FIA's largest ever F1 fine revealed with historic McLaren €100million punishment

F1 History

FIA's largest ever F1 fine revealed with historic McLaren €100million punishment

The FIA issue fines if F1 teams or drivers breach their rules

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Sunday 11 May 2025 09:56 Updated: 11:11

An F1 race weekend rarely passes without the FIA dishing out some kind of punishment to teams and drivers, whether that is a sporting penalty or a financial one in the form of a fine.

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F1 paddock photographer Kym Illman has recently done the maths and worked out the largest fine the FIA has imposed on a team, which was given to McLaren who were slammed with a €100million punishment for the ‘Spygate’ scandal in 2007.

Article continues under video

'Spygate' emerged after a disgruntled Ferrari employee, Nigel Stepney, took what were essentially blueprints of the team’s 2007 car and gave them to his friend Mike Coughlan who at the time was chief designer of McLaren.

The scandal eventually resulted in McLaren being expelled from the constructors’ championship and they were fined €100million, for illicitly holding information to confer a dishonest and fraudulent sporting advantage.

McLaren's driver lineup at the time, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, were not punished for the incident after it was found neither had any input towards the scheme, and both drivers remained in contention for the championship - which eventually swung in Ferrari and Kimi Raikkonen's favour.

Why do F1 teams receive fines?

An F1 team can receive a fine for multiple misdemeanours, including an unsafe release of their driver into the path of another in the pit lane.

A team can also be fined for a procedural breach such as the cost cap, with engine manufacturers Alpine and Honda found to be in breach of the 2023 cap and each fined $400,000 and $600,000 respectively.

Drivers can also incur financial penalties in F1 and in alternative racing series, with swearing most recently added to the list of offences that can result in a financial penalty for those competing in an FIA sanctioned competition.

World Rally Championship driver Adrien Fourmaux was one of the first drivers to be fined for swearing live on television, with the Frenchman slammed with a €10,000 at Rally Sweden.

According to the FIA, money from these fines go towards supporting various initiatives and grass roots development projects such as the low-cost Cross Car initiative, FIA University, the Engineering Scholarship Programme.

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F1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren FIA Kym Illman