This weekend, FIA technical directive TD034L required teams to install video cameras on their cars to monitor the flexibility of the wing elements. The video cameras must be equipped with an SD card, which must then be submitted to the FIA.
“Teams are responsible for ensuring that cameras are equipped with a formatted (FAT32 or exFAT format) and empty SD card at least 10 minutes prior to the start
any session during which cameras are installed,” the technical directive said.
The Williams cars had no memory cards in the cameras and were not recording. The team believed that the cards would have to be submitted and installed by the FIA. Halfway through the session they noticed a red light flashing on the cameras and reported it to the technical delegate, but they did not know what the flashing light meant and in any case it was too late to install SD cards by then.
When the missing SD cards were discovered after the end of the session, the team failed to report the matter to the technical delegate. The FIA deemed the team had failed to comply with a technical directive and fined Williams €50,000, of which €40,000 will be deferred until 31 December 2025 – provided the team does not commit a similar offence.
The Williams team released a separate statement explaining what happened:
“We had concerns that the cameras were not working during practice, which led to us engaging in dialogue with the FIA during the session and also reviewing all the procedures ourselves.
And we can state that the failure, due to which we were unable to provide video recordings on time, which occurred due to miscommunication and internal processes, will definitely be looked into in order to avoid its repetition…
We have no doubts about the legality of our wing, it is the same wing that was used in Melbourne. It fully complies with the technical regulations, we have not made any changes to them…”
Source