Red Bull have been fined £43,000 after a member of the team broke regulations in an act of gamesmanship at the US Grand Prix, when attempting to remove a piece of tape from the pit wall placed there by McLaren to aid their driver Lando Norris in lining up correctly on the grid.
The tapegate incident was an unusual example of low-level skullduggery between teams as Red Bull were caught out by CCTV cameras trackside and the race stewards issued the fine for events which took place just before the off.
Norris was lined up in second place behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen on the grid at Austin, where Verstappen went on to win. Some teams will use a piece of tape attached vertically to the trackside pit wall as a marking indicator for drivers of their grid box.
With visibility from the car very limited, especially of the markings on the grid itself, it is a visual aid for the driver to ensure they are positioned correctly for the start. Notably in Bahrain this season Norris placed his car just ahead of his grid slot and was given a five-second penalty.
There is nothing in the regulations against a team using duct tape in this fashion but equally there is nothing preventing other teams from removing it. In this case however the employee in question had entered what is known as the “gate well area” after the formation lap had begun in an effort to remove the tape, against the instructions of the marshals there. Entering this area when it has been cleared for the start is considered an “unsafe act” and carries a hefty fine.
The FIA stewards report stated that a team representative from Red Bull at the subsequent investigation stated that the team member “was not aware of the efforts of the marshals to stop him”.
The Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies’ post-race press conference was delayed in Austin as he attended the FIA hearing and he later described the incident as a “misunderstanding”.
It is understood this is not the first time Red Bull have attempted to tamper with McLaren’s grid-side markers and the latter looked into a new way of using it at Austin.
