Alpine F1’s appeal of Pierre Gasly’s Monaco GP penalties passes the first step

Alpine moved closer to a successful appeal of the two penalties handed to driver Pierre Gasly at the Monaco Grand Prix, which denied him a podium finish.

Gasly finished third on the track, but a pair of five-second penalties given to him for speeding in pit lane were applied after his finish, dropping him down the finishing order in the final classification. Instead of finishing third, and on the podium, the veteran driver was dropped down to seventh.

Alpine requested a “Right of Review,” the first stage in an appeal process, asserting that the decision was incorrect. Under F1 regulations, the team had to prove that there was a “significant and relevant new element which was unavailable to the Stewards at the time of each of the original decision,” in order to advance to a full appeal.

During a video hearing conducted on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, Alpine passed that first step. The team provided four different elements in support of their petition:

1. That Formula One Management, and the FIA, were “aware in advance of the race that there was an issue with the timing loops in the pit lane,” but that race officials were not on notice of this fact;
2. Data that Gasly had turned on the pit lane “speed limiter in advance of entry into the pit [lane] and did not exceed the pit lane speed limit”;
3. A statement from Gasly that he “took a cautious approach before entering the pit lane having been warned by his engineers,” and;
4. Evidence from FOM that “the distance used in calculating the F1 Official Timing (and hence the pit lane speed) was inaccurate and overstimated the speed of” Gasly’s car

Under the ruling from the hearing, the race officials concluded that the final item was “sufficient on its own to meet the required standard of ”significant” under the regulations.

Race officials will resume the hearing later this afternoon.

A reversal of Gasly’s penalties could open the door to further appeals, as he was one of five drivers to be given a penalty for speeding in pit lane during the Monaco Grand Prix.