F1 team issue official statement over 'wing legality' after FIA punishment announced at Chinese GP

An official punishment against Williams Formula 1 team has been announced by the FIA, following the inability of the team to provide rear wing camera footage after FP1.

Williams blamed 'miscommunication' within their internal processes for the mishap, which has resulted in a €50,000 fine, but no competitive penalties for the Chinese Grand Prix weekend.

As part of efforts to tighten up rules surrounding front and rear wing flexibility, the FIA have been attaching cameras to all the cars to try and collect data about how much natural flexibility is seen in each design.

These cameras have been used in FP1 at both of the first two race weekends, with new rules implemented for China, and ahead of a more strict rule change that the FIA plan to implement from the Spanish GP in June.

FIA hand Williams F1 punishment

In Shanghai, Williams were investigated after the only practice session of the weekend for failing to provide video files to the FIA within the given timescale.

An official FIA document before the Chinese GP sprint race revealed that Williams had been punished for their misdemeanour, with €40,000 of their €50,000 fine being suspended until the end of 2025.

Following the news that they would receive punishment for their error, Williams released an official team statement on social media, confirming that they have nothing to hide in terms of wing legality, and that it was a genuine error.

"We had concerns over the cameras not working in FP1, and as a result were in dialogue with the FIA throughout the session," the official statement read.

"Following the session, the FIA and ourselves have reviewed all procedures, and we can confirm that the failure to provide footage in the allotted time was down to a miscommunication, and internal processes will be addressed as a result so that this does not reoccur.

"For completeness, we provided all footage as requested in Melbourne with no issue and will continue to support the FIA and provide all required footage in a timely manner going forwards.

"We have no concerns over the legality of our wing. It is the same wing we ran in Melbourne, is fully compliant and we did not have to make any adjustments further to the issuing of the new TD [technical directions]. Yesterday’s issue was procedural, and we are confident that we will provide all future recordings without issue.

"We understand that to ensure fair policing of technical regulations the FIA issued the resulting fine and we thank them for the constructive conversations and measured handling of this matter."

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Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

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