McLaren hit with fine after Vandoorne pit stop error

McLaren has become the latest Formula 1 team to suffer a pit stop blunder with Stoffel Vandoorne released unsafely after his right-rear wheel was not correctly attached to his MCL33 during a practice stop towards the end of FP2 at the Chinese Grand Prix.

After two high-profile pit stop incidents at the opening two F1 races, with Haas sustaining a double DNF in Australia followed by Ferrari losing Kimi Raikkonen from the Bahrain race after he collided with a mechanic who suffered a double leg fracture, the Chinese Grand Prix has been marred by a third pit stop problem but this time at McLaren.

During the closing minutes of the second free practice session at the Shanghai International Circuit, Vandoorne was forced to pull off the circuit immediately after a pit stop with his right-rear wheel not attached correctly.

After an FIA Stewards review, McLaren has picked up a €5,000 fine – the same as each of Haas’s pit stop errors at Albert Park plus Ferrari’s FP2 mistake in Bahrain – with the Stewards deeming Vandoorne innocent of any mistakes after coming off the track in a safe manner after detecting the problem.

“The driver stopped the car in a safe manner as soon as the above became apparent to him,” the FIA Stewards note explained.

“Consistent with previous decisions of a similar nature, the Stewards decided that the grid place penalty mentioned in the above Article would not be applied as the driver took all appropriate actions at the first available opportunity. Accordingly, the Stewards fined the team €5,000.”

McLaren has confirmed it didn’t pick up a problem when releasing Vandoorne’s car from its sensor system while the Woking-based team’s mechanics were adamant the procedure and been completed correctly. An investigation into the pit stop mistake is expected to be taken by the team tonight ahead of the final practice session and qualifying ahead of the Chinese race.

Ferrari was slapped with a €50,000 fine from the FIA in the Raikkonen incident where mechanic  Francesco Cigarini sustained fractures of his shinbone and fibula. The mechanic required surgery in Bahrain before being flown back home to Italy.

"Straight away out of the pit lane there was not really a feeling that something was wrong. It was only as I turned left into Turn 3 that I felt something happen," Vandoorne explained.

"I looked in the mirror and could see the rear right tyre was wobbly. I immediately parked the car for safety precautions."

Asked if pit stops had become too quick, Vandoorne said: "Pit stops are part of F1. They will probably always be in some way. It’s true that we don’t like to see those incidents that happened in Bahrain with Kimi.

"We have seen a couple of cars having to park up. It’s definitely not what we want. But yeah, it happens every now and then."