Speaking ahead of the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP, Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen explained why the team was successful in their appeal effort, restoring a Monaco GP podium for Pierre Gasly.
Gasly was among those affected by the mayhem in Monaco as several pitlane speeding infractions were recorded during the race, triggering automatic sanctions for multiple drivers. The Frenchman was issued two separate 5-second time penalties for alleged pitlane speeding offences. Despite crossing the line in P3, his failure to serve the penalties in the pits meant they were added to his finishing time, relegating him to a distant P7.
Alpine wasted no time in launching their own investigation post-race—measuring the pitlane entry with a trundle wheel—and promptly submitted a Right of Review petition to challenge the result. Less than a week later, it has been confirmed that Alpine managed to successfully appeal, with the governing body overturning Gasly’s penalties, therefore restoring his third-place finish and points haul.
Alpine already had concerns before Monaco penalties were issued
Speaking ahead of the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya GP, Nielsen explained the reasoning behind Alpine’s request. Asked whether his previous experience as F1 Sporting Director and later work at the FIA had played a significant role in overturning the decision, Nielsen downplayed the impact of his background knowledge.
“I guess I do have more knowledge of that than perhaps most people, but it gives you inside information as much as you’re very familiar with how the systems work, but that’s the end of it,” he told the media.
“There’s no contact beyond that.”
Nielsen added that Alpine already knew concerns had surfaced regarding that section of the Monaco circuit earlier in the weekend. Combined with the frequency of pit speeding sanctions issued during the race, this convinced the team that something was amiss.
“I mean it helps of course, but we were aware that there had been issues with that part of the track on Friday and on Saturday. So we had some doubts about it.
“Because of that we’d already warned our drivers about it. And when we started seeing all these penalties come in the race, whilst we didn’t know exactly what the error was, it was not unreasonable to think there’s something wrong. I’ve been doing this for a few years now, and across the season, okay, you see pitlane speeding—it’s one or two, maybe four or five in a whole year.
“So to see six, three of which were ours, in one afternoon, combined with what we knew about Friday and Saturday, you’d think there’s something wrong. Whilst we didn’t know exactly what it was, we were very sure there was something wrong.”
Marginal readings in practice
The Alpine boss revealed that other teams encountered suspicious readings already during practice.
“We didn’t, but we knew other people did,” he said.
“We did actually [pull the rev limiter back] during the race, because at that stage we had two, we couldn’t understand what it was, and we did actually go down during the red flag, but at that stage we didn’t know. All we knew was it wasn’t normal, but we didn’t exactly know what the issue was.”
“It’s a shame” Gasly and the team missed out on podium celebrations
Despite the vindication, Nielsen admitted Alpine still felt a sense of loss, saying it’s a “shame” for Gasly and the team to be podium finishers on paper while missing out on the experience. On the day, it was Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar who celebrated a podium finish alongside race winner Kimi Antonelli and second-place finisher Lewis Hamilton.
“Honestly, absolutely, and it may just be Steve’s vote, but if I could trade, I’d have that podium moment over the points,” Nielsen stated.
“That’s the bit we can’t ever get back. It’s a shame for Pierre and it’s a shame for the team, but we’ve got as much as we can.
“We’ve got the position and the points, which is nice, but if I could choose, I’d have the podium, that emotion, which is what you can’t get.”
Alpine pushed to “understand” data mismatch
Alpine was successful in their appeal to change the result as Gasly’s time penalty had been added after the race. However, Nielsen insisted the team would have pursued its case regardless.
“Well, I think we would have still done what we did, because honestly we wanted to understand it,” he said.
“We had very accurate on-car data, and we’ve all incurred pitlanes before, and when you incur it, most of the time we see it in our own data before the FIA even tell us. Sometimes they tell us and we look and we see it, so every time you see it.
“The different thing was this time, all our controls engineers were saying, ‘there’s nothing in our data’. So that added with the issues we knew from Friday and Saturday, and the number of them, we were very, very sure of those.”
A complicated situation for other penalised drivers
Several drivers received sanctions for alleged pitlane speeding in Monaco, but unlike Gasly, they had served their penalties during the race. Nielsen acknowledged the difficult position faced by teams whose penalties had already influenced race strategy and outcomes, expressing sympathy for those short-changed.
Asked whether he expects other teams to also take action, the Alpine boss said, “Well, it’s a decision for them to make, I can’t speak for how they work, and maybe we were fortunate enough that we weren’t the first to get [a pitlane speeding-related time penalty].
“We’d already served our pitstop. You can’t unpick that, and I feel for them. We’ll never know, I guess, whether their pitlane speeding was real or not.
“It’s a really unfortunate situation, because in our case it was relatively easy to undo it, because it was all added after the race. But with theirs—George Russell for example, we’ll never really know. I don’t know how you would begin to unpick that.
“But you’re right, I don’t think I’ve ever… Pitlane speeding is not appealable, which is why we used the right of review. I feel for them, if I was in that position, I’d be upset.”
Alpine boss praises FIA and FOM for “transparency” amid successful Gasly penalty appeal
The Alpine managing director also praised Formula One Management and the FIA for their handling of the investigation.
“I mean—and I should probably have said this at the beginning—all credit to FOM and the FIA,” Nielsen said.
“They’ve been completely transparent with us from the beginning. And while we had our suspicions, we didn’t know the detail of what had gone on until we got the report from FOM on Wednesday afternoon.
“And so, FOM and the FIA are well-run companies. They’ve got… I was at FOM for many years, as some of you know. They equip themselves to a very high standard almost all the time. In this instance, there was an error. They didn’t try and hide it, which was appreciated. And I’m sure they’ll learn from it and move on.”
As for key takeaways from the situation in Monaco, Nielsen said, “I think it’s a question for F1 really, or FOM. I don’t know what they intend to do about it. I know they’re quite self-critical.
“I’m sure they will learn from it. And I would just like to credit them again for being so transparent with us.”
Could Alpine have done something to avoid the penalties?
Asked whether, in hindsight, there was anything Alpine could have done to pick up on the problem before it affected Gasly’s race, Nielsen admitted he wasn’t sure the issue was preventable at the time.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I’m not sure we would have done much differently at all, honestly. It was really only because another team had said to us, ‘we think there’s an issue there. You know, be careful.’
“And there was a meeting attended by some teams where it was discussed that there was an issue, undiagnosed.
“No, I’m not sure I would have done anything different, honestly. Because, you know, 99 times out of 100, and it’s probably more than that, when you get pinged for pitlane speeding, you don’t even question it. Some guy comes on the radio and says, ‘yeah, we see it in data’, and you just take the penalty.
“This time was different. It wasn’t in our data, which is the first thing. That’s the biggest alarm bell for us. We don’t see it.”
Nielsen backs existing speed measuring method despite Monaco error
Although the incident triggered a debate about pitlane speed monitoring, Nielsen defended the accuracy of the existing measuring method.
“Well, I’m old enough to remember when there was no pitlane speed limit, I’m afraid,” he said. “In fact, they were very, very scary times. So when it came [in], and I was part of pitstop crew in those days, we were all very happy when it came [in].
“So I can’t say that it’s always been measured that way. I think in the very early days maybe it was done with a speed gun or something, and then they changed the loops. But as I said, it’s got a very, very high success rate. It’s nearly always, apart from this, I don’t remember another case other than this one where it was inaccurate.”
He also pointed to the problematic peculiarity of the Monaco circuit, which leaves room for error.
“And you have to remember the peculiarities of Monaco, where the pit entry is curved,” Nielsen continued.
“So it’s quite complicated. All the other loops in Monaco, which are in a straight line, were fine. But that was the big variable in this case. There’s a few other circuits which are not quite as extreme as Monaco.
“And then barriers get put in a slightly different place each day. So Monaco is a particular difficulty, I would say. And it’s not really until this happened you start looking at all the variables, variabilities of the pit entry.
“To answer your question, I think the way they do it is correct. I think it’s fine. It just needs to be a little bit more robust.”
Alpine pleased to have “clarity” in successful Gasly penalty appeal
Asked whether Alpine would have accepted an alternative outcome in which the stewards acknowledged the mistake but declined to change Gasly’s result despite the appeal, Nielsen stated the team was ultimately successful in obtaining the clarity and justice it had sought throughout the process.
“I don’t know, honestly,” he said. “I mean, all I can say is we wanted clarity. We’ve got it. We wanted justice. And we feel we’ve got it. We’re happy with that.”
