Martin Brundle backs 'brutal' F1 penalties despite driver outcry

Martin Brundle has backed the "brutal" penalties handed to F1 drivers following the Monaco Grand Prix for pit-lane speeding. 

In Monte Carlo, five drivers including Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, and Pierre Gasly all received penalties for speeding in the pit-lane by less than 0.5kph, with it thought that drivers trying to shorten the pit-lane by cutting white lines was to blame, as the speed is a calculated average and not a set capture point.

Russell failed to serve his five-seconds correctly, leading to a drive-through which dropped him to 12th at the flag, whilst Gasly crossed the line in third place on the road, but earned two five-second sanctions, dropping him to seventh. 

Alpine has lodged a Right of Review with the stewards, although this is not likely to succeed in getting the podium back. 

Despite the perceived harsh nature of the penalties, Brundle feels they were entirely warranted.

"There was a significant sub-story to this whole race, that of speeding in the pit lane," Brundle began in his Sky Sports F1 column.

"A few drivers had fallen foul of that, even just doing their reconnaissance laps to the grid. It was a situation which had been noted between the race director and teams during practice, too.

"Pit-lane speed is measured by distance between various loops in the track surface, and as always, drivers were finding a way to cut into the pits slightly early to save a metre or two. 

"Because of the tight confines, the speed limit in Monaco is reduced from 80 kph to 60 kph. Despite doing everything right, drivers were being penalised for 60.1 kph. Rules are rules because if that's fine, then 60.2 is only a fraction more and so must be fine too. Just like when a car is half a kilo underweight, in F1, it's necessarily brutal.

"There were many of these tiny infractions, including manageable five-second penalties for Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri. But it would ruin George Russell's race because during his pit stop under the Safety Car, the Mercedes team were obliged to serve his five-second speeding penalty before commencing a tyre change.

There was confusion as he queued up behind his teammate, and he would receive an effective 20-second drive-through penalty, which would put him at the back of the bunched-up field. A critical podium chance was lost, but I have no doubt George will return to form and luck.

"It was arguably even more painful for Pierre Gasly in his Alpine, who was both infuriated and heartbroken to receive two pit-lane speeding penalties 20 minutes apart, for 60.1 kph and 60.4 kph. 

"He would cross the finish line in third place, which would normally mean a trip to the legendary royal podium, but 10 seconds of penalties would demote him to seventh through no fault of his own. The team have demanded a right of review, but I suspect that'll change nothing."