Why a strip of tape left McLaren facing FIA punishment in Monaco

Piastri gets penalty at Silverstone — Photo: © IMAGO

McLaren

Why a strip of tape left McLaren facing FIA punishment in Monaco

Tape of all things landed McLaren in hot water

By Sam Cook.

Sunday 7 June 2026 23:00

McLaren found itself under FIA scrutiny at the Monaco Grand Prix after an issue involving a small piece of transparent tape resulted in a significant financial penalty for the team.

It added to a difficult opening day in Monte Carlo for the reigning world champions, with both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri struggling to match the pace of the frontrunners during practice.

Based on the early running, the fight for pole position and victory appears set to be led by Mercedes and Ferrari, while McLaren faces an uphill battle to put itself back into contention for the remainder of the weekend.

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

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 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.

F1 McLaren FIA Lando Norris Monaco Grand Prix