Alpine has utilized its first curfew exception of the 2024 Formula 1 season after team personnel worked through the night on Pierre Gasly’s car following Friday’s qualifying session in Montreal. The French team’s staff remained within the circuit during the mandatory overnight curfew period, which spans from 20:14 on May 22 until three hours before the Sprint race start at 09:00 on May 23.
According to FIA documentation, Alpine personnel were present inside the circuit for 12 hours and 46 minutes during the restricted timeframe, which begins 15 hours and 46 minutes before Free Practice 3. The Sporting Regulations prohibit team members involved in car operations from being inside the circuit during these overnight hours unless a team chooses to use one of its four permitted exceptions per season.
The overnight work was necessitated by Gasly’s disappointing qualifying performance, where he secured only 19th position for the Montreal Sprint. Alpine decided to make significant setup changes to his A526 car after Friday’s session in hopes of improving performance for the weekend’s remaining sessions.
Under the Parc Fermé regulations that govern the period between qualifying and the Sprint race, any setup modifications automatically require the driver to start from the pit lane. Alpine accepted this penalty as a strategic decision, prioritizing the potential performance gains from the overnight adjustments over Gasly’s already compromised grid position.
The FIA stewards confirmed that since this represents Alpine’s first use of their four annual curfew exceptions, no additional penalties would be imposed. Gasly faces no further sporting sanctions beyond the mandatory pit lane start resulting from the setup changes made to his car during the restricted overnight period.