Martin Brundle fires warning over Monaco F1 penalty “mess” amid flurry of protests

Martin Brundle has warned that there is “no easy solution” for the penalty “mess” at Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix.

The fallout from the penalty bonanza at Monaco has intensified after  Alpine successfully overturned two pit lane speeding infringements for Pierre Gasly, resulting in the Frenchman being reinstated into third place on the podium.

Gasly was one of five drivers hit with time penalties for speeding in the Monaco pit lane, which teams believe were incorrectly issued.

Following Alpine’s successful appeal, Mercedes has been granted a right of review request over George Russell’s penalty in Monaco. Meanwhile, McLaren and Red Bull are challenging the Monaco result and protesting the decision to overturn Gasly’s penalties.

The situation has led to a messy outcome in which the Monaco Grand Prix result remains provisional nearly two weeks after the race finished.

Sky Sports F1 co-commentator and analyst Brundle believes the fiasco has opened a “complicated and uncomfortable” can of worms for the world championship.

“Pierre Gasly was seventh for Alpine, having had his third place in Monaco the week before reinstated after appeal, with his two speeding penalties in that race being rescinded,” Brundle wrote in his Sky Sports F1 column.

“That's a very complicated and uncomfortable decision. Other drivers in Monaco had served their penalties and adjusted strategies accordingly, and Russell's race was destroyed, but because they were not post race penalties nothing was changed for them retrospectively in the results.

“This will now be appealed by Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull who all lost out. Ferrari are not too bothered as it cost Mercedes and McLaren points. This also sets a precedent of not serving marginal in race penalties to preserve the right to contest them post race.

“It's all a mess with no easy solution. It turns out one of the timing loops in the Monaco pit lane was 77cm shorter than calibrated hence lots of 60.1kph recordings when the limit was 60kph. It had been a topic of correspondence since first practices, and some teams adjusted their limiters.

“There was clearly something amiss with so many identical offences, and it's surprising that the stewards hadn't been made aware. Lessons will be learned no doubt and the story will presumably run a while.”

Mercedes’ right of review petition will be heard by the stewards this Saturday.