Steiner calls Gasly's Monaco podium reinstatement a 'debacle' over regulatory double standard

Guenther Steiner has condemned the FIA’s decision to reinstate Pierre Gasly’s Monaco Grand Prix podium as a “debacle”, warning that the ruling exposes a fundamental inconsistency in Formula 1’s regulatory framework.

Gasly was originally classified seventh after a post-race time penalty for pitlane speeding dropped him from third place. Because the Alpine driver had not served the penalty during the race itself, the time was applied to the final classification. Alpine subsequently lodged a right of review request, and the FIA overturned the sanction after the team provided evidence that had not been available to the stewards at the time of the original ruling — restoring Gasly to the podium.

The controversy, however, centres on the several other drivers who also received pitlane speeding penalties at Monaco but served them during the race. Those penalties cannot be undone retroactively, leaving those drivers with no equivalent remedy.

Speaking on The Red Flags Podcast, the former Haas team principal did not hold back. “It shouldn’t have been reinstated because if you reinstate his podium, you have to change also the other ones, and you cannot do that anymore,” Steiner said. “It was a complete cluster**** Monte Carlo on that part.”

Steiner traced the root of the problem to an error in how the pitlane speed zone was defined or communicated to teams. “It started with having the speeding line in the wrong place or giving the wrong information to the teams,” he said. “But in the end, giving him the podium back obviously is the wrong thing to do because all the other ones have penalties, and they cannot get their penalties undone.”

Despite his personal sympathy for Gasly, Steiner was clear that the reinstatement was the wrong outcome. “As much as I would have liked Pierre to be on the podium, he should be on there because it’s the right way for him to get on there, not because of something which the rules don’t provide — somebody made a mistake by measuring a piece of road.”

His verdict was unambiguous: “The whole thing was a debacle in my opinion.”

The episode raises broader questions about how the FIA handles situations where a regulatory error affects multiple competitors differently depending on when their penalties were applied — a problem the sport’s governing body will likely need to address before a similar scenario arises again.