Williams hit with a hefty fine at Suzuka
The Williams team received a 60,000 euro fine following an incident this morning during free practice 1, during which the left rear wheel of Pastor Maldonado's car came off while he was on the track.
During the first free practice session of the Japanese Grand Prix held this morning at the Suzuka circuit, Pastor Maldonado had his session cut short due to a problem with his car. The left-rear wheel of his Williams came off and then crossed the track.
The track marshals analyzed the incident and decided to heavily penalize the Williams team, which is fined 60,000 euros as they deemed it a major incident.
The examination of the relevant parts revealed that the course fixing was not completely secured, and therefore was not engaged with the first retention system. The second retention system failed to keep the wheel in place, the statement specifies.
For a similar incident in Germany – where Mark Webber lost a wheel in the pits, which then hit an FOM cameraman – the Red Bull Racing team was fined 30,000 euros. But since that incident in Germany, the FIA decided to act, notably by imposing the implementation of a second wheel retention system when they are not completely secured. However, in today’s case, it is not this second system that is at fault but the first one, which is supposed to prevent the wheels from detaching from the cars while they are in motion.
