Andrea Kimi Antonelli has regained fourth place in the Australian Grand Prix after the stewards cancelled his five-second time penalty.
Mercedes formally petitioned the stewards to reconsider their decision to hand him a five-second time penalty for an alleged ‘unsafe release’ incident in the pits.The team submitted new evidence from the roll hoop mounted camera of Antonelli’s car. The stewards, who had been unable to examine the evidence when they made their original decision, agreed it showed Antonelli had moved into the fast lane of the pits safely.
They therefore cancelled the five-second time penalty which dropped him from fourth place to fifth in the original classification of the race. Alexander Albon, who originally moved up to fourth, therefore falls back to fifth.
The stewards originally ruled Mercedes released Antonelli from his pit box unsafely during the race, into the path of Nico Hulkenberg. The Sauber driver “had to brake and take avoiding action,” they noted.
However less than an hour after the end of the race, the stewards confirmed Mercedes had submitted the paperwork requesting them to review the decision. Representatives of Mercedes and Sauber were summoned to a meeting of the stewards.
“The petitioner provided video from the roll hoop camera which was previously unavailable,” the stewards explained. “This video was relevant and significant in the opinion of the stewards and was unavailable at the time of the original decision (having only been downloaded from the Formula 1 camera post-race).”
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The video proved that although Hulkenberg reacted to Antonelli emerging in front of him, he had enough room to avoid the Mercedes.
“It is clear that car 12 [Antonelli] did not cross into the fast lane until a significant distance down the pit lane and only after the driver checked his mirror to confirm clearance with car 27 [Hulkenberg]. The roll hoop camera shows that he had sufficient room to safely pass the McLaren pits without risk to the McLaren mechanics.”
“Having examined the new video, plus additional video previously not available to the stewards and taken from the helicopter, the stewards decide to reverse the previous decision. As a result the penalty on car 12 in document number 43 is removed and no further action is required.”
This is the second time this weekend the Right of Review has been used to change a decision made by the stewards. The FIA itself requested a review of a decision in a supporting Formula 3 race, which the stewards upheld, leading to another driver’s penalty being cancelled.
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2025 Australian Grand Prix
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BasCB (@bascb)
16th March 2025, 8:52
Sure, they might as well, right. Nothing really to lose from that, and if they get it overturned, they would be tied on points with McLaren in the Championship (with McLaren ahead by number of wins).
Avro Anson (@avroanson)
16th March 2025, 8:54
I think it dropped him to fifth place.
I wonder what new material Mercedes have to offer – it looked pretty clear cut on TV.
Jere (@jerejj)
16th March 2025, 9:01
Unfortunately, the situation that originally led to a 5-second time penalty wasn’t shown on the world feed.
Jere (@jerejj)
16th March 2025, 9:00
Common sense prevailed.
erikje (@erikje)
16th March 2025, 9:55
Wow. He’s the real deal already. Russell is going to have his hands full this years.
Simon
16th March 2025, 13:24
Is there more than one 2025?
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
16th March 2025, 10:13
Anything to do with that roll hoop camera is probably at a crazy drunken angle! Apart from promoting a Williams to 4th (which I approve of), the penalty did seem a bit harsh.
Diez Cilindros (@diezcilindros)
16th March 2025, 10:42
We tend to think that FIA, FOM, the VAR in Geneve (or wherever) and so on have all the cameras, with full availability. It is quite weird to think that the roll hoop camera of Antonelli wasn’t available for the stewards. It’s one of the most common TV cameras in the world feed.
Had he crashed with another guy in a racing incident, stewards would have been unable to watch his onboard?
mantresx (@mantresx)
16th March 2025, 18:22
Although F1 cars have a bunch of cameras recording, I think only one feed is being transmitted live at any given time.
So I’m pretty sure the TV director at that point had Antonelli’s helmet camera or some other useless angle that didn’t allow the stewards to see the full picture.
Once the cars go back to the pits, FOM downloads the video recorded locally from all the car’s cameras and this is what they were able to review after the race.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
16th March 2025, 21:34
@diezcilindros All the onboard cameras are recording at any given time. However, this would likely have some limitations with looking at the wider aspects of the situation (particularly what Antonelli could reasonably have known at the time of entering the fast lane of the pits).
There are hundreds of other cameras at the track, so even if all of them are technically available for stewards to request and recall (which won’t be the case because of storage limitations), it’s simply not possible for them to actually look at them all in a timely enough fashion to adjudicate the race live.
I believe all cameras on a car can transmit, but not simultaneously (3-4 do – the cockpit and either the helmet or 180-degree rollbar cameras must do so at all times for FIA safety assessment and Liberty contractual reasons respectively, and 1-2 others for variety of live TV shots). They can be recorded, but the sheer amount of time needed to look at up to 14 in-car camera perspectives (maximum of 7 cameras per car, although not all will be in use on all cars at every race: 2 front wing (left and right of the cone), helmet, cockpit (rear-facing), 2 rollhoops (forward with 180-degree rotation and fixed rear) and gearbox) plus any external cameras in that area of the pits (potentially 2 from pitlane cameras plus the overhead gantry camera) would be impractical, even if the race had been conveniently red-flagged to make the assessment.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
16th March 2025, 11:05
Wow, a successful appeal, very rare in f1.
eki
16th March 2025, 11:49
Anyone who thought that the tissue issues at Mercedes were finally over after Hamilton’s departure is now proven wrong. “Mommy, they took away my fourth place, where is my mommy, please mommy help”
stefano (@alfa145)
17th March 2025, 13:16
your claim would get a gram more (for a total of 1 gram) of credibility if the appeal were rejected
David BR (@david-br)
16th March 2025, 17:24
Impressive first race from Antonelli when other rookies fell by the wayside. The revision to the unsafe release rule is going to be severely tested this season, fortunately the stewards passed the test this time.
grapmg
16th March 2025, 19:17
So the stewards thought it might be an unsafe release so lets give him a penalty to be safe. What a clowns. How can you give a penalty for something like this when you dont have clear evidence.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
16th March 2025, 21:35
grapmg, it can be done if the evidence is believed to be sufficiently clear at the time. Rulings on partial evidence happen in sports with complex viewing angles all the time.
Leo B
16th March 2025, 19:35
Good news for the real star of Melbourne 2025.