'Make sure it never happens again' - Alpine demand F1 to fix Monaco penalty chaos

Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen has demanded that Formula 1 and the FIA focus on making sure there is never a repeat of the penalty chaos at the Monaco Grand Prix after Pierre Gasly was stripped of his podium result. 

Gasly initially crossed the line in third place at Monaco in May, but dropped to seventh when a 10-second penalty was applied post-race for allegedly speeding in the pit lane. He was not the only driver penalised that day; however, he was alone in not serving the penalty during the race, something that allowed Alpine to challenge the verdict. 

Presenting evidence to the FIA, Alpine successfully overturned the Frenchman's penalty, as it found that the measurement for checking the speed was 77cm shy of the required distance, something that created false readings.

Red Bull and McLaren challenged this appeal in the court of appeal, and the ruling found in their favour. The full details on this decision can be found here. 

Reacting to the news on Sky Sports, Nielsen said: "We're obviously disappointed. You can't go into these things with certainty, but we were confident that we had right on our side. 

"We were confident that with the backing of the uh official timekeeper in the FIA, in fact, that Car 10 was not speeding. That's also our view that Car 10 was not speeding. However, the review panel has reached a different conclusion. So, we're disappointed."

Asked to summarise the decision document of over 100 pages in simpler language, Nielsen added: "It's tremendously simple, but fantastically complex at the same time. Only Formula 1 could manage it, I guess. 

"I don't want to go into the rights and wrongs of it, and I don't want to bore everybody by explaining how the timing system works. 

"But I think the sport needs to now focus on making sure it never happens again, and that needs very minor changes actually to the regulations. That's where we should put our efforts now."