{"id":515021,"date":"2025-10-20T18:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T18:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/515021\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T18:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T18:19:10","slug":"red-bull-fined-43000-after-team-member-tries-to-tamper-with-lando-norris-grid-tape-red-bull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/515021\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull fined \u00a343,000 after team member tries to tamper with Lando Norris grid tape | Red Bull"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull have been fined \u00a343,000 after a member of the team broke regu\u00adlations in an act of gamesmanship at the US Grand Prix<\/a>, when \u00adattempting to remove a piece of tape from the pit wall placed there by McLaren to aid their driver Lando Norris in lining up\u00a0correctly on\u00a0the\u00a0grid.<\/p>\n

The incident was an unusual example of low-level \u00adskulduggery between teams as Red Bull<\/a> were caught out by CCTV cameras \u00adtrackside and the race stewards issued the fine for events which took place just before the off.<\/p>\n

Norris was lined up in second place behind Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen on the grid at Austin, where Verstappen went on to win<\/a>. Some teams will use a piece of tape attached vertically to the trackside pit wall as a marking indicator for drivers of their grid box.<\/p>\n

With visibility from the car very limited, especially of the markings on the grid itself, it is a visual aid for the driver to ensure they are positioned correctly for the start. Notably in Bahrain this season Norris placed his car just ahead of his grid slot and was given a five-second penalty.<\/p>\n

There is nothing in the \u00adregulations against a team using duct tape in this fashion but equally there is \u00adnothing preventing other teams from \u00adremoving it. In this case, \u00adhowever, the employee in question had entered what is known as the \u201cgate well area\u201d after the formation lap had begun in an effort to remove the tape, against the instructions of the marshals there. Entering this area\u00a0when it has been cleared for the start is \u00adconsidered an \u201cunsafe act\u201d and carries a hefty fine.<\/p>\n

The FIA stewards\u2019 report said a team representative from Red Bull at the subsequent investigation stated that the team member \u201cwas not aware of the efforts of the marshals to stop him\u201d.<\/p>\n

The post-race press conference in Austin for the Red Bull team principal, Laurent Mekies, was delayed as he attended the FIA hearing and he later described the incident as a \u201cmisunderstanding\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is understood this is not the first time Red Bull have attempted to tamper with McLaren\u2019s grid-side markers and the latter looked into a new way of using it at Austin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull have been fined \u00a343,000 after a member of the team broke regu\u00adlations in an act of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-515021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115407877938173997","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}