SILVERSTONE -- Toro Rosso has been called in front of the stewards at the British Grand Prix after presenting Carlos Sainz's car for scrutineering in an unsafe condition.
All Formula One cars have to pass scrutineering ahead of each grand prix weekend to ensure they comply with the regulations and are safe for competition. On Thursday, the scrutineers found that a wheel tether on Sainz's car was damaged, but when Toro Rosso was made aware of the issue the team failed to fix it properly.
"During initial scrutineering car number 55 was found to have a damaged wheel tether," FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer wrote in his report to the stewards. "The scrutineers made the team Scuderia Toro Rosso aware of this and asked the team to replace it.
"The team refused to follow the instructions of the scrutineers and therefore the technical delegate checked the damaged tether himself and found that the tether was not only damaged but also several cut fibres were knotted together.
"Therefore the team was aware of the damaged tether and presented the car in an unsafe condition for scrutineering."
Toro Rosso was alleged to be in breach of Article 3.3 of the Sporting Regulations, which states that cars presented for scrutineering will be deemed to be "in an implicit statement of conformity", and Article 12.1.1.b of the FIA International Sporting Code, which states a team will be in breach of the regulations if it enters a car into a competition knowing it is ineligible under the regulations.
Wheel tethers are an essential part of safety in Formula One and are designed to prevent wheels flying off a car in the event of an accident. They are made of ultra-strong fibres and sit within the wishbones of the suspension system to connect the wheel hubs to the chassis. They have proved to be extremely effective in recent years and have been made stronger by regulation since their introduction in 1998.