An unusual error during Q3 of the Australian Grand Prix cost Mercedes a fine. A cooling fan remained attached to Kimi Antonelli’s car as he left the pits.
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Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix provided a moment that was unusual, to say the least, in the pit lane. The Mercedes team was penalized by the stewards after releasing Kimi Antonelli’s car… with a cooling fan still attached to the car.
The incident occurred during Q3, the decisive phase of the qualifying session held on the Albert Park circuit. As Antonelli left his garage to join the track, a fan used to cool the car’s systems was still attached to the duct located on the right side.
When the car approached the first corner, the equipment detached under the effect of speed and vibrations.
Debris projected onto the track
The fan then broke into several pieces. One part bounced off the track toward the gravel at the exit of the corner, while another element ended up on the racing line at the next corner.
This second fragment was hit by the McLaren of Lando Norris. The impact shattered the piece into a multitude of debris, which scattered across the track.
The incident caused damage to the front wing of Norris’s car and forced race control to interrupt the session to clean the track.
In their report, the stewards stated: “Car 12 left the garage with a cooling fan still attached to the right side. The assembly detached at Turn 1, broke apart, and some elements ended up on the track.”
A specific context for the team
Mercedes explained that this oversight was linked to the exceptional circumstances of the weekend. Earlier in the day, Antonelli had been involved in a major accident during the final free practice, which heavily damaged his car.
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The mechanics had to carry out a major repair in a very short time to allow the young Italian to participate in qualifying.
Usually, each fan is installed and removed by a specific team member. But due to the workload related to rebuilding the car, the usual organization was modified.
“The team member in charge of this fan was busy with another task related to urgent repairs, which led to the oversight of not removing it before the car left.”
Mercedes also indicated that neither the team nor the driver had realized that the equipment was still in place before race control reported the problem.
A fine of 7.500 euros
The stewards ultimately considered that the car had been released in dangerous conditions. However, they took into account the specific context the team was in after the previous accident.
After examining all the circumstances, they imposed a financial penalty of 7.500 euros on the Mercedes team.
Despite this mishap, Mercedes still dominated qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, which makes this incident as spectacular as it is unusual in a weekend that had been perfectly managed by the German team until then.
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