Haas, McLaren hit with separate FIA fines in Austria

Both Haas and McLaren picked up fines from the FIA for separate penalties during Friday practice ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.

Midway through FP1, McLaren were caught out with an unsafe release of Stoffel Vandoorne from the garage which sent the Belgian driver directly into the path of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who was also exiting the pits at the same time.

McLaren were given a €10,000 fine for the incident, with the Woking-based squad accepting the blame for the near-miss, while no further action followed for Vandoorne.

Later in the day in FP2 at the Red Bull Ring, Haas relived a pit stop nightmare it suffered from the 2018 Formula 1 season opener in Australia. In the closing minutes of the afternoon session in Spielberg, Kevin Magnussen was incorrectly given the green light to pull away after a practice pit stop.

After an FIA review, Haas explained the issue was caused by an accidental triggering of wheel gun switch which falsely signalled the left-front wheel had been correctly fitted to the Danish driver’s car.

Having seen similar incidents earlier in the year at the US team, Ferrari and McLaren, Haas were handed a €5,000 fine in Austria as it was deemed “consistent with previous decisions of a similar nature” while no penalty was handed to Magnussen as he stopped immediately when instructed.