Sauber driver Esteban Gutierrez will start at Silverstone next month with a 10-point grid penalty, following a dreadful pit stop mistake that saw him move off without a wheel properly attached.
The incident occurred after the first pit stop during the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday, as the team noticed a wheel nut on Gutierrez’s rear right-hand wheel hadn’t been properly fixed.
He was ordered to stop his car in the pit lane and was pulled back by his mechanics, but this also caused teammate Adrian Sutil to stop on the way back onto the track, slowing his time.
Race stewards have now slapped Swiss team Sauber with the penalty for “releasing a car in an unsafe condition during the race”.
“Our work today is not acceptable. Such a mistake at a pit stop must simply not happen,” team chief Monisha Kaltenborn said in a statement after the race.
“We will carefully look into our procedures and the consequences, and we will take appropriate measures,” she vowed.