FIA's consistency questioned: George Russell's controversial Monaco penalty under scrutiny

After spending time as Red Bull's sporting director, Wheatley joined the Sauber team earlier this season. 

The team principle commented on the Monaco race between Mercedes' George Russel and William's Alex Albon where the former deliberately cut the Nouvelle Chicane to overtake Albon, who was accused of slowing down to benefit his teammate, Carlos Sainz Jr.  

Wheatley described the highly criticised Monaco GP as a race “defined by strategy and shaped more by the rules than by pure racing”.

Wheatley expressed concerns that the existing penalty framework might not sufficiently discourage drivers from making calculated decisions to break the rules, especially when the potential gain outweighs the penalty.

The stewards justified the drive through penalty by citing a radio message from Russell to his race engineer, where he stated he would “take the penalty,”.

The Sauber team principal calls for a thorough review of the incident, emphasising the need for clarity and consistency in stewarding decisions, however he felt "encouraged" by the way Formula 1 aimed to try something different.

When asked about drivers like Albon backing off, Wheatley responded saying,"I don't think I saw anything dangerous, what I saw was some very good teamwork today, and I'm not I'm not sat here today saying that we wouldn't have done the same thing if we were in the right position."

Russell admitted to the manoeuvre, expressing frustration over being held up by Albon. He argued that the reason for driver's teaming together was due to the two-stop rule in place this week in Monaco.

When he was questioned about the success of the two-stop rule put in place by the FIA, the British driver commented,"No, it didn't work because it was too easy for drivers' teams to work together to create the pit stop gap, invert the cars."