Spielberg, Austria: Austrian Grand Prix winner Charles Leclerc along with fellow podium finishers Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have each been handed suspended €10,000 fines for breaching ‘parc ferme’ rules following the conclusion of Sunday’s race at the Red Bull Ring.
The fines were issued after Leclerc, Verstappen and Hamilton’s driver assistants were judged to have entered parc ferme “in violation of the procedure that was published prior to the race” — with the trio’s fines suspended for the remainder of the 2022 season.
Entering without permission
“The stewards received a report from the Media Delegate, which was subsequently confirmed by video evidence, that the physio/drivers’ assistants of the top three finishers entered parc ferme without permission and in violation of the procedure that was published prior to the race ‘for the orderly conduct of the event’,” wrote the stewards in the three reports issued to the drivers.
“In part, this is to prevent handing over of items to the drivers prior to them being weighed. The competitor is fined €10,000, which will be suspended for the remainder of the season pending any further violation of the procedure, and the competitors are warned that the passes of the individuals concerned may be revoked in case of systemic violation.”
The term parc ferme, which is a French phrase and that translates literally as ‘closed park’, traditionally refers to a secure area at a circuit where cars are checked over by scrutineers for legality and safety.
