Audi learn stewards' verdict after costly mistake hurts British rookie

Audi has been fined €7,500 for releasing Freddie Slater onto the track in an unsafe condition during FP1 at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Slater, taking part in his first official F1 session, was sent out at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez with a cooling fan still placed in the right-hand sidepod of his R26.

Whilst the team quickly realised the error, instructing the British driver to return to the garage, it caused his power unit to overheat, which appeared to have ended his session after just half an hour and zero push laps.

The stewards took a dim view of the mistake and handed down the fine to the team.

Thankfully for Slater, Audi was able to cool the car down adequately for him to head back out with a few minutes of the first free practice hour remaining, allowing the 18-year-old to set some timed laps.

He finished the session P21, going quicker than Colton Herta in the Cadillac, and will also take part in FP1 next week in Brazil.

According to the official FIA decision document, the stewards said: "Although the fan did not fall off the car (as was the case of a car in Australia this year), there was the possibility it could have.

"Accordingly, a penalty similar to that applied to Car 12 [Kimi Antonelli] in Australia was applied."

This resulted in the amount being mitigated down to the decided figure.