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Williams has been handed a €25,000 fine following a breach in Article 23.5c of the regulations, which states a team must report a change to a part in the car, as the team replaced Lance Stroll's gearbox following FP3 without notifying the FIA.
A statement from F1's governing body read: "It was agreed that the team did not affirmatively inform the FIA Technical Delegate of the change of gearbox that occurred between FP3 and qualifying on car 18."
"The procedure after a gearbox change is a verbal notification of the Technical Delegate or one of his representatives, but this procedure is well known by all competitors, and in the view of the stewards is vital to satisfy the consultation required in the regulation.
"The stewards reviewed video from the team of the gearbox change procedure [and] the team's own press release indicating the gearbox change and expected penalty.
"They reviewed the timing of the change and were completely satisfied that (a) there was no intent by the team not to inform the FIA and (b) there was no long-term benefit to the team and that the omission was entirely due to the pressure of getting the car ready for Q1.
"Nevertheless, a number of the regulations rely on the teams communicating with the FIA, whether in writing or not, and this failed to happen in this case.
"Therefore the stewards determined that a breach of Art 23.5 did occur. The stewards determined that this type of communication is vital to the operation of the events, and therefore viewed the breach as serious."
Stroll will start the race from the back of the grid as he only qualified P19 yesterday, and was handed a five-place grid penalty for the before mentioned gearbox change.
Fergal Walsh
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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