Force India fined for “very serious” wheel incident

Force India has been fined €15,000 for the error which led Sergio Perez to lose a wheel during second practice yesterday.

The team has also been given a suspended €85,000 fine, suspended for 12 months, providing it does not commit a similar offence in that time.

FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer has revised his original assessment of what caused the wheel to come off. Yesterday Bauer said it appeared debris had caused the wheel to loosen from its nut.

However the report issued today by the stewards noted “the FIA technical delegate revised his original report on the possible cause of the incident.”

Bauer “confirmed the team’s evidence to the stewards that the problem was not caused by incorrect or incomplete fitment of the wheel but rather by an assembly fault involving poor seating of three retaining screws on the retaining plate,” said the stewards.

“The stewards are satisfied that the wheel gun operator made no error in fitting the wheel, that the witness line was visible and that his manual check of the security of the wheel was satisfactory.

“Likewise the stewards are satisfied that neither the team nor the driver had any warning whatsoever that something was amiss, until the incident occurred. Therefore it would be unreasonable to infer that the team did not take ‘appropriate action’ to stop the car because it had no way of knowing of the problem.

“Accordingly and consistent with previous decisions this year, the Stewards decided that the grid place penalty that ‘may’ be imposed under the above article, would not be applied.”

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