F1 News
FIA can thank Verstappen for money: fines doubled in 2021
- GPblog.com
The FIA has shown over the past Formula 1 season that you can't get through a whole year without plenty of penalties and fines. The figures from Auto, Motor und Sport show how many penalties and fines were handed out in 2021.
The race committee had to intervene 96 times. That seems a lot, but it is about the same as last season. Looking at the calendar that means 4.3 times per Grand Prix on average. The only race where there were no problems was the United States Grand Prix. The most penalties were handed out in Austria as the race committee had to take action 13 times.
Max Verstappen thought the amount of penalties given after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was funny, but he has fared rather well this season compared to other drivers. The Dutchman was only given four penalties by the stewards. Kimi Raikkonen was handed the most with 11, Sebastian Vettel had 10 and Sergio Perez had nine. There is only one driver who did not receive any penalties, and that was rookie Mick Schumacher.
Fines
The amount of infringements may have been the same, but the FIA has made a lot more money this season. A total of 113,400 euros was collected, 50,000 of which came solely from the teams. That's double compared to 2020, because then it was only 58,200 euros. The FIA can especially thank Verstappen for the large sum of money, because he had to pay 50,000 euros after touching the rear wing of Mercedes during the Brazilian Grand Prix.