Fairness over physics: why Gasly lost his Monaco F1 podium

Pierre Gasly‘s Monaco Grand Prix result has finally been settled, three months, one review hearing, and one International Court of Appeal hearing after the chequered flag.

The verdict returns all drivers to their original classifications and draws a line underneath an incident that exposed an embarrassing error by F1 officials, and closes off some potentially farcical loopholes.

Gasly had been given two five-second penalties for speeding in the pitlane during the Monaco Grand Prix, but failed to take them. As a result, he was demoted from third to seventh at the chequered flag, promoting Isack Hadjar to the final podium place.

But Alpine successfully argued that the pitlane had been measured incorrectly, which gave a false speed reading. Five days later, the penalties were withdrawn and Gasly was reinstated as the third-placed finisher, pushing Hadjar down a place, along with Oscar Piastri and both Racing Bulls drivers, who finished in fourth, fifth and sixth.

On Thursday, racing’s governing body, the FIA, announced that its International Court of Appeal (ICA) had reversed that position, upholding appeals lodged by McLaren and Red Bull, reinstating both of Gasly’s five-second penalties.

The Alpine driver drops back to seventh in the final classification; Hadjar regains the third place he celebrated on the podium, while Piastri, Lawson and Lindblad move back up to their original positions. Championship points have been duly adjusted.

How it got here

For a moment back in June, the story of Gasly’s Monaco Grand Prix had ended well enough for him and his Alpine team.

The Frenchman crossed the line third on the road and was immediately demoted to seventh as a result of two five-second penalties for pitlane speeding that he had not served during the race. He spent the better part of a week describing the experience as one of the worst of his career.

Then, five days after the race, Alpine’s petition for review succeeded. The penalties were rescinded and his podium was restored.

Gasly was one of an unusually high number of drivers penalised for speeding at Monaco: Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Piastri also received and served penalties for speeding at less than 1km/h over the 60km/h limit.

The threshold is policed by calculating the average speed between two loops embedded in the pitlane surface and there is zero margin for error.

After the race, Alpine argued that the distance between two loops at the start of the pitlane — as measured at 2692cm by F1 officials — was too long, and that cars were able to take a shorter route, meaning that their speed would be inflated. The team said that the shortest theoretical route was 2615cm.

Stewards accepted that argument and removed his penalties.

That was always going to be contested ground, and the written judgment revealed on Friday shows just how contested.

What the appeal court actually found

The ICA re-investigated the steward’s original decision, and confirmed an error in measuring the Monaco pitlane, and a surprisingly arbitrary method for calculating the minimum distance that cars could travel between loops.

Formula One Management — F1’s commercial rights holders — told the FIA that Monaco’s “specific geometry” meant that the loops at the entry of the pitlane are installed at an unexpected angle “which was not clear to the team performing the measurement on the ground.”

It went on: “This meant that the team measuring the minimum distance by tape did not measure the correct line.”

It also emerged that there was no rule, and no internal F1 procedure, for officials to measure the shortest route through the pitlane at any grand prix. “The task was performed on the basis of the experience and judgment of the FOM personnel who had carried out such measurements for many years,” the court was told. A formal procedure has now been introduced.

However, it was impossible to physically re-measure the pitlane after the race because the street circuit had already begun to be dismantled; Alpine’s calculations were based on GPS data and laser scans, which have a margin of error, and the team was also unable to conclusively prove that Gasly had taken a shorter line at 60km/h or less.

Why fairness, not physics, decided it

Ultimately, the arguments over the accuracy of measurements didn’t have a great deal of sway over the court’s decision.

Instead, it turned on a simpler principle of fairness: distances are calculated and fixed before the race weekend. During free practice sessions, every team can see the speed that officials record, giving them the ability to calibrate their pitlane speed limiters correctly.