Oscar Piastri penalty mystery revealed as McLaren shares Monaco theory
Oscar Piastri was one of several drivers hit with a penalty for speeding in the pit lane in Monaco.
Oscar Piastri was punished for speeding in the pit lane in the Monaco Grand Prix, something which McLaren team principal Andrea Stella may have been from ‘shortcutting’ the white lines in the pit lane in Monaco.
Piastri was one of a raft of drivers to have been hit with five-second penalties throughout the race on Sunday, none of whom believing they were above the 60km/h limit when their punishments came through.
Oscar Piastri Monaco GP pit lane speeding penalty explained
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Alpine driver Pierre Gasly said he was “heartbroken” to have been deposed from the podium in light of two five-second penalties for the same offence, while the likes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were also among those hit with a speeding penalty.
Piastri, too, thought he had stayed within the regulations, but his team boss shared his working theory after drivers were spotted cutting over the curved entry into the Monaco pit lane.
“At the first look, we did not understand either,” Stella told PlanetF1.com and others after the race.
“We think it might come from shortcutting too much. I think that’s the hypothesis at the moment.
“So, then we told Oscar to just avoid that, but initially it wasn’t understood. We know that sometimes when you shortcut too much, this may induce you to be measured in excess of the speed limiter, but we don’t know more at the moment.”
Piastri rose from seventh on the grid to fourth at the chequered flag, while teammate Lando Norris suffered back-to-back retirements after an engine issue.
The Australian disagreed with why his penalty came through, believing he took every precaution to hit the speed limit, so much so that he hit the limiter a corner away from the pit lane.
“I think the speeding penalties were very weird, because I know I for sure wasn’t speeding, so that was a bit strange,” he explained, “but obviously we made the right call in serving it, so we were smart when we needed to be today, and that also also helped with the [result].
“I went as wide as I could through the whole pit lane, and then still got done, so I honestly have no idea what the issue was.
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“I got told that a lot of people had been done for speeding – I was still basically exiting Rascasse when I hit the pit speed limiter, and then, obviously, if you take a shorter distance, that can trigger it sometimes, but I was very safe with all of that, so a very strange one.”
Piastri has now moved above Norris in the early 2026 Drivers’ standings, but is already a significant 96 points behind championship leader, Kimi Antonelli.
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