Mechanic's error lands Toyota WRC team with hefty fine

Stewards acted on a complaint received from the World Rally Championship Promoter and called Evans, co-driver Scott Martin and the Japanese squad’s Sporting Director Kaj Lindstrom to a hearing on Saturday night.

They were told the recording equipment inside the car “did not respond to [the] remote trigger” at the start of stage nine, with the fault continuing for the next three stages of yesterday’s morning loop.

An inspection of the car was carried out in the media zone, they were told, and the power source was “found to have been disconnected”. Kaj Lindstrom blamed the mistake on a mechanic who had simply forgotten to plug the cable back in before Evans’ car left service and was moved to parc ferme on Friday evening.

In their ruling, stewards said: “As a consequence of this incident, it was noted that the WRC Promoter was affected as four special stages had no live broadcast nor recorded footage from car No. 33, which is one of the most prominent cars in the Championship.

“Furthermore, the FIA would not be in a position to record possible incidents with no live broadcasting. This incident also had a negative impact on the WRC commercial rights. Finally, with the cars out on the special stages there were no fixed opportunities for the WRC Promoter’s technicians to inspect or carry out repairs.

“Having considered the matter extensively, the Stewards concluded that Competitor No. 33 should have checked that the camera cable was correctly connected at the end of service on Friday evening. Nevertheless, having taken into account that this incident was due to a human error, the fine imposed was partially applied with suspension of sentence."

10,000 of the 15,000 Euro penalty has been suspended but will come into effect should there be “live camera system interference” at any other World Rally Championship event during the 2022 season, Evans, Martin and Lindstrom were told.