Alpine F1 penalty fallout continues as rival backs McLaren-Red Bull appeal

Williams team principal James Vowles has backed Red Bull and McLaren's appeal against Pierre Gasly's reinstatement to the Monaco Grand Prix podium after his pit speeding penalties were overturned. 

The topic that has dominated the F1 discourse across the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix so far has taken another turn. 

After Gasly saw his penalties from Monaco wiped - this due to the fact that he had not served them during the race, and an admission from FOM that the measurement used to calculate the speed was 77cm short - the Frenchman was promoted ahead of Red Bull's Isack Hadjar onto the podium.

McLaren and Red Bull have lodged an intention to appeal this verdict, and the teams have found an ally in the boss of Mercedes-powered Williams, who believes the verdict has opened a can of worms, with drivers, including Mercedes' George Russell, unable to appeal their own penalties as they had taken the hit mid-race.

“I would support them in that, absolutely," he told Sky Sports F1. 

On the original offences, he added: “It’s not the first time. Singapore, a while back, exactly the same thing happened, where what happens is that you can shortcut the pit lane. 

"If you watch the onboard, you can see they’re not driving in the white lines, they’re driving across the white lines, so you’ve shortened the distance.

“If you look back as well at Monaco, we received a speeding fine on Friday, and we had a look into it and went, ‘ah, this is what has happened,’ and tuned down our speed limit as a result of it, because that is the regulation. 

"What you do is, however they set it, we’re aware of the fact that no one tunes their car pit speed limiter to 60 mph, it’s always below that in function of how you drive."

Although the situation is a peculiar one, Vowles had advice for rival teams to prevent them from falling foul of this issue in the future. 

“My advice to anyone is to drive the way you’re going to drive on Friday and Saturday the way you’re going to drive on Sunday, don’t change your line, which is what catches you out," he said. 

“I’m surprised we have the reinstatement, being frank about it. It doesn’t really affect us personally, he was ahead of us whichever way you do that. Obviously, it’s a championship position.

“I think it’s more it creates a bit of a mess now. What do you do with George? What do you do with Piastri, who also, in that circumstance, should have been on the podium as a result?

“That’s the mess that I don’t feel comfortable about.”