Stewards, Penalties and Appeals Explained
Motorsport is one of the few sports where the result you see at the flag can change afterwards. Deciding what counts as an offence, what it costs, and whether that decision can be undone is the job of the stewards and, when a team disagrees strongly enough, of the FIA’s own court.
This page explains who decides what, which penalties exist, and how a result can still move weeks after the race.
Who the stewards are
Every grand prix has a panel of stewards, appointed for that event. It normally includes a chairman, a national steward from the host country, and a driver steward: a former racer whose job is to bring the perspective of someone who has been in the car.
The stewards are separate from race control. Race control, led by the race director, runs the session: flags, safety cars, track limits monitoring. The stewards judge. When race control reports an incident, the stewards decide whether it was an offence and what happens next.
They can act during a session, immediately after it, or on a protest lodged later.
The penalties they can hand out
| Penalty | What it means | Typically used for |
|---|---|---|
| Reprimand | A formal warning. No time lost. | Minor procedural breaches |
| Five-second time penalty | Five seconds served at the next pit stop, or added to the race time at the end | Causing a collision, pit lane speeding |
| Ten-second time penalty | The same mechanism, twice the cost | More serious versions of the above |
| Drive-through | Drive the length of the pit lane without stopping | Jump starts, unsafe releases |
| Ten-second stop-and-go | Stop in the pit box for ten seconds. No work on the car | The heaviest in-race penalty short of exclusion |
| Grid place penalty | Positions lost on the grid for the next race | Power unit changes, late-race collisions |
| Penalty points | Points on the superlicence. Twelve within twelve months means a one-race ban | Recorded alongside most driving offences |
| Disqualification | Removed from the classification entirely | Technical breaches, dangerous driving |
Why a penalty can change the result after the flag
A time penalty issued late in a race often cannot be served. There is no pit stop left. In that case the seconds are simply added to the driver’s total race time once the flag falls.
That is why a classification can look different half an hour after the chequered flag: nobody overtook anybody, the clock just moved. A driver who crossed the line third with a five-second penalty and a two-second gap behind him finishes fourth.
The right of review
A team that believes the stewards got it wrong has one route back to the same panel: a petition under Article 14 of the FIA International Sporting Code, commonly called the right of review.
It is deliberately narrow. The team must present evidence that meets four tests at once. It has to be new, meaning the stewards had not seen it. It has to have been unavailable at the time of the original decision. It has to be significant, capable of changing the stewards’ view. And it has to be relevant to the offence itself.
The petition must be lodged within 96 hours of the end of the race, and it comes with a deposit that is returned if the evidence is judged to qualify. The process then runs in two stages: first a hearing on whether the evidence is admissible at all, and only if that succeeds a second hearing on whether the penalty should change.
Most petitions fail at the first stage. Teams frequently have new evidence, but evidence that was available on the day does not qualify no matter how convincing it is.
The FIA International Court of Appeal
Above the stewards sits the International Court of Appeal, an independent body within the FIA. It hears appeals against certain decisions from any FIA championship, not just Formula 1, and it can uphold a decision, overturn it, or vary it.
Two points are worth understanding. The court is not a second opinion on the incident. It examines whether the decision was properly made under the rules. And not every decision is appealable: some in-race penalties are explicitly excluded, which is why appeals often target a subsequent stewards’ decision rather than the original penalty.
Its rulings are final within the FIA’s own structure. Once the court has spoken, there is no further sporting route.
Why it can take months
Each of these steps has its own timetable, and they stack. The 2026 Monaco Grand Prix is the clearest recent example of how long the full chain can run.
| Date | Step |
|---|---|
| 7 June | Race. Two five-second penalties issued for pit lane speeding |
| 11 June | Alpine lodges a right of review petition |
| 12 June | Stewards accept the new evidence and rescind the penalties |
| 25 August | International Court of Appeal hears the appeal |
| 3 September | Court reinstates the penalties. The original result stands |
Eighty-eight days from flag to final answer. We looked at that case in detail in why Gasly lost his Monaco podium three months after the race.
Where else this happens
The International Sporting Code applies across FIA championships, so the same broad structure exists in the World Endurance Championship, Formula 2 and Formula 3: stewards at the event, a right of review, and the same court of appeal at the top. The penalties differ by category, but the path a disputed decision travels does not.