Is Gasly’s podium justice or a can of worms best left unopened? F1 Q&AImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Following the Monaco Grand Prix, F1’s governing body the FIA overturned a penalty for Alpine’s Pierre Gasly for speeding in the pit lanePublished39 minutes agoRound eight of Formula 1 season takes place in Austria this weekend in the stunning surroundings of the Styrian hills.Last time out in Barcelona, Mercedes were beaten in a grand prix for the first time this year with Lewis Hamilton taking victory.The Briton’s first grand prix win for Ferrari, combined with Kimi Antonelli’s retirement late in the race, narrowed the gap at the top of the drivers’ championship to 41 points.Before Sunday’s race in Spielberg, BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your just in questions.A retrospective podium for Pierre Gasly. Justice? Or a can of worms best left unopened? – CliveFormula 1 has clearly got itself in a bit of a pickle regarding the pit-lane speeding penalties in the Monaco Grand Prix.The facts are that five cars were given penalties for pit-lane speeding when none of them had gone over the limit.The length of the pit lane had been mis-measured – it was possible to drive a shorter distance than officials initially realised, by 77 metres.And as the pit-lane speed limit is policed by the time taken to pass through a series of timing loops over a specific distance, that meant the drivers were wrongly penalised.This led to a sequence of events that had a dramatic effect on the race result.George Russell was most badly affected by what followed, having a third place turned into a 12th and losing 15 points in the process.But McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar also had their results changed.Is it justice that Gasly is returned to a third place at the flag that he lost because Alpine refused to serve his penalty during the race, while the other drivers’ results are unaddressed?Should the stewards who dealt with Alpine’s right of review over the Barcelona weekend have left it at that, and not raised the very obvious questions that followed on from it?In terms of natural justice, the answer to both those questions is clearly no – there remain a number of issues raised by this situation that have not properly been dealt with.McLaren and Red Bull have taken the case to the FIA court of appeal. No date has yet been set for that to be heard.
Mercedes have withdrawn their attempt to get the race result reviewed after concluding there was no viable mechanism for restoring Russell to where he could have finished, and it would not serve anybody to drag it all on.
As McLaren stated in their statement about giving notice of intention to appeal: “We believe this case raises important questions concerning sporting fairness, regulatory consistency and the integrity of competition.”
The shame is that this could all have been avoided had the FIA and F1 acted differently before the race.
Teams warned the FIA that there was a problem waiting to happen with the pit-lane speeding limit during the Monaco weekend.
Officials did look into it, but their initial conclusion was that the concerns were unfounded. That was clearly an error. Had that been properly addressed at the time, none of this would have happened.
In terms of sporting fairness, it’s hard not to conclude that the issue should be taken to a full and proper conclusion.
Will Ferrari make Carlo Santi Lewis Hamilton’s permanent full-time race engineer, or is his role still considered temporary? – Anthony
The relationship between Lewis Hamilton and his new race engineer Carlo Santi has started off well.
Santi was initially meant to be a stop-gap before Hamilton received a new full-time engineer, but a Ferrari spokesperson says: “Carlo and Lewis are working pretty well together and there’s no plan to replace him.”
Hamilton has found a much more satisfactory relationship with Santi than he had with Riccardo Adami last year, and he’s tried to explain that without sounding too negative about his situation in 2025.
Hamilton stated in Canada, where he finished second for what was his best result with Ferrari at the time, that Santi was “absolutely awesome and I’m really loving working with him”.
In Monaco he went further and compared the relationship with Santi to the one he forged over 12 years at Mercedes with Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington.
“Driver-engineer working together is very, very important,” Hamilton stated. “Last year, Adami and I had a really good relationship. He’s a lovely guy. We worked relatively well together.
“Catering to a driver’s needs takes time to learn.
“When you’re giving an engineer feedback, their understanding of through-corner balance, their understanding of all the elements that contribute to the struggles that you’re struggling with, you try to describe what it is, the problem you have, corner by corner, entry, mid and exit where you dissect it into five sections if you want.
“Having that driver-engineer collab, it’s hit and miss sometimes. With me and Bono, we hit it off from the beginning. He had a good working relationship with Michael (Schumacher). I do feel like Carlo is like my Italian Bono.
“He’s a bit of an OG. He’s an older guy that’s been around the block and he’s very calm. You can hear him on the radio. That’s the detail that we’re able to go into together. Our understanding of the engineer side, it’s something that’s very cool.”
