'Measure correctly' - Oscar Piastri suggests F1 Monaco controversy sets a "tricky precedent"

Oscar Piastri has warned that the continuing controversy surrounding the Monaco Grand Prix risks setting a "tricky precedent" for Formula 1.

After it was judged that the measurement for the pit lane speed limit was 77cm shorter than it should have been, Pierre Gasly's penalties for speeding were recinded, and the Alpine driver was promoted back to third place, the position in which he had originally crossed the line. 

However, the Frenchman was far from the only driver penalised, but being the only driver not to have served his penalty during the race, only he was granted a reprieve.

Piastri was among those not so fortunate, and when asked ahead of the Austrian weekend how the championship can avoid a repeat scenario, he said bluntly, “I think the most obvious one is make sure the pit lane is measured correctly. 

"That’s a good starting point, obviously. I think what is difficult in that situation is Alpine questioned the penalty. I think everyone questioned the penalties. I’ve never seen a race like that where there are so many pit lane speeding penalties, and in my case, specifically, I knew I wasn’t speeding either."

Although coming out on the favourable side of the decision Gasly added: “I think for the good of the sport, we don’t want to see what happened again in the future. There was a mistake done during that weekend, and I think it’s important that we all learn from it. At the same time, if a mistake was done and can be corrected because it has been unfairly given for no wrong-doing, so in our case, if you have a chance to correct it, it is the right thing as a sport to do it. 

“I was very pleased by the actions and the outcome of the decision post-race. But obviously, from a McLaren, Oscar, George situation, I completely understand for their own performance. I have nothing to do with their results, but they probably feel some sort of injustice from what has been done to them, but that is nothing to do with Alpine or our own race, and that is something they need to sort out on their own side."

While widely concurring with Gasly, Piastri urged caution on heading too far down this path. 

“But the kind of approach is always you have the penalty, you can’t really argue with it in a lot of cases, which I think in 99% of things is a good thing, and I think the risk that we have now is that any time a team or a driver feels that a penalty is potentially wrong or they have a chance of changing it, you go through this whole saga where we still don’t officially know the results of the race a month later, which I think is the biggest thing," he said. 

“I kind of agree with Pierre’s point that if there’s something that can be corrected, I can definitely see why it can be, but it also sets a bit of a tricky precedent, because you could just end up with everybody not serving their penalties and then arguing about it for weeks after, which is not what anyone wants to see.

“A difficult situation with two sides to it, or probably even more."