Alpine has protested the result of the Monaco Grand Prix over the post-race penalty which Pierre Gasly said “robbed” him and the team of a dramatic podium.
Alpine lodged a Right of Review into the result of the race in the hour after it finished.
Gasly was one of five drivers to be affected by a raft of bizarre pit-lane speeding penalties.
The French driver had crossed the line in third position and was celebrating an apparent podium after doing so, pumping his fists as he made his way around the circuit back to the pit-lane.
However, the penalty, his second for pit-lane speeding of the contest, was applied after he finished, dropping him down the order to seventh.
“Honestly, I’m just heartbroken,” Gasly told Sky Sports. “I don’t have the words, I have too much emotions to process and I just can’t get my head around what happened and it just doesn’t sound fair.”
Gasly was just 0.1km/h and 0.4km/h over the 60km/h limit in his two infractions.
It would have been the sixth podium of his F1 career.
Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Franco Colapinto were all hit by similar penalties during the event.
Several similar penalties had been given out during the practice sessions before the event too.
After the race, Alpine confirmed it has requested a Right of Review into the result, as it can do per the sporting regulations.
Under that system, a penalty can be challenged if “a significant and relevant new element is discovered which was unavailable to the parties seeking the review at the time of the decision concerned.”
That effectively means Alpine must present evidence to the FIA -- the FIA then must first deem whether it is new information and whether it meets the criteria of “significant and relevant.”
Should that criteria be met, the formal protest will be heard.
Even if the result is overturned, the penalty denied Gasly -- born and raised in neighbouring France -- a chance to celebrate on Monaco’s famous podium.
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“I don’t think there is anything that could hurt me more right now,” Gasly said to the written press in attendance. “It’s ten years I f---ing working my ass off for this type of moment.
“We did everything right today, standing on that podium in front of all the fans that turned up ... this is the type of moment that for me can’t be taken away from us by unfair reasons. What’s going on right now is not right and hopefully they can make the right choice.”
The speed of an F1 car in the pit-lane is measured by electronic timing loops and FIA transponders, rather than through a camera or a speed gun.
Cars will pass through the loops in the pit-lane, with a system then calculating its speed based on the time taken to travel the distance.
Drivers have reasoned this weekend that a marginally too aggressive cut in to the pits across one of the loop lines would effectively shorten the distance.
Gasly was adamant he had not gone over the limit.
“I know as well for a fact that what’s in the car is below the 60kph,” he said. “And I know on both occasions I’ve put it way before the line. That’s probably the most simple setting you can put in a Formula 1 car.
“When you have three or four teams that get caught for speeding ... Hopefully it brings about the guys that need to check exactly what’s going on because it’s just not right.”
