The attention during a few minutes of Free Practice 3 this morning in Suzuka was focused on Albon’s Williams. The footage showed mechanics in discussion with a technical commissioner from the garage regarding the tires.
If the mechanics seemed confident in their work, there was indeed a problem as indicated by the commissioner to the team. After inspection by the FIA, Williams was indeed found guilty of an error and was fined €1000.
The statement specifies that two different sets of tires were mounted simultaneously on the Thai driver’s car: « The team agreed that 3 tires from set 202 were mounted on the car with 1 tire from set 203, and they accepted that this was a violation of the regulations. »
The sporting regulations of Formula 1, in its article 30.2 paragraph b), indeed stipulate that the tires shall be delivered in sets of 4 to the teams and must always be mounted in sets of 4 during free practice sessions and qualifying. The sets can then be mixed during the race.
