Oscar Piastri sends FIA clear Monaco GP message due to Alpine review

Oscar Piastri has told the FIA that it "can't change the result" of the Monaco Grand Prix now, with the paddock awaiting the outcome of Alpine's Right of Review.

Team Enstone submitted the petition to the motorsport governing body after Pierre Gasly's two five-second time penalties denied the French driver a podium finish in Monte Carlo.

The 30-year-old was one of five drivers sanctioned for pit lane speeding, with team-mate Franco Colapinto, Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Piastri also deemed to have surpassed the 60kph limit.

The issue is now well covered, but how the speed limit is measured amid the specific peculiarities of Monaco's pit entry appears to have erroneously caught the five drivers out, and in Gasly's case, twice.

Because he did not pit again, the Alpine driver served his punishments at the chequered flag, dropping him from third on the road to seventh in the classified results.

The awkward situation for the FIA is that Piastri took his penalty during the 78-lap race, as did Hamilton and Russell, with a catalogue of mistakes snowballing for the latter into a pointless finish.

This makes it difficult for the FIA to remedy the problem because other drivers serving their penalties altered the course of the rest of the race, so it is not as simple as taking the 10 seconds back off Gasly's finishing time.

"In the race, it was reasonably obvious, I thought, that there was something weird going on, because maybe you have one or maybe two cars at the same race getting a pit lane speed limit penalty, but not seven or eight, or however many it was," Piastri told media, including RacingNews365.

The Australian pointed out that having the penalty hanging over him informed McLaren's strategy late in the race. And the nine-time grand prix winner serving his punishment, like Russell, is what promoted Gasly to third in the first place.

"It's a shame, because it's obviously impacted the result of the race, one way or another," he added. "I got a penalty, and if I didn't have that penalty to serve, I wouldn't have pitted it again."

However, it is important to note that the intention of Alpine's Right of Review is to establish how and why Gasly, in particular, was punished in the Principality, not necessarily change the results of the race.

If that were the desired outcome, a protest or an appeal would have been a more appropriate mechanism.

But either way, Piastri, who finished fourth in Monaco, was keen to state on record that no change at this late stage would be palatable. 

"So, they can't change the result now, because so many decisions were made in the race based off the penalties that were given, but that kind of thing shouldn't be happening," he concluded.