FIA consistency in spotlight after Leclerc drive-through at Miami GP
4th May 2026The stewards’ decision to award Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc a drive-through penalty post-race at the Miami Grand Prix, for exceeding track limits, has raised questions on consistency.
Feature image credit: Pirelli
Following the conclusion of the Miami Grand Prix, Leclerc was handed a post-race drive-through penalty for driving his car across the track and gaining an advantage.
Leclerc had suffered a spin on the final lap as he was pushing for the final podium position in his fight against McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. The Ferrari driver collided with the barrier on the exit of turn three and damaged the front steering of his front-left tyre.
As such, when he tried to navigate the circuit for the final lap, he was forced to cut chicanes as his car could ‘not negotiate the right-hand corners properly.’
The stewards had deemed that because he cut the chicane and left the track, he gained a lasting advantage, and his mechanical problems were not justifiable by the officials.
As the penalty could not be served, having taken the chequered flag, it amounted to a post-race added time of 20 seconds. In turn, this dropped the Monegasque from sixth at the flag to eighth overall, promoting teammate Lewis Hamilton and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto by one position.
However, there are questions around consistency from the stewards after a similar instance last year produced a different result.
Last year, at the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton had suffered brake problems during the final stages of the night race and was forced to manage his problem by engine braking to slow the car.
During that time, the seven-time world champion cut corners to help mitigate that issue. Eventually dropping a gap to Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, which was once at 45 seconds to just under half a second by the chequered flag.
Hamilton was flagged by the stewards for his venturing outside track limits and was slapped with a five-second time penalty for the issue, dropping him to eighth overall, behind Alonso in seventh.
In the stewards’ report, the five-second time penalty was deemed the ‘usual penalty’ for this type of infringement.
The discrepancy came after both incidents were conducted during the last laps of their respective races, and raised to the stewards after the chequered flag had fallen.
A similar offence, but different outcomes.
ApexMotorsports.co.uk has reached out to the FIA for a comment to clarify the discrepancy in this penalty decision.
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
