Williams fined €50,000 after procedural error with on-board cameras
This morning, the FIA imposed a €50,000 fine on Williams. The reason? A missing SD card in the on-board cameras, which are required to monitor the flexibility of the wings. A stupid but costly oversight.
Williams was fined €50,000, with €40,000 suspended, for failing to correctly install the SD cards in the onboard cameras of the FW47 during the Friday morning practice session in Shanghai. These cameras are crucial for monitoring the flexibility of the front and rear wings, a checkpoint imposed by the FIA via directive TD034L, published just before the Chinese Grand Prix weekend.
It’s Jo Bauer, the FIA technical delegate, who noted the anomaly and summoned the team before the race stewards. The directive is nevertheless clear: « Teams are responsible for ensuring that cameras are equipped with an empty and properly formatted SD card at least 10 minutes before the start of any session during which cameras must be installed. » An instruction that Williams has, evidently, not followed.
A misunderstanding with serious consequences
According to the FIA, the error stemmed from a simple misunderstanding. The team believed that the cameras were already equipped with SD cards provided by the federation and therefore did not worry about checking. Worse still, when the engineers noticed a flashing red light on the camera during the session, they reported the anomaly to Bauer… without understanding what it meant. A procedural error that is costing them dearly.
It is undeniable that the team did not succeed in doing it. The reason for the failure was apparently the team’s belief that the cameras would be equipped with SD cards provided by the FIA. They did not check, states the FIA in its report. Williams is therefore fined 50,000 euros, with 40,000 suspended until the end of 2025, on the condition that the error is not repeated.
Let’s be clear: there was no fraud regarding the flexibility of the wings, and the FIA specified it in black and white. To avoid any doubt, nothing indicates that the wings do not comply with the bodywork flexibility requirements of the Technical Regulations, the federation stated.
The British team also wanted to reassure about the legality of its wing: « We have no concerns about the legality of our wing. It is the same wing that we used in Melbourne, it is fully compliant and we did not have to make any other adjustments following the issuance of the new TD. »
Williams takes responsibility and promises to do better
Rather than contesting the sanction, Williams acknowledged the error and committed to improving its internal procedures to avoid any recurrence. Following the session, the FIA and ourselves reviewed all procedures, and we can confirm that the failure to provide the footage within the allotted time was due to a communication error, the team stated to the media.
In order to prove their good faith, Williams reminds that they had indeed provided the requested images during the previous Grand Prix in Australia, without any issues: « For the sake of thoroughness, we provided all requested images in Melbourne without any issues and will continue to support the FIA and provide all required images in a timely manner. »
From now on, Williams knows what he has to do: thoroughly check all his cameras before each session.
