FIA confirms Cadillac punishment after Colton Herta investigation

The FIA has confirmed a partially suspended €30,000 fine for the Cadillac F1 team after an investigation into Colton Herta’s stoppage in FP1 at the Italian Grand Prix.

The investigation related to a technical non-compliance on Herta’s car, which the American was forced to park in-session due to what Cadillac described as “a suspected hydraulic issue.”

FIA fines Cadillac after Colton Herta Italian GP investigation

Herta returned to the Cadillac MAC-26 for FP1 in Monza. Herta replaced Sergio Perez, for what was his third rookie FP1 outing of the season.

Herta’s race weekend had already suffered a challenging start as he crashed out heavily in his Hitech during the sole F2 practice session. Herta got wide through the second Lesmo, kicked up the gravel, and spun into the wall, smashing up the front and rear of his car.

Herta had to quickly sideline any thoughts of that crash and hop into the Cadillac for FP1. This was another session which came to a premature end.

Herta was told to park the car, as Cadillac detected what it suspected to be a hydraulic issue. Initially, the Virtual Safety Car was triggered, but Herta’s car was stuck in gear and could not be moved behind the barriers by the marshals. Red flag.

Herta was later summoned to see the FIA stewards over an alleged technical non-compliance regarding the Clutch Disengagement System [CDS].

The FIA verdict was a €30,000 fine, €25,000 of which has been suspended for 12 months subject to no further breaches of the rule.

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The stewards’ verdict read: “The Stewards heard from the team Sporting Director and team Head of Reliability, and the FIA Technical Delegate and FIA F1 Electronics Engineer.

“The team presented detailed schematics of how the CDS system was designed and installed.

“The Stewards were satisfied that the system was designed to operate independently of the car’s other systems, as required by the regulations.

“The team demonstrated to the Stewards’ satisfaction, that the system had been checked and tested on the day prior to the commencement of competition.

“However the operation of the CDS when the car’s electronic system is turned off (“P0 mode”) depends on a lithium battery provided by a third party supplier.

“The team was able to demonstrate, again to the Stewards’ satisfaction, that one of the four cells in this battery had failed.

“This in turn caused the CDS to be inoperable and hence when the car came to a halt, it could not be easily pushed from the circuit, resulting in the display of a red flag.

“The team stated that as a result of the incident it would firstly obtain from the battery supplier, information as to the expected maximum battery life, and would instigate daily or pre-session checks, plus a replacement battery programme to ensure the likelihood of future failures was minimized.

“The FIA Regulations state: ‘This system must be in working order throughout the Competition even if the main hydraulic, pneumatic or electrical systems on the car have failed.’

“The Stewards accept that the team has been completely transparent in its disclosures and that the plan outlined above is a reasonable approach.

“However a breach of the regulation has occurred, and although the reason for this can be attributed to the failure of a third party supplied part, overall responsibly for The Stewards compliance still rests with the team and accordingly a penalty is imposed.

“The Stewards note that this is the third reported failure of a CDS this season.

“Again, this failure resulted in a red flag being displayed which had sporting consequences.

“Although in this case the Stewards have decided to impose a monetary penalty, Competitors are advised that because the CDS is a critical component and designed to facilitate the safe and quick removal of a car from the circuit, future failures may incur not only monetary penalties but sporting penalties as well.”

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