Driver fined by FIA stewards even before FP1 at the Belgian GP

Esteban Ocon has started his Belgian Grand Prix weekend with a €5,000 fine after being summoned for arriving late to Thursday’s FIA driver press conference.

Ocon was scheduled to join Max Verstappen and Alex Albon on the couch, but when the session began there was no sign of the Haas driver.

Haas driver summoned after late FIA press conference

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Arriving late, the driver was summoned to the stewards on Friday morning

“The driver and team representative are required to report to the Stewards at 12:00 Friday July 17 2026, in relation to the incident below,” read the note.

“Alleged breach of Article B10.1.1.a of the FIA F1 Regulations – Late attendance of the Thursday Press Conference.”

It’s a summons that Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris both faces in Monaco where they picked up fines of €5000 each, suspended for 12 months pending no further offences of this nature.

Ocon was deemed to be a minute late as he underestimated the time that it would take him to get to the press conference room.

As with Leclerc and Norris, he was given a €5,000 fine, suspended for 12 months.

“Car 31 was scheduled to attend the FIA Drivers’ Press Conference at 14:30 as published in the official FIA Media Schedule but arrived approximately one minute late.

“The Driver explained that he was unexpectedly briefly delayed when rushing from a team meeting to get to the Press Conference and underestimated the time it would take to get there.

“He acknowledged that he was late but only missed part of the introduction and was present for all questions from media representatives.

“The team representative apologised and committed to ensuring the team’s schedule would in future allow sufficient time for the drivers to get to media commitments on schedule.

“The Stewards note that attendance at FIA press activities is an important part of the Championship and that drivers are required to comply with the published timetable unless prevented by exceptional circumstances.

“The Stewards took into account the driver’s explanation and, while not considering they were exceptional, nonetheless accepted they were mitigatory.

“Consistent with previous infringements of a similar nature, the Stewards determined to impose a fine.

“Noting that in accordance with Article 9.15.1 of the FIA International Sporting Code, the Competitor is responsible for the actions of its driver, the fine is imposed on the Competitor.

“As this is the Competitor’s first infringement of this type this season, and taking into account the driver’s explanation, the fine is suspended for a period of 12 months subject to there being no further breach of a similar nature.”

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Ocon joined the press conference, answering questions after Verstappen and Albon.

After a spate of Grands Prix outside of the points, he revealed the team is hoping to bounce back at Spa.

“It’s been a tough couple of races as a team,” he said.

“Of course, we are chasing a bit of performance at the moment. We do have a little bit of new stuff coming this weekend as well. We need to find more performance.

“I think we extracted the maximum out of the car in Silverstone, which was quite positive, but of course it was not quite enough. After the start from even quite far back in the order, I went up to P11 and we could not hold the pace of the other midfield cars.

“This is what we need to work on. We know that, and we’re all focused on doing that, hopefully here or later when more parts come on the car.”

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