FIA to apply ‘additional monitoring’ after Ferrari ERS investigation

FIA race director Charlie Whiting has confirmed “additional monitoring for Canada” following the controversy surrounding Ferrari’s energy recovery system (ERS).

It was revealed on Thursday in Monaco the FIA had fitted new hardware to Ferrari’s ERS during practice after queries were raised about the Italian manufacturer’s permitted energy usage exceeding the rules.

The FIA confirmed after qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix it was “satisfied” by the results from Ferrari’s SF71H Formula 1 car and said any allegations of cheating were unfounded.

Race director Whiting says new measures will be installed in time for the next round in Monaco but has warned a more reliably tracking system through the use of sensors might not be available until next year.

“Via a complex routine we were able to be satisfied that the Ferrari was okay,” Whiting said on Sunday in Monaco. “But we don’t have to go through that all the time in order to make sure. We would rather additional measures are made.

“It’s not simple, because these things not only are they sealed, because they only have two of them for the season, it’s not just a straight matter of taking your sensor off the shelf and putting it. It’s better integration than that.

“I think there’s additional monitoring for Canada, and there will be. I’m not sure exactly when an additional sensor could be fitted and probably not until next year.

“But what we’ll have for Canada will be a better system which will help us get things done much, much quicker than we had to take in these couple of races to get to the bottom of it.”

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was unable to find a way past Daniel Ricciardo who was struggling with an intermittent MGU-K failure with his Red Bull but held on to take victory in Monaco.