Alpine's Gasly loses his Monaco podium 89 days after the race
Isack Hadjar's Monaco trophy has changed hands twice since June
The 2026 Monaco Grand Prix was run on 7 June. Its podium was settled on 4 September, in a Paris courtroom rather than in the principality, and the trophy Pierre Gasly had already been handed belongs to Isack Hadjar again. Between those two dates sit a stewards' reversal, an appeal from two rival teams, and a measuring error of 77 centimetres.
The Court of Appeal reinstated two five-second penalties from June
Pierre Gasly is back to seventh in the Monaco classification. The FIA's International Court of Appeal ruled on Friday that the two five-second pitlane speeding penalties added to his race time do stand, overturning the stewards' decision of 12 June that had rescinded them and put him back on the podium. The court heard the case in Paris on 25 August, in a session that ran the full day, and took another ten days to deliver its verdict. McLaren and Red Bull brought the appeal, supported by Racing Bulls and Motorsport UK.
The whole case rests on 77 centimetres of Monaco pitlane
The distance between the first two timing loops in the pitlane was out by 77 centimetres, which made every speed calculated from it wrong. That is why an unusual number of drivers were penalised in Monaco, and why it could not be proven that any of them had actually exceeded the limit. The court's reasoning was that Alpine could not show with certainty that Gasly had covered more ground than the measurement assumed, since a shorter time between the loops could mean a shorter path, a higher speed, or both. The FIA says it is now reviewing the methodology and operation of the Formula 1 timing system, along with its right of review and appeal procedures. It is not the only mechanism under review this summer, after the federation conceded weaknesses in ADUO, the cost cap relief system it uses to judge whether an engine manufacturer has fallen behind.
Alpine loses nine points, Racing Bulls gains four
The constructors' table moved 13 points in an afternoon. Alpine drops nine and Racing Bulls picks up four, with Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad each moving up a place in the revised Monaco result. The two teams were three points apart in the fight for fifth before the ruling. They are now separated by 16, Racing Bulls on 70 to Alpine's 54. Gasly falls to 35 in the drivers' standings, 16 behind Lawson instead of five, and his cushion over Lindblad shrinks from 21 points to 10. McLaren and Red Bull each gained a little, which changes nothing at the top.
Isack Hadjar inherits third and now has two F1 podiums
Hadjar takes back the position he stood on the Monaco rostrum for before the stewards removed it five days later. Until Friday, Zandvoort was the only podium of his Formula 1 career, which is part of why missing the Dutch Grand Prix through injury hurt as much as it did. Oscar Piastri moves from fifth to fourth and collects two more points. George Russell gets nothing at all. He tried to serve his Monaco penalty on track, served it incorrectly, picked up a drive-through for the error and finished outside the points, with no route to a review afterwards because he had already taken his punishment.
Flavio Briatore names a judge, Andrea Stella calls it insulting
The row went public within hours. In the FIA's own press conference at Monza on Friday, Alpine executive advisor Flavio Briatore said one of the four judges had behaved "like a prosecutor" and claimed that judge, Filippo Marchino, was "very linked with McLaren", citing a 2018 speaking appearance for McLaren Special Operations in Beverly Hills and cars he said the brand had donated to a foundation Marchino runs. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, sitting beside him, called the direction of the conference insulting to his team and said the hearing had been conducted to the highest standards. Stella added that McLaren appealed for clarity on Article 1.1.1 of the International Sporting Code rather than for the two points, and that every team attended the hearing.
AutoNext Take
Nobody won this. Russell followed the rules as written and left Monaco with nothing and no recourse. Gasly challenged them, won in June, and lost it again 89 days later. Hadjar has been given, stripped of and re-awarded the same trophy. Every one of those outcomes traces back to a measurement that was 77 centimetres out, and none of them was repaired by three months of legal argument. A courtroom cannot re-run a race. It can only decide which competitor absorbs the error.
So the number worth keeping is not the nine points, it is the 89 days. Formula 1 has just agreed to cut every grand prix to 290 km from 2027 on the argument that the product needs to be tighter and easier to follow, while its most famous race spent a quarter of the season with a provisional podium. The FIA's promise to review both the timing system and the appeal process is the real outcome here, and it is testable: if the 2027 season opens without a published calibration standard for pitlane timing loops, the next 77 centimetres will be in front of the same court before the summer break. Briatore, whose own lifetime ban over Crashgate was lifted on appeal in 2010, understands better than most how much of this sport is decided away from the track.
