Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin explained why Mercedes paid a €10,000 fine for setting tyre pressures on the grid for the Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The start of last Sunday’s race at Interlagos was pure chaos.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll prompted a 30-minute delay after his clumsy off into the gravel trap on the formation lap.
As the race restart drew near, FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer noted that Mercedes made tyre pressure adjustments to both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton‘s F1 machines in the 10—to 5-minute window before lights out.
“As this is in contradiction to TD003 N, items 2. c) and 2. h) i., I am referring this matter to the stewards for their consideration,” a referral from Bauer read as the matter was escalated to the stewards post-race.
In the Sao Paulo instalment of the Mercedes’ debrief, Shovlin explained that “The issue was when we got the message for the restart, that was straight into a 10 minutes to go.
“The tyres must be fitted to the car at five minutes to go. That meant that we only had a few minutes to get the tyres down to the car, get them on the car, and get them checked by the FIA.
“That did not fit.”
Shovlin detailed that Interlagos’ complex pit layout, with high-positioned garages and an unfavourable pit-lane position for Mercedes, gave the team little time to get the tyres to its cars on time.
“The set that we called for, which was not a set on the racks, but a set on wheelie boards so we could move them, had not been bled down to race pressures at that point,” Shovlin said.
“The engineers will be calling for different tyre pressures. The tyre technicians are then running around trying to make sure all the sets are done. These sets were not done.
“Once we got them down to the car, we were up against that five-minute limit, which is a serious penalty if you do not make that. We had to then get them on the car.
“We then started to bleed them, but ran out of time.”
In addition, Shovlin revealed that “we did not have time for the FIA checks to be done” and that this was the real cause behind Bauer referring the matter to the stewards.
“[The FIA was] happy that the tyres were at the right pressure,” Shovlin said.
“It was simply that the scrutineer was not there supervising the bleed before they went on the car. That was why we were then called to the stewards.”
Shovlin accepted the appropriate punishment dished out to Mercedes F1
Mercedes escaped any punishment that would affect its race result in Brazil, instead, the stewards issued a verdict of a monetary fine.
The stewards imposed a €5000 fine on Mercedes for each incident as it acknowledged “the gate to access the grid was not immediately opened.
“The FIA accepted that given this short notice it was extremely difficult if not impossible for the teams to follow the procedure prescribed in the technical directive.
“Normally a breach of this nature, within a competitive session would carry a sporting penalty but it is not appropriate in this case.”
Shovlin was happy to accept this punishment as it was agreed by all partiers that Mercedes did not attain a sporting advantage.
“[The FIA] accepted there was no sporting gain from it and that we were complying with all the regulations around tyre pressures,” he said.
READ MORE – Mercedes escapes penalty over F1 Brazil GP tyre pressure infringement
