F1’s governing body, the FIA, have summoned Mercedes to a meeting regarding the right of review they submitted over the controversial decision to reinstate Pierre Gasly’s Monaco Grand Prix podium.
Despite crossing the line in P3 at the race in the principality earlier this month, Alpine F1 star Gasly was promptly demoted to P4 after a five-second penalty was added to his finishing time for exceeding the pitlane speed limit.
The Frenchman was not alone in this punishment however, with the FIA stewards handing out time penalties to six different drivers simply because they went 0.1km/h over the 60km/h speed limit, which had been adjusted for the Monaco GP.
Gasly was understandably devastated and Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar thrilled to pick up his second career podium as a result, but that all changed when the FIA announced nearly a week later that Gasly’s penalty had been rescinded, his podium reinstated, and the finishing order of the Monaco GP changed yet again to reflect his P3 finish.
Alpine’s first step in questioning the FIA’s pitlane speed limiter was submitting a right of review regarding Gasly’s penalty. When they won this review, the FIA investigated, and the subsequent stewards verdict acknowledged that the pitlane had actually been measured as being 77m longer than it was possible to drive it.
Naturally, many of the other drivers then felt they had been unfairly punished, especially Mercedes’ George Russell who had been handed a 10 second drive-through penalty as a result of failing to serve the initial speeding penalty correctly.
Mercedes and their team principal Toto Wolff felt that had Russell not had to serve his multiple penalties during the Monaco GP, he could have also finished on the podium.
This has opened up a very wriggly can of worms and both McLaren and Red Bull have now also appealed against the FIA’s decision to reverse their penalty decision concerning Gasly.
Wolff told media in Barcelona last time out that he had even contacted Mercedes’ lawyers to discuss next steps, and although he didn’t feel confident any further changes to the Monaco race result would take place, he felt it necessary to stand up for Russell.
Mercedes to attend FIA hearing meeting over Monaco penalties
In the one week break before the next round in Austria, the FIA have now summoned Mercedes and their team representatives to a meeting regarding their own right of review request over the Gasly decision.
An FIA document released on Wednesday, June 17 read: “The Stewards received a petition for Review under Article 14.1.1 of the FIA International Sporting Code from Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team on Friday 12th June 2026 in respect of the decision of the Stewards of the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix, Documents 99, breach of Article B1.6.3a of the FIA F1 Regulations in relation to Car 10 [Gasly].
“The team representative is required to report to the Stewards on Saturday 20th June 2026, at 09:00 CEST in relation to the above. The hearing will be held virtually via video conference, details of which will be provided by separate communication.
“It should be noted that this hearing will be held in two parts. The first part will be to determine the admissibility of the petition then if admissible, determine if there is ‘significant and relevant new element which was unavailable to the stewards at the time of the decision concerned.’
“Should the Stewards determine, in accordance with Article 14.3 of the FIA International Sporting Code, that such an element exists, a second part of the hearing will be convened at a time to be advised, in all likelihood shortly after the first part of the hearing.”
