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Monaco GP pit lane speeding penalty chaos explained

by sports••0
Monaco GP pit lane speeding penalty chaos explained
A total of five drivers received penalties for speeding in the pit lane during the Monaco GP, much to the confusion of teams and fans alike. Among those impacted was Pierre Gasly, whose two infringements saw him miss out on a podium for Alpine, who have since launched a Right to Review. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell also received a five-second penalty.
While Hamilton still finished P2, things went bad to worse for Russell, who then had to serve a Drive Through penalty upon a Red Flag restart after Charles Leclerc’s crash, and ultimately finished P13. The other two drivers to receive a penalty for pit lane speeding were Oscar Piastri and Franco Colapinto.

Problems with speeding in the pit lane had also been seen during practice, with Russell, Kimi Antonelli, Alex Albon, and Fernando Alonso among those to receive fines for the error.

An unusual amount of penalties throughout the weekend have left fans, teams, and pundits all wondering whether the FIA’s systems had dropped the ball at the weekend. The governing body measures a car’s speed using electronic timing loops and transponders, calculating the time taken to pass between the loops rather than using a camera or speed gun.

One prominent theory has since emerged – and it relates to white lines around Cadillac’s pit box at the Monaco GP, with F1’s newest team positioned at the end of the pit lane.

Normally at F1’s Crown Jewel, drivers have been able to cut the white line when entering or exiting the pit lane, but with more open space emerging due to Cadillac’s introduction into the area, such a cut could have showed up on the FIA systems as less time spent in the fast lane, even if drivers were under the 60km/h limit.

Hamilton: I wasn’t speeding

Photo: Race Pictures

Ferrari’s Hamilton, who was luckily to emerge from his subsequent pit stop still in P2 ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc, was adamant he had not gone over the speed limit. Speaking to media, including GPblog, he said: “Yeah, I wasn’t speeding. I think it’s just the way the pit lane is. I’ve done this pit lane for years. It’s not like I came in and didn’t press the button or something like that. Pit lane limiter is on immediately.

“And I think it’s just the line that you take, which is the same line we’ve all taken for years, where you come in, you kind of cut part of the white line. Head down, went out. And I was shocked to hear that I was speeding because I wasn’t actually above the speed.

“It’s all about, I think, the distance and something that we really need to look into because I heard lots of people got that today and they probably weren’t really speeding. And having to do a stop-and-go, sort of stop and wait for five, 10 seconds, whatever people got, it destroys you on a track so short as well, your chances. So I’m thankful that it didn’t impede me too much.”

McLaren’s team principal Andrea Stella backed up Hamilton’s claim, believing Piastri’s penalty was related to the white lines in the pit lane. He explained: “We think it might come from shortcutting too much.

“I think that’s the hypothesis at the moment, so then we told Oscar to just avoid that. But initially it wasn’t understood. We know that sometimes when you shortcut too much this may induce you to be measured in excess of the speed limiter. But we don’t know more at the moment.”

‘Alpine wants to reclaim Gasly’s podium, but Red Bull has little to fear’

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Photo: Race Pictures

Following on from the penalty incidents, Alpine might have been hoping Gasly’s on-track podium finish would be reinstated via their Right of Review. However, the expectation is that this attempt has little chance of success with the FIA, GPblog understands.

GPblog also reported that the teams were aware in advance of the shortcut in the pit lane, so could well have taken it into account and avoided cutting it. Speaking after the race, Gasly told GPblog and others: told the media including GPblog: “Nothing could hurt me more, working 10 years for this f***ing moment.”