Explained: Why Red Bull was fined €50,000 after the F1 US GP

Red Bull had a stellar weekend in the United States as both of its cars finished inside the points, along with Max Verstappen winning the 56-lap race. But the race day was not flawless for the Milton Keynes-based team as they were handed a €50,000 fine for a grid incident during the formation lap.

Before the formation lap starts, a 30-second board is displayed for every team member to get off the grid. This ensures that there is no hindrance in the pre-race procedures, and when the cars make their way off the grid, they are rushed to the pit lane via the access gates available on the pit wall.

These access gates are subsequently closed when everyone is back in the pit lane to ready up the grid for the race start. But here, a Red Bull team member re-entered the gate well area near the second grid slot, where Lando Norris' car was supposed to line up.

McLaren is known for putting a guide tape for Norris to optimally line up on the grid due to the lack of visibility inside the cockpit. But, as reported by the BBC, the Red Bull team member had ventured back onto the main straight area and removed this tape from the pit wall, despite marshals stopping the person from doing so.

However, the team's representative claimed to the stewards that the team member was not aware of the efforts of the marshals to stop him from re-entering the gate. Still, this was not a satisfactory response for the stewards, and they fined €50,000 the team, of which €25,000 is suspended if the Austrian giant does not perform a similar breach again in the remainder of the 2025 season.

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How does Red Bull feel about the whole saga with the stewards?

Laurent Mekies at the 2025 F1 Grand Prix of the United States race weekend - Source: Getty

According to some people in the paddock, this was not the first time that Red Bull had tried to remove Lando Norris' guiding tape. If this is the case, the Milton Keynes-based squad is penalized for its actions for the first time.

So, reflecting on the whole ordeal before the stewards had released their verdict, the team principal, Laurent Mekies, told Sky Sports:

"We went to see the video with the FIA. Sure, it's something we can do better in the future, but certainly on our side we do not feel that we have ignored any instructions and we did not get any specific instructions. So I think it's very small things, but nonetheless something we will address in the future."

On the other hand, Max Verstappen's victory has helped him reduce his championship deficit to 40 points to the leader in the drivers' table. With five race weekends left in the 2025 season (of which two are sprint weekends), the gap is closing down at a rate of knots.