The phrasing of official communications from the FIA’s stewards tends to be deliberately dry and factual, but a note of schoolmasterish anger was manifest in the document announcing and explaining a €30,000 fine for Racing Bulls after Liam Lawson’s breakdown forced Formula 1 practice to be red-flagged in Canada.

Lawson’s car halted with a hydraulic problem within 10 minutes of the sole practice session for this sprint weekend getting under way, but the marshals were unable to move it.

That in itself presents a problem at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, an older venue that doesn’t have the space to accommodate the perimeter roads expected of newer tracks, complicating the task of removing stricken cars.

Even so, since all cars must be fitted with a so-called Clutch Disengagement System (CDS), which acts even if the onboard hydraulics and electrics have failed, it should have been possible for the marshals to push the VCARB 03 into one of the gaps in the barriers while covered by a virtual safety car (VSC) deployment. Instead, the session had to be red-flagged, and race control added five minutes to the end of the session to compensate.

For breaching Article C9.3 of the FIA F1 Regulations, Racing Bulls was fined €30,000, €20,000 of which was suspended for 12 months “subject to no further breach of this regulation by the competitor, for either of their cars”. This brings an element of peril for the team, since it has emerged that FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer has previously warned Racing Bulls about its CDS design, which is unusual in that it also services the car’s anti-stall system.

Article C9.3 states: “All cars must be fitted with a means of disengaging the clutch for a minimum of 15 minutes in the event of the car coming to rest with the engine stopped. This system must be in working order throughout the competition even if the main hydraulic, pneumatic or electrical systems on the car have failed.”

Liam Lawson stopped on track in the sole practice session for the Canadian GP

The system is activated by a button that must be clearly marked, and located facing upwards on the monocoque so it can be reached and activated within five seconds by the driver or marshals. As reported in the stewards’ findings, in this case the marshal who initially tried to activate the CDS was trying to press a button in the wrong place.

But this had no bearing on the outcome, because the system had failed anyway – and this is what clearly annoyed the stewards. Not only did the dual function design prevent the car from being moved, disrupting the business on track, it created a further safety hazard in that the CDS is also supposed to shut off the car’s electrical energy recovery system.

“It was noted that the system on this car performs two roles,” said the stewards’ statement.

“The one for which is it primarily intended, namely to release the clutch when the car is stopped and the engine is not working, and the other relates to the anti-stall system. In this case, a ruptured joint caused a hydraulic leak, which caused the car to stop.

“The CDS, when activated by the marshal, then failed to release the clutch and hence the car could not be moved.

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls

“This is a serious matter. It resulted in the session being red-flagged.

“Had the system worked as intended by the regulations, the incident could have been dealt with swiftly via deployment of the virtual safety car.

“The stewards note the concern of the FIA technical delegate, over the dual purpose of the CDS on this car. The technical delegate advised that the team had, in 2025, been warned about the CDS system design for its cars.”

Making a single component perform more than one role is a solid engineering principle but in this case, it resulted in an expensive fine and a verbal slap on the wrist from the stewards. The wording of the regulations doesn’t explicitly forbid the CDS being used for more than one purpose, but it’s understood the technical delegate’s concern related to the additional complication making failures more likely.

The choice facing the team now is whether to redesign the system – if possible, given its integration into the anti-stall mechanism – or take the risk of it happening again.

F1 Canadian GP: George Russell defeats Kimi Antonelli to Canada F1 sprint pole

Red Bull F1 team boss: "No intention behind" Jos Verstappen and Toto Wolff public meeting

F1 exploring shorter races to unlock 2027 engine changes

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.

Following the significant progress made in Miami, the opening day of the race weekend in Canada proved more challenging for Red Bull. Max Verstappen had to settle for seventh place in sprint qualifying, just ahead of team-mate Isack Hadjar.

During the second segment of sprint qualifying, Verstappen had already complained over the team radio and returned to the pitlane early, despite sitting in the danger zone in ninth place at the time.

A seventh-place starting position for the third sprint race of the season is not what Verstappen was looking for, although based on his feeling behind the wheel he had not expected anything different.

“I'm not surprised. I mean, my feeling in the car was not very good. I was struggling a lot with just the ride of the car,” Verstappen said after sprint qualifying.

“So, all over the bumps, I couldn't put my foot down. Actually, my feet were even flying off the pedals. It just made it very difficult to be consistent and that's something that we need to investigate.”

Attacking the kerbs is traditionally a key factor at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and according to Verstappen that is precisely where he is currently losing a significant amount of lap time.

“That was not great. So, of course, we are stuck with that for the sprint, but yeah, some other things to understand and hopefully that will be done a bit better for qualifying.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Parc fermé will be opened once more before the main qualifying session, meaning Red Bull can theoretically still turn its weekend around. According to technical director Pierre Waché, the team at least has some ideas about what needs to improve.

“We saw a direction to go in, but putting the tyre where we want it to be was quite difficult. Sprint qualifying didn't go as we had hoped. We had an issue with Max where car performance deteriorated as the session went on, so we need to understand that.

“I think we had more performance available to us, but we just weren't able to extract it today.”

Pirelli has indicated that the Montreal circuit offered very little grip on Friday and that drivers found it difficult to get the tyres up to temperature, which also explains why almost everyone completed two flying laps on the softs in SQ3.

For Red Bull, the focus is on two things: getting the tyres into a better operating window on Saturday and solving the ride issues so Verstappen and Hadjar can push closer to the limit.

Fernando Alonso explains Canadian GP sprint qualifying crash

Red Bull F1 team boss: "No intention behind" Jos Verstappen and Toto Wolff public meeting

Here’s the starting grid for F1’s 2026 Canadian Grand Prix sprint race

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.

Audi’s Formula 1 power unit has been described as “where we can gain the most” by its driver Gabriel Bortoleto, with team-mate Nico Hulkenberg in agreement.

Audi has taken over the Sauber outfit amid F1’s 2026 regulatory overhaul, designing and producing its first-ever power unit, but has suffered from a lack of performance and reliability and failed to score any points in the last three rounds.

Although the R26 is consistently flirting with Q3 – the team’s lead driver has never qualified below 11th in the six qualifying sessions thus far – race results have not been forthcoming due to the engine lacking power and numerous reliability niggles.

Asked about how the Audi struggles to overtake slower cars, Hulkenberg explained: “It's a combination of things. Our driveability is definitely a topic. It's something that we have a lot of room for improvement since the beginning of the year. We're working on it, but it's a longer-term subject. There's no easy fixes for that, really.

“It's interconnecting many things that have to work together in harmony for it to be good. Power, definitely. We're not the most powerful power unit out there. We definitely have a deficit on that, we know that. So it's a combination of things which then can leave you quite exposed in certain conditions.”

“I think it comes a bit from the driveability,” Bortoleto concurred. “But realistically we are suffering a bit with our engine right now, engine power. We are behind.

“Our car, our chassis looks in a good place. But with the engine, in my point of view we have done an amazing job to start a project with what we have, but when we are competing against other teams right now, we can see the lack of power a little bit.

Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi F1 Team

“And sometimes it's just difficult, because it feels like we are always chasing, chasing on the straights, trying to save energy here until we're taking the next one. And that has not been the case.”

Asked if this was purely linked to the V6’s power or also harvesting efficiency, the Brazilian added: “I think it's a bit of everything. There is not really one thing that stands out as a big problem. We just lack power. That's realistically what we are facing right now. It's clear when you look at data – public data that we have available as well – it's just what we are going through. I think there are many small areas here and there that make a big difference at the end of the lap.”

Albeit fast in qualifying, Audi had the second-slowest car in the Miami race with 319km/h recorded at the speed trap, leading only Cadillac on 318.5km/h and noticeably down on Mercedes’ 334.1km/h.

Throughout the Floridan weekend, the team’s struggles were compounded by Hulkenberg’s car catching fire due to a leak, Bortoleto being disqualified from the sprint due to a spike in air pressure, a braking problem for the Brazilian and an “overheating” issue on the German’s machine.

Audi’s nightmare Miami F1 weekend: ‘Every single problem was different’

Previously, both drivers failed to start a grand prix each in Australia and China, again due to technical problems. Hence reliability being a priority, Hulkenberg said.

“A big focus on it, obviously, with Miami really difficult and tough in that respect,” he commented.

“On the power unit side, we are still a new team in history. Before last year, in the last 20 years, it's always been a customer team, never really had to take care of that side. Now, obviously, we do all in-house. It's very complex machinery and we're at the beginning. We're at the start still, but there has been a big focus on that, a big push to get on top of these things for now onwards. But it's going to be a work in progress. We just need to work through the problems.”

What will F1’s switch to a 60-40 power split bring? Here’s the drivers’ verdict

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.