Force India hit with big fine following Perez wheel loss

Force India has been held accountable by the FIA and will pay up for the wheel loss suffered by Sergio Perez in yesterday's second practice session.

The governing body has handed a €15,000 fine to the Silverstone-based outfit to which a hefty €85,000 suspended fine has been added.

The mishap occurred as Perez was traveling at high speed, a fact that intrigued FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer, who initially suggested that debris had perhaps prevented the wheel from sitting properly on the hub and led to the failure.

However, the FIA stewards' final report concluded that a retaining bolt problem had led to the wheel loss.

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"The problem was not caused by incorrect or incomplete fitment of the wheel but rather by an assembly fault involving poor seating of three retaining screws on the retaining plate," stated the official report.

Given that the team was unable to take the appropriate action to stop the car given the sudden nature of the failure, the FIA showed relative leniency towards Force India.

"Accordingly and consistent with previous decisions this year, the Stewards decided that the grid place penalty that “may” be imposed under the above article, would not be applied.

"However, it is noted that this is the third incident of this nature involving the team in the past two years and the second this year, and hence the usual penalty has been significantly increased.

"This fine represents the view of the Stewards that the team needs to investigate its assembly and quality control procedures to ensure this type of potentially dangerous incident does not occur again, and believes the penalty is suitable and will also act as a deterrent in the future."

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