Williams has been handed a €50,000 fine – with €40,000 suspended - following a meeting with the stewards in China on Saturday morning.
Williams was referred to the stewards by FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer after it had failed to supply the FIA footage from the on-board cameras monitoring the front and rear-wings as the governing body continues its clampdown on flexi-wings.
However, as the case was so unusual, it was not immediately clear what any potential sanction would be, with the stewards delaying the summons until 08:30 local time on Saturday morning.
It has now come to light that the situation revolves around no SD card being inside the camera to save the footage.
The stewards explained that Williams thought they would come supplied by the FIA, while the governing body had suggested the teams should arrange their own.
The technical directive that monitors the rear wing states: “Teams are responsible for ensuring that cameras are fitted with a suitably formatted (FAT32 or exFAT format) and empty SD card at least 10 minutes prior to the start of any session during which the cameras are to be fitted”.
The FIA outlined it believes Williams' car to be in line with the technical regulations but opted to hand out a fine as it failed to follow the directive instructions.
Full stewards' statement
“It is undisputed by the team that it failed to do so [provide FIA with footage]. The reason for the failure was apparently the team’s belief that the cameras would come fitted with SD cards supplied by the FIA. They did not check if they did.
“They apparently relied on an email from the FIA Techincal Delegate to one team member that suggested that the teams could supply their own SD cards. The team claimed that they assumed that the cameras that they installed on their cars were fitted with the SD card supplied by the FIA.
“They noticed during the middle of the session that there was a red flashing light in the cameras and reported that to the Technical Delegate. However, they did not know what the flashing light meant and in any event, it was too late to fit the SD card(s) by then.
“When the absence of the SD cards was discovered after the session, the team did not report the fact of their failure to install the SD cards to the Technical Delegate
“For avoidance of doubt, there was no suggestion that the wings were not in compliance with the bodywork flexibility requirements under the Technical Regulations.
“Nevertheless, given that TD034L was clear in placing the responsibility for ensuring that the cameras were fitted with the empty SD card on the team, it was equally clear that the team was not in compliance with the directions in TD034L.
“We therefore find that the team has infringed Article 12.1.1i of the ISC and impose a fine of €50,000 euros on the team of which €40,000 would be suspended until 31st December 2025 subject to the team not committing a similar infringement.”
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