Hook: Pierre Gasly finished third in Monaco 2026, only to lose his podium because of two 5-second penalties for speeding in the pit lane. Alpine filed a Right of Review with the FIA. This stuck because literally a year ago, almost the exact same thing happened to Carlos Sainz at the Dutch GP—and the penalty was overturned. But the overturn didn’t give him his position back. That made us dig deeper: how is F1’s penalty system even structured, why is it so rigid, and does it have any chance of evolving?
Gasly got two 5-second penalties for speeding in the pit lane at Monaco. The team insists the limiter was activated correctly, and Gasly crossed the line in third place. After the penalties—seventh. “My heart is broken,” he said after the race.
Alpine requested a Right of Review—a formal mechanism for reconsidering a decision, which requires the presence of a “significant and relevant new element” unavailable at the time of the initial ruling. The hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
In September 2025, Carlos Sainz (Williams) received a 10-second penalty for a collision with Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) at Zandvoort. Williams filed a Right of Review, submitting footage from Sainz’s 360-degree onboard camera—a source the stewards didn’t have during the race.
The stewards overturned the penalty, calling the incident a “racing incident” where neither driver was entirely at fault. Two penalty points were removed. But—and this is key—the race result couldn’t be changed. Sainz finished 13th, and technically, there were 17 seconds between him and the car ahead (more than the penalty), but the classification stayed the same.
Quote from the stewards’ decision: “The Stewards have no power to remedy that served time penalty by amending the Classifications.” The stewards literally have no authority to retroactively alter race results.
Types of penalties in F1 (in order of severity):
Penalty points: Each infraction adds penalty points (from 1 to 4), which remain active for 12 months. Drivers who accumulate 12 points face an automatic one-race ban.
The context problem: A 5-second penalty for pit lane speeding in Monaco (where the pit lane speed limit is 80 km/h and the pit lane itself is minimal) carries the same weight as one at Silverstone (where the pit lane is longer and the consequences less critical). The system doesn’t account for track context—it’s like handing out the same fine for speeding in a residential zone and on the autobahn.
In June 2025, the FIA published two key documents for the first time:
Driving Standards Guidelines (version 4.1, February 2025) — a guide to on-track behavior, created at the drivers’ request in 2022 and refined after a meeting at the 2024 Qatar GP. Covers: overtaking (inside/outside), impeding, rejoining the track, behavior under the Safety Car, track limits.
Penalty Guidelines — a list of ~100 typical infractions with recommended penalties and penalty points. It’s existed for over a decade but was only made public now.
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem: “FIA Stewards perform a hugely complex task... and they do this voluntarily, with great passion and commitment. That dedication is all too often met with extreme and wholly unwarranted criticism.”
George Russell (Mercedes, GPDA director): “Greater transparency within the governance of our sport is an important issue and this is a useful step in that direction.”
Critical nuance: These documents are recommendatory, not mandatory. Stewards aren’t obligated to follow them to the letter. It’s like a style guide for code—useful, but not enforceable.
The Right of Review is F1’s only appeal mechanism. But it only works if one strict condition is met: the presence of a new piece of evidence that was unavailable at the time of the initial decision.
This means:
F1’s penalty system has come a long way from stewards’ complete discretion to an attempt at standardization. Key milestones:
F1’s penalty system is in a state of permanent refactoring—constantly being tweaked, but its architectural limitations prevent it from ever being truly fair.
The main problem isn’t the penalties themselves, but the lack of a post-race correction mechanism. Even if a Right of Review succeeds, the race result doesn’t change. It’s like having a database rollback that only works for metadata, not the actual data. Sainz got justice on paper (penalty points removed), but lost his position in reality. Gasly will likely face the same outcome.
As for publishing the guidelines—it’s a step in the right direction, but the non-binding nature of the documents means stewards can ignore them. It’s like having coding standards without a linter—everyone knows the rules, but no one’s forced to follow them.
My verdict: F1 needs two fundamental changes. First, a review mechanism that can affect race classifications (at least in exceptional cases). Second, a context-sensitive penalty system that accounts for track specifics. For now, we’re watching iterative improvements to a system that, by design, can’t deliver absolute fairness. Like any complex distributed system—consistency comes at the cost of availability, and F1 has chosen availability (quick real-time decisions) over consistency (justice for all).
Gasly, if you’re reading this—your Monaco podium exists in a parallel universe where stewards can rewind time. Unfortunately, we live in one where they only have pause, not rewind. 🏎️💔