Oscar Piastri doesn’t sound like a driver angling for sympathy. If anything, he’s irritated by the precedent.
As the FIA weighs up Alpine’s successful Right of Review request over the Monaco Grand Prix pit lane speeding penalties, the McLaren driver has made a blunt point: you can’t unpick a race after the fact when half the field has already raced to the penalties they were told were real.
Monaco’s story this year wasn’t just track position and tyre management — it was the pit lane. Five drivers were handed six penalties for exceeding the 60km/h limit, a flurry that immediately raised eyebrows in the paddock. But crucially, only Alpine had a route back into the room with the stewards.
That’s because Formula 1’s regulations don’t allow penalties served during a race to be appealed. Drivers who took their medicine at the time — including Piastri, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell — are essentially locked out. Alpine, however, could request a review because Pierre Gasly didn’t serve his two penalties during the grand prix; instead, they were added to his race time after the flag.
Alpine’s petition was heard on Thursday in Barcelona and was deemed admissible after a key piece of evidence from FOM showed that the distance used to calculate the official timing was “inaccurate” and that the system had overestimated Gasly’s speed in the pit lane. The review itself took place later that afternoon, with a verdict due on Friday morning.
From Piastri’s perspective, though, the damage was already done — and not just to him.
“In the race, it was reasonably obvious, I thought, that there was something weird going on,” he said in Spain. “Because maybe you have one or maybe two cars at the same race getting a pit lane speed limit penalty, but not seven or eight, or however many it was.
“It’s a shame, because it’s obviously impacted the result of the race, one way or another.”
Piastri finished fourth in Monaco after serving a five-second penalty and making an additional pit stop to cover it off. That decision wasn’t a footnote; it was a tactical choice with direct consequences, made under the assumption that the penalty — and the framework around it — was correct.
“I got a penalty, and if I didn’t have that penalty to serve, I wouldn’t have pitted it again,” he said. “So, they can’t change the result now, because so many decisions were made in the race based off the penalties that were given, but that kind of thing shouldn’t be happening.”
It’s the kind of argument that cuts deeper than the usual post-race grumbling. Piastri isn’t saying Alpine shouldn’t be allowed to defend itself. He’s pointing out the uncomfortable imbalance that appears when only one competitor can trigger a mechanism capable of reshaping the classification — not because their case is inherently more valid, but because of when and how the penalty was applied.
And if Gasly’s penalties are ultimately overturned, the fallout doesn’t stop at Alpine’s garage.
The most immediate casualty would be Isack Hadjar. The Red Bull driver moved up to third as a result of Gasly’s post-race time penalties, sealing what would be his first podium in Red Bull colours. If the decision is reversed, Hadjar drops to fourth — losing three points and, more painfully, losing a career moment that can’t be recreated.
Hadjar, speaking ahead of the verdict, admitted it would sting — not just for the points but for the narrative. “That would be a shame for my history in Monaco because it would just look good that I signed my contract for Red Bull in Monaco after winning a race and having my first podium for Red Bull in Monaco,” he said. “It just sounds good.
“The only downside would be the three points taken away from me, the podium I had, the emotions were there, so it would be three points less.”
That line about “the emotions” is the bit that lingers. Podiums aren’t just statistics; they’re the one time the sport allows a driver to stop, breathe, and feel it. Changing a result in a spreadsheet is simple. Rewinding what happened on the rostrum — and what it meant — isn’t.
Monaco has always been a race of fine margins. This time, those margins weren’t measured at Sainte Devote or the exit of Portier, but in a speed trap calculation that may not have been right in the first place. If the FIA now corrects it, it will be doing so with one hand tied by its own rules — and with several drivers, as Piastri points out, having already played the race that was put in front of them.
