Williams Formula 1 team have released an official statement after they were hit with an FIA punishment for failing to provide rear-wing camera footage at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Flexi wings are the talk of the F1 paddock at present and the FIA is continuing to monitor the issue in China, including by using cameras on cars. However, Williams failed to provide footage of their rear wing after FP1 on Friday.
The British team blamed this on 'miscommunication' within their internal processes, but that has not saved them from being slapped with a €50,000 fine. €40,000 of this was suspended until December 31, 2025.
Williams respond to FIA punishment
Following the news that they would receive punishment for their error, Williams released an official team statement on social media, confirming that they had nothing to hide in terms of wing legality and that it was a genuine error.
"We had concerns over the cameras not working in FP1, and as a result were in dialogue with the FIA throughout the session," the official statement read.
"Following the session, the FIA and ourselves have reviewed all procedures, and we can confirm that the failure to provide footage in the allotted time was down to a miscommunication, and internal processes will be addressed as a result so that this does not reoccur.
"For completeness, we provided all footage as requested in Melbourne with no issue and will continue to support the FIA and provide all required footage in a timely manner going forwards.
"We have no concerns over the legality of our wing. It is the same wing we ran in Melbourne, is fully compliant and we did not have to make any adjustments further to the issuing of the new TD [technical directions]. Yesterday’s issue was procedural, and we are confident that we will provide all future recordings without issue.
"We understand that to ensure fair policing of technical regulations the FIA issued the resulting fine and we thank them for the constructive conversations and measured handling of this matter."