Williams have been summoned to the Chinese Grand Prix stewards, after breaching a technical directive following the conclusion of Free Practice 1.
A hearing has been scheduled for Saturday morning, where it will be decided if Williams are to receive a punishment for the violation.
The Oxfordshire based team were referred to the stewards by F1 technical delegate Jo Bauer, but despite some of the reaction online, as of yet there is nothing to suggest any technical regulations have been broken.
In the only practice session of the weekend, Alex Albon finished the hour in P7, but new team mate Carlos Sainz had less success.
The Spaniard struggled with balance problems throughout Friday, and could only manage P15, over 1.6 seconds off the quickest time.
Williams fail to provide camera footage
In Bauer’s report, it stated that Williams had failed to provide camera footage of it’s rear and front wings, within the permitted time limit.
Teams must make the content available within an hour of practice ending, and Williams are yet to give an explanation for their failure to comply.
Formula 1 teams were first required to provide these specific video recordings at last year’s Belgian Grand Prix, as the FIA aimed to clamp down on the ‘flexi-wing’ debacle.
The debate around rear wings has raged on into 2025, with McLaren and Ferrari accused of utilising ‘mini-drs’ during pre season testing.
Ahead of the Chinese GP, the FIA announced that they were introducing stricter rear wing testing, after studying footage at the opening race of the season.
Innocent until proven guilty
Currently, there is no concrete evidence that Williams have breached technical regulations.
Despite a huge amount of uproar online, this could very easily have just been a procedural issue, and it will be quickly explained away on Saturday morning.
It is also unknown whether Williams did eventually provide the footage, as currently the only information we have is that they did not hand it over within the one hour time limit.
Feature Image Credit: Williams Racing
