Haas have been fined for the unsafe pit releases which put both their cars out of the Australian Grand Prix.
The team was fined €5,000 for each of the two incidents involving its drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean.
In both cases the stewards ruled “the car was released in an unsafe condition in beach of [Article] 28.13.c, that the team ordered the car stopped immediately, and that the driver stopped as fast as he safely could.”
“The first thing is that we had good pace. I thought I could really stick with the big guns earlier on because I was stuck behind Kevin and I had good speed.
“If the car is as good as it was today over 21 races we’re going to forget that one very quickly. If it’s not the case that one’s going to be painful. But anyway we will analyse everything and come back stronger as we always do.”
Magnussen described the double retirement as “heartbreaking.”
“Very tough one to swallow,” he said. “For the whole team with both cars not finishing, in such good positions and so much anticipation coming up to this race and being in such a good position with both cars. It’s just so heartbreaking to finish like that.”
“We’ll get on top again and fight back and do it all again.”
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Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
25th March 2018, 8:46
Its a great shame… They had their best weekend of their F1 history, with both cars in the top 6 for the first half of the race. Very unfortunate
They remind me of Stewart Racing,good car but they could face with any strange misfortute-reliabily issue
UnitedKingdomRacing (@unitedkingdomracing)
25th March 2018, 8:48
As fast as he safely could? That would have been still im the pit lane
Avro Anson (@avroanson)
25th March 2018, 8:52
There seems to be a huge inconsistency here. IIRC Ricciardo got a drive through plus a grid penalty (10 spots?) for a loose wheel a couple of years ago. 5000 euro is nothing to these teams.
One has to wonder how they made the same mistake twice in a matter of minutes.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
25th March 2018, 8:54
yeah, they lost the best positions they could hope for. 5k is nothing indeed.
Sonics (@sonicslv)
25th March 2018, 9:09
@avroanson Most of the time something like this happens it’s human error or the nut error. This looks like something wrong with the air hose to the gun. Very weird indeed.
BasCB (@bascb)
25th March 2018, 20:04
That was my thought too – although it would rather have to be something about installing the rig because it affected the left front gun once and the left rear gun once too, so not just one hose @sonicslv.
RB14
25th March 2018, 19:34
A quick message from the company that provides most of the parts for their car.
Pratyush P (@pratyushp276)
25th March 2018, 8:58
Gutted for Haas, Karun did mention over C4 that Haas had madr quite a few changes to their pit crew over the winter. I guess inexperience in the pits is a dangerous thing.
Also, you have to feel for the mechanics. Agreed, there is no room for such errors in a grand prix, but imagine what the crew is going through.
James (@alebelly)
25th March 2018, 9:05
They’ve got to regroup and simply realize their car is really fast. The devil in the detail
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
25th March 2018, 9:07
No fine for Renault failed drinking system? Listen to Sainz it sound like waterboarding torture.
jovaseq
25th March 2018, 9:28
I am smelling “nut-wheel-gate”…
James
25th March 2018, 18:25
I think you mean “glue”
Davy
25th March 2018, 9:53
5000$ for ruining the race is not enough.
Ajaxn
25th March 2018, 19:35
Makes you wonder why they even bothered to fine the team such a pittance. What is that, the cost of a round of drinks for the pit crew?
What I don’t understand is why the second driver didn’t take the car off the track. ‘Suspension failure’ – it’s not as if the engine had failed or even that the wheel was noticeably loose. This was a pit suspicion that the wheel might not be secure.
How was the driver notified? It seems barely any time had passed after existing the pit lane before he pulled over to park on the track. Unlike his colleague the second driver didn’t even making the effort to park on the grass.
LJD
25th March 2018, 21:00
Ohh stop it, once RG turned the steering wheel for the first corner he must had felt sonething was wrong, in the case of KM it was the rear so he would have felt something wrong in the rear and took hin longer to realize, they just messed up or had some equipment issue, dont imply there is something foul here. Just bad luck
pastaman (@)
25th March 2018, 19:03
So gutted for Haas, it hurts
RB14
25th March 2018, 19:35
Pretty sure Ferrari will be picking up the bill for this one, I wouldn’t feel for them too much.