The Mercedes Formula 1 team has confirmed it is appealing the controversial penalties handed to George Russell at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Russell’s race in Monaco was wrecked after he was one of five drivers to be hit with pit lane speeding offences. Having failed to correctly serve the punishment due to a Mercedes blunder, Russell was then handed a drive-through penalty that dropped him out of the points.

Following Alpine’s successful right of review that saw Pierre Gasly extraordinary reinstated to the Monaco podium after having his two speeding penalties rescinded, Mercedes discussed the matter with its lawyers to see if there were any grounds for an appeal of its own.

Asked if Mercedes is planning to appeal prior to Sunday’s grand prix, Wolff told Sky Sports F1: “Yeah we wrote to the FIA for a right of review as well.”

Crash.net understands Mercedes is appealing Russell's penalties, rather than the decision to restore Gasly's podium.

However, Wolff conceded Mercedes ultimately expects its protest to fail.

For a start, Mercedes missed the original 96-hour window following the Monaco race to lodge an appeal against the penalties.

There is also a key difference between Gasly and Russell’s penalties. Crucially, Gasly’s penalties were applied after the race and not during, like Russell’s race.

Under F1’s regulations, the stewards do not have the power to ‘undo’ a penalty that has already been served.

In their verdict, the stewards admitted "that in relation to other cars that were penalised, some served their penalty and this regrettably, impacted their race strategies and therefore their race result.

"There will undoubtedly remain questions as to whether those breaches were genuine. There is no regulation that gives the Stewards the power to 'undo' a served penalty.

"In any case, it is impossible to imagine how such power could be applied. Notably, no other party petitioned for a Right of Review within the allowable time frame.”

Wolff acknowledged success for Mercedes is a slim prospect, but stressed it must take action “for George’s benefit”.

“I have to be honest I’m not sure this is a realistic outcome because you open up a can of worms,” Wolff said.

“Normally, if you have a stop-and-go and you didn’t do it it’s 20 seconds and then 20 seconds would put George back to P4.

“But then what are all the other consequences? So I don’t think this is going to hold with the judges, but we have to do it for George’s benefit.”

Red Bull and McLaren have also lodged an intention to appeal against the decision to reinstate Gasly.

When asked by Crash.net about the situation, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said after qualifying: “The situation whereby cars that received a penalty served the penalty in the race, some of the cars didn't, and then we find ourselves in condition that some of the cars that didn't had the penalty removed is a very difficult case.

“We have already lodged an intention to appeal. We will use the time that we have available, and we will confirm or not confirm the intention to appeal.

“But for the moment I would refrain from commenting too much other than saying that this is a very complex case and we do feel that we should consider appealing, yes."