiality reasons the said hearing will be “closed to the public, media, and any unauthorized persons“.
In case of a further overturn, the podium would again go to Isack Hadjar, while Oscar Piastri would be promoted from fifth to fourth. This is why Red Bull and McLaren have moved directly to overturn the stewards’ decision.
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