Force India has been handed a €100,000 fine, of which €85,000 is suspended, in the wake of its wheel incident during Friday’s second practice session in France.
Perez’s right-rear wheel detached from his VJM11 as he rounded the kink which leads onto the Mistral Straight at Paul Ricard.
Stewards summoned Perez, FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer, Force India team manager Andy Stevenson and wheel gun operator Ash Jones in order to explain the incident.
It was deemed that the car was released in an unsafe condition, leading to the immediate fine of €15,000, and a suspended fine of €85,000, should a similar incident occur within the next 12 months.
A harsher immediate sanction was not implemented as it was deemed that the failure was of a mechanical nature, meaning that neither the team nor driver was aware of the danger.
Stewards “inspected parts from the wheel retaining system” and “Viewed the incident as very serious and potentially dangerous, because it involved a wheel coming off the car at high speed.”
An “assembly fault involving poor seating of three retaining screws on the retaining plate” was identified as the culprit.
“The stewards are satisfied that the wheel gun operator made no error in fitting the wheel, that the witness line was visible, and that his manual check of the security of the wheel was satisfactory.
“Likewise the stewards are satisfied that neither the team nor the driver had any warning whatsoever that something was amiss, until the incident occurred.
“Therefore it would be unreasonable to infer that the team did not take ‘appropriate action’ to stop the car because it had no way of knowing of the problem.”
It was for this reason that the option of imposing a grid penalty was not taken.
