Red Bull Racing was penalised at the Circuit of The Americas when a team member re-entered the track following the formation lap, during which time that person attempted to interfere with a piece of tape that McLaren had affixed to pit wall as a grid position marker for Lando Norris.
Ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix, however, Norris has revealed one particularly “amusing” detail: He didn’t even use the tape to position himself on the grid.
Lando Norris: Red Bull on “side quest” in Austin ‘tapegate’ saga
The Red Bull Racing team received a €50,000 fine — half of which is suspended — for a breach of safety procedure ahead of the 2025 United States Grand Prix.
In that instance, a Red Bull team member re-entered the gate well area following the start of the formation lap, giving no response to the marshals who attempted to stop him during the process of closing the gate to bar further access.
It was revealed soon after that the Red Bull team member reached onto an area of the pit wall parallel to Lando Norris‘ second-placed grid slot, where the McLaren team had affixed a piece of tape designed to provide a “backup” for Norris should the driver require additional assistance to position himself in his grid slot.
However, Norris revealed to media, including PlanetF1.com, in Mexico that he hadn’t even needed to utilise the tape marking.
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Asked to comment on the Red Bull tape saga, Norris said, “Good job by them. They can [remove the tape].”
Indeed, the penalty that Red Bull sustained was for a breach of safety protocol: for re-entering the track following the start of the formation lap, not for interfering with the tape.
It was all the same to Norris, though, as he revealed, “I didn’t mind; I didn’t use the tape, so it was extra amusing because I didn’t need it. We just put it there in case.
“[That] made extra funny because they got a penalty for it and didn’t even need it.
“They also tried to remove it and failed, because we made [it] special so they couldn’t take it off even.”
Indeed, McLaren has developed a unique form of tape that is particularly difficult to remove. The reason for that is because, as Norris revealed, Red Bull has been removing this tape for some time.
“They tried to remove it already in I think Monza and a couple other places, so that’s why we made it like the F1 passes that you can never get out of the window, ever,” the driver said, referring to the parking passes affixed to the windows of vehicles that allow certain cars access to the paddock and car parks around the track on a grand prix weekend.
“It was amusing to kind of try and see them taking it off and it not going to plan.
“I’ll continue to use it. Sometimes I never use it at all because it’s almost too far away. Sometimes I do.
“But 95 per cent of the races now I use the line on the grid, so I think that’s why it was even better.”
Ultimately, Norris concluded that the incident was “just amusing.
“Little side quests, I guess, for the teams to entertain themselves.
“But yeah, we were the ones laughing about it.”
Multiple drivers addressed the situation — which has become colloquially referred to as “tapegate” — throughout the duration of Mexico City’s media day, including Max Verstappen.
Speaking of the on-track markers that allow drivers to situate themselves on the grid, Verstappen said, “Well, you see there’s a yellow line right the in the grid box. You look at that one so you just park your car. Doesn’t matter where you start, really.
“But, yeah, some people have other practices, and I get that.
“And also it took a bit longer for whatever reason that, yeah, the gate closed. If he was instructed or not in the right way to stay out of it; I think it’s quite clear how they explained it, the stewards.
“So I think that is quite understandable then you get fined for that, and it doesn’t even have anything to do with with the tape.
“You can’t hold up the procedure of closing the gate.”
The FIA stewards’ verdict did not mention the tape, as it was not consequential to the application of the penalty.
The stewards’ report read: “A team member re-entered the gate well area at Gate 1 in proximity of the second grid position after the formation lap had commenced and at the moment the pit marshals started to close the gate.
“According to the report from the pit marshals the team member did not appear to react to their efforts to prevent him from entering the gate well area.
“The team representative stated during the hearing that the team member informed him that he was not aware of the efforts of the marshals to stop him.
“However, the Stewards determine that any person affiliated to a team or other stakeholders should be aware that entering the track or hindering the safety measures to prepare the track for the race after the grid has been cleared is absolutely prohibited.
“Thus, irrespective of whether or not the instructions of the relevant officials have been realized by the person concerned, hindering or delaying the process of closing the gates before the race start must be considered as an unsafe act and therefore a significant penalty to the team is warranted.
“In order to prevent any reoccurrence, a portion of the financial penalty is suspended.”
Red Bull Racing team principal Laurent Mekies told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets, “We fully respect the stewards.
“It was felt that some time during the grid procedures, one of our guys had not followed the officials or some marshal instructions.
“We spoke with our people. They are very positive that they have followed marshal instructions at all times, so I think it’s probably a misunderstanding there.
“For 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 instruction – we did not get any specific instructions.”
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