F1 Monaco Grand Prix: How a piece of tape landed McLaren in hot water with the FIA

McLaren

How a piece of tape landed McLaren in hot water with the FIA at the Monaco Grand Prix

Tape of all things landed McLaren in hot water

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 6 June 2026 21:18 Updated: 07:52

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A piece of transparent tape landed McLaren a huge fine at the Monaco Grand Prix, in a dismal day for the world champions.

2025 drivers' champion Lando Norris was off the pace in the first day of action at the circuit, as was his team-mate Oscar Piastri.

But even more frustratingly for McLaren, they were handed a hefty fine after an investigation from the FIA later on Friday.

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Norris' McLaren came to a halt at the Nouvelle Chicane during FP2 with a battery/electronics issue, with his MCL40 completely shutting itself off.

The incident caused a virtual safety car at the track as marshals hurried to clear away Norris' car, needing a set of wheels in order to do so, with the car not wanting to be rolled.

The reason for this was that the clutch was engaged on Norris' car, and the clutch disengagement system (CDS) failed to operate, hindering marshals from safely and swiftly moving the car.

Why were McLaren fined in Monaco?

It was revealed by FIA race stewards later on Friday that the fact that the CDS failed to operate was because of something McLaren had done themselves.

The stewards’ statement revealed that McLaren had applied a strip of tape over the CDS button.

The team admitted that, for aerodynamic reasons, they had used transparent tape on the button required to activate the CDS system.

Both the FIA representatives and McLaren acknowledged that this action completely undermined the system’s intended function, which is to be activated quickly by a marshal wearing protective gloves.

The team further admitted that it was impossible to remove the tape and press the button manually without the use of tools.

As a result, McLaren were slapped with a penalty of €30,000, of which €10,000 is suspended for a period of 12 months subject to no further breaches of the same regulation.

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