The FIA has been warned that their fine to Red Bull after a staff member broke the rules at the United States Grand Prix will not deter teams from “skullduggery” against rivals. The stewards in Austin gave a 50,000 euro fine, half of which was suspended, after the race last Sunday, over an incident which happened just before the Grand Prix began.
F1 rules require all team members to leave the grid after the formation lap gets under way. But it was found that a Red Bull staff member “entered the gate well area of Gate 1 after the formation lap had commenced” and so the FIA handed out the fine.
It later emerged that the staff member had attempted to remove from the wall on the inside of the track a piece of tape. It had been placed there by McLaren as a visual aid for Lando Norris, who was lining up second on the grid next to pole-sitter Max Verstappen, to help the Brit line up as far forward in his grid slot as is legally possible.
The placing of the tape as a visual aid is not outlawed within the rules, and neither is its removal. While not illegal, it is an example of the shenanigans that often go on between teams in the F1 paddock and that have been a feature of the sport for decades.
It was even common the 1970s and ’80s when a young mechanic and engineer named Gary Anderson was making a name for himself in F1. Writing in his column for The Race, the Northern Irishman, who enjoyed multiple spells at McLaren during his time in the paddock, said: “This type of skullduggery has always gone on.
“It’s actually very difficult to really know who is really up to what. There are lots of examples that need attention like partly blocking on track, leaving the pitlane slower than you need to, pulling out in front of another driver in the pitlane, ranting on the radio about another driver in the hope of convincing officials to penalise them, and not driving to a safe place to pull up when you have a problem.
“All of these things could be argued to be against the spirit of the regulations, even if they aren’t done to the degree that in reality are dangerous.”
And Anderson went on to add his belief that fining teams is a poor deterrent, writing: “The big question is how do you stop it? Well one thing that won’t stop it is fining a team €50,000 because with the budgets they have that kind of money won’t stop you doing anything, especially for Red Bull.
“Points are the only currency that matters, so if it’s a team problem take away constructors’ championship points and if it’s the driver take away drivers’ championship points. That would get everybody’s attention. With any problems there are solutions. You just have to react as each one rears its ugly head.
“But what you can be certain of is that with teams full of competitive people desperate to win, there will be those who search for every possible advantage no matter how small. The Red Bull ‘tape’ incident is just another example of what’s been going for as long as motor racing has existed.”