After wheelnut issues caused lengthy stops for Valtteri Bottas in Bahrain and Zhou Guanyu in Jeddah, the team made what it called “containment” modifications for Melbourne, with the aim of reducing the risk of further issues.
However in Melbourne Bottas suffered another problem that cost him 28 seconds and robbed him of a shot at scoring points, as he was running ahead of both Haas drivers at the time.
On this occasion the wheelnut popped out of the gun and rolled into the fast lane and thus potentially into the path of other cars, which led to a report to the FIA stewards on safety grounds.
After investigating the matter they decreed that “the team lost control of a wheelnut during a pitstop causing a potentially dangerous condition in the pitlane during the race,” and imposed the fine.
Although this hadn’t occurred on the previous occasions Sauber racing director Xevi Pujolar denied that the lost wheelnut was a result of the changes the team has made since Jeddah.
“It shouldn't have happened, but we didn't do any modification that is causing that,” he said when asked by Autosport about the latest incident. “What we saw in the free practice and pitstop practice we were reasonably confident that actually today it should be OK.”
Source: Autosport