Multiple F1 teams fined after Zandvoort practice

Williams and Stake have been fined after Alexander Albon and Zhou Guanyu were found guilty of unsafe releases during FP2 at the Dutch Grand Prix.

It was the Grove-based team’s second fine of the day, after Logan Sargeant exceeded the pit lane speed limit during the first practice session.

However, the sanction for this latest infringement was considerably more expensive – 50 times more costly, to be specific.

Williams and the Hinwil squad were summoned to the stewards and subsequently issued with the punishment following the conclusion of the day’s F1 track action.

Both Williams and the Stake were awarded €5,000 fines after Albon impeded Lance Stroll and Zhou pulled out in front of Daniel Ricciardo, respectively. It is a breach of Article 34.14 of the F1 sporting regulations.

In the decision document for Albon’s infraction, the FIA stewards said: “Car 23 was released from the pit stop station into the path of Car 18 and the driver of Car 18 had to brake to avoid a collision. The Stewards note that the mistake was made by the team and not the driver. Therefore, consistent with prior decisions, a fine to the team is imposed.”

Meanwhile, in the equivalent was said of Zhou and Ricciardo in the document for the Chinese driver.