McLaren and Red Bull had appealed Pierre Gasly’s podium reinstatement at the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix before the FIA International Court of Appeal.
The governing body’s highest appellate tribunal heard both McLaren and Red Bull on Tuesday.
The outcome of the hearing held in Paris behind closed doors can take as many as two to three weeks to come out.
The duo’s challenge stemmed from the stewards’ decision to reverse the five-second time penalty imposed on the Frenchman and reinstate him to the podium for the race weekend at the Principality.
Gasly and five other drivers, including Oscar Piastri, had been deemed to have breached the pit lane speed limit and were handed identical time penalties.
While the others served their penalties, Alpine kept Gasly out on track, meaning his penalty was added to his race time instead.
And though the Frenchman, who had finished third on the road, was bumped off the podium, the Enstone-based team were the only ones who were able to lodge a protest because they had not served it during the race.
The Anglo-French marque was in a position to make a pretty compelling case for Gasly, as the FIA itself had conceded to an errant timing loop misreading the metrics of the other drivers, too.
McLaren expects “integrity” of the sport to be protected after FIA hearing
The confidential nature of the hearing means that not much is publicly known about the arguments advanced by the parties.
That said, according to Planet F1, one of the leading arguments made was that the stewards had overstepped their authority by reinstating Gasly on the podium and thereby altering the race classification.
If accurate, this could be a silver bullet for the likes of McLaren and Red Bull, as the International Court of Appeal (ICA) has in fact settled this proposition with respect to the powers of the stewards and the tribunal itself, in an earlier appeal concerning International GT Open Championship outfit Optimum Motorsport.
McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella revealed the team’s intentions in taking this matter to the ICA.
“We go to the hearing at the International Court of Appeal with, if you want, a double intent,” he told media including Motorsport Week, at Zandvoort.
“The first intent is more general than the interest of McLaren. For me, at the high level, is more the fairness and the principle that needs to be clarified and possibly reinstated, because I think what happened sets some significant concerns.
“The second aspect is the interest of McLaren ourselves. So there is, I think, a general interest for Formula 1 and the sport and the integrity of the sport, and there’s a material interest for McLaren in terms of our championship impact.”
If Alpine do lose the matter, they will not have any further avenues to challenge the decision.
READ MORE – McLaren details ‘double intent’ behind crucial F1 appeal
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