Formula 1 never really stops when the chequered flag falls. Monaco proved that again.

Pierre Gasly crossed the line 3rd on the road, but 2 separate 5-second penalties for pit lane speeding pushed him down to 7th once the final classification was adjusted. That reshuffle elevated Isack Hadjar onto the podium. Then Alpine moved quickly and launched a right of review with the FIA, opening the door to a result change after the race had already been declared.

How Alpine’s Monaco review got off the ground

There is a strict process here, and Alpine had no time to waste.

Teams now have only 96 hours to file a petition for review. That window used to be much longer at 14 days, but the FIA tightened the rule after too many unsuccessful attempts. On top of that, there is now a €20,000 deposit for each review request, meant to stop teams from throwing in speculative challenges over every minor incident.

Alpine filed 2 petitions, one for each penalty, which meant a €40,000 gamble.

That first hurdle is not about proving the penalties were wrong. It is about proving there is something new worth examining. To reopen the case, a team must present a significant and relevant new element that was not available when the original decision was made.

Alpine managed to do exactly that. The FIA confirmed the team had won the right of review, which is important but often misunderstood. It does not mean the penalties were removed. It simply means the stewards accepted there was enough fresh material to revisit the original ruling.

What happens next, and why the answer was still unclear

Once the right of review is granted, the matter goes back to the stewards. That is where things become a little murky because there is no firm deadline for the final decision to be published.

It might come quickly. It might drag on. In a packed race schedule, especially during a double header, the timing can be unpredictable.

That uncertainty is what made this case so interesting. At that point, no one could say with confidence whether the Monaco podium belonged to Hadjar or Gasly.

And even if Alpine won the review, the result still was not necessarily straightforward. There were 3 realistic outcomes:

• Both penalties could be removed, which would put Gasly back on the podium.
• One penalty could be removed, which might improve his finishing position but still not be enough for 3rd.
• Neither penalty could be changed, leaving the result exactly as it stood.

Why successful reviews are so rare

Rights of review are not common, and successful ones are rarer still. Having a case reopened is one thing. Actually getting a time penalty erased after the race is another matter altogether.

A useful comparison came from Carlos Sainz at the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix. His team successfully challenged a penalty after the event, and the ruling was overturned. But because the time loss had effectively already been absorbed into the final race result, he did not recover that time in the classification. What he did get back were the penalty points removed from his super licence.

That example is a reminder that even a successful challenge does not always restore the finishing position everyone expects.

So in Gasly’s case, the key question was not just whether Alpine had a strong argument. It was also what remedy, if any, the stewards would decide was appropriate.

A strange Ferrari mix-up in the paddock

While the legal wrangling over Monaco was unfolding, there was also a wonderfully odd paddock moment involving Charles Leclerc.

Sharp eyes noticed that Charles appeared to be wearing a Ferrari team shirt with the number 44 on it. In other words, Lewis Hamilton’s shirt.

That is not the sort of thing you see every day in Formula 1, where every detail is usually controlled down to the millimetre. The explanation was far less dramatic than the internet would like, but no less amusing. It was simply a wardrobe mistake.

It added to the ongoing light-hearted chatter around driver gear after the fuss in Monaco over Kimi Antonelli’s missing towel, an episode that unexpectedly travelled far beyond the paddock bubble.

Lewis Hamilton’s changing look and Ferrari’s brake switch

Lewis turned up in Barcelona with a noticeably different look as well, his hair now loose after the braided style seen in Monaco. And if you enjoy the small details, there was also an eye-catching earring that was hard to miss.

The more significant talking point, though, was technical rather than cosmetic.

Lewis had already moved away from Brembo brakes to Carbon Industrie, a bold step given Brembo’s long-standing place in Formula 1. Now Charles was making the same change after Monaco. When a team with Ferrari’s profile starts moving both drivers in that direction, people notice.

Brembo is one of the most recognisable names in motorsport braking, so seeing Ferrari go another way naturally raises eyebrows. Whether it proves to be a genuine solution or simply another experiment would only become clear once the weekend unfolded.

Fernando Alonso’s home crowd and his DAZN silence

Barcelona always gives Fernando Alonso a special sort of energy. In this part of the world he is still treated like a giant of the sport, and the Aston Martin support around the circuit reflected that.

Even so, Fernando was realistic about his recent result. After scoring a point, he made it clear that it was less about outright speed and more about events happening around him. In pure pace terms, he did not think the car truly earned it.

There was also growing interest in his decision not to speak with DAZN. For at least the last 2 races, he had skipped that broadcaster during the media rounds. That sort of media freeze is unusual enough to spark gossip, but not so unusual that it is unheard of in Formula 1. Drivers have done similar things before when relationships with broadcasters become strained.

The awkward part is that in a media pen, broadcasters are often placed side by side. So if a driver bypasses one outlet, the neighbouring one can miss out too simply because the flow is disrupted.

At that stage, the precise reason for Alonso’s stance was still unclear.

A quiet but impressive Oscar Piastri statistic

One of the more interesting statistical nuggets in Barcelona had nothing to do with the front-page drama.

Oscar Piastri had finished ahead of George Russell in every race he had started that season. That is a seriously tidy piece of consistency, particularly when George was still ahead in the championship because he had banked a win early on.

That kind of stat can slip under the radar because championship tables tend to dominate the conversation. But race-by-race comparisons often tell a more revealing story about form.

Barcelona paddock details worth noting

A few practical and visual details around the circuit also stood out.

McLaren’s new motorhome was still being assembled later than usual, thanks in part to the sheer difficulty of moving equipment out of Monaco and into Barcelona. Anyone who has dealt with race logistics around Monaco will not be shocked by that.

There was also the giant Tag Heuer clock in the paddock, an absolute beast weighing about 320 kg in that configuration. The setup operation is bigger than it looks too, with multiple clock sets moving around the world by sea freight and leapfrogging between events.

And yes, even those setup jobs can go wrong. One poor fellow handling the clock managed to split his shorts and had to improvise a repair with gaffer tape. Formula 1 glamour only gets you so far.

The Madrid circuit idea that nearly went very red

Another fascinating detail involved Madrid’s future race circuit, known as the Mad Ring. There had apparently been a push early on to make the tarmac red rather than the usual black, tying it into Spanish national colours.

Technically possible? Yes. Sensible and easy to push through? Not quite.

In the end, that idea was shelved, at least for now. The focus stayed on more realistic priorities, though there was strong expectation that Formula 3 could race there before Formula 1 arrives, essentially serving as a live test.

F2, F3 and the next names to watch

Barcelona also brought the annual Formula 2 and Formula 3 group photos, which always carry a nice sense of possibility. Somewhere in those rows are future Formula 1 drivers.

It is reasonable to expect at least 1 current F2 driver to land a Formula 1 opportunity in the next couple of years. The junior categories remain the clearest route in, but as ever, talent alone is not the whole story. Timing, super licence points, budgets and team strategy all have a say.

Other notes from around the weekend

A few more items added texture to the day in Barcelona:

• Max Verstappen’s Monaco engine issue meant that power unit had been retired, bringing engine number 2 into use from FP1 onward.
• Visa Cash App RB rolled out a football-inspired paddock activation tied to the FIFA World Cup, complete with special shirts and a scarf that were actually quite well done.
• Kimi Antonelli arrived with a chance to make it 6 straight wins in Barcelona.
• Barcelona itself was temporarily competing with a much bigger story than Formula 1, with more than 100,000 people reportedly out in the streets because the Pope was in town.

So whose podium was it?

That was the question hanging over everything.

Gasly had done enough on track to stand on the rostrum before the penalties dropped him back. Hadjar inherited the place in the official result. Alpine then cleared the first procedural barrier and forced the stewards to look again.

At that point, the case was alive, the stakes were obvious, and the final answer rested entirely with the officials. Until they ruled, the Monaco podium remained unfinished business.

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