While his Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel won the Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix over the weekend, Kimi Räikkönen’s race turned nightmarish just over halfway in. A mishap during pit stops led Räikkönen to snap one of his mechanic’s legs, and F1 handed the team a huge fine for it.
The mishap will cost Ferrari 50,000 euros in fines from F1, or about $62,000 at current exchange rates. F1 announced the fines on Sunday, saying officials ruled that Ferrari released the race car “in a manner endangering team personnel and causing injury.” For an idea of how much that fine is, stewards gave Haas two 5,000-euro fines in Australia for unsafe pit releases, and Max Verstappen faced a 25,000-euro fine for missing mandatory press duties last season.
Räikkönen said he didn’t know much about how or why he was released early, and that his job “is to go when the light changes green.” That signaling light is the only thing a driver looks at in the pits, he said.
When the light changed early during his pit stop around lap 36, Räikkönen sure did go—right over mechanic Francesco Cigarini’s leg, which snapped as the car took off over it. Motorsport.com reports the light is automatic and changes when four new tires are on the car, but only three were on when it changed this time. Räikkönen had to stop soon after because F1 rules don’t allow for mismatched tires, according to Motorsport.com.
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Video of the incident is graphic, but can be seen here:
TheIndependent reports that Cigarini went to a hospital near the race track after the pit stop on Sunday with a fractured tibia and fibula. Cigarini posted a photo on Instagram after his surgery, saying he was alright and thanking everyone for being concerned about what happened.
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After Räikkönen’s original, indifferent response to Cigarini’s injuries didn’t go over well with a lot of viewers, he released a longer statement and responded to the photo to say “Get well soon mate!”
Ferrari and the FIA are investigating the pit stop, according to Motorsport.com and the BBC, with Ferrari looking into what triggered its light to turn green and tell Räikkönen to go. The BBC reported early on Monday that Ferrari hasn’t said anything yet, since it’s waiting for the FIA to finish its investigation first.
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