 McLaren Escaped Penalty at Monaco Tuesday May 29th, 2001
According to rumours, the FIA had warned the teams they could be penalised if they used their launch control systems without being sure they worked properly, in the hope of not seeing a replay of what happened at Austria two weeks earlier - where four cars were left stranded on the grid - on the tight streets of the Monaco circuit. McLaren, whose cars had stalled three times before Monaco, saw how Coulthard's engine cut off when the lights went off before the formation lap, forcing the Scot to start from the back of the grid. However, according to FIA's president Max Mosley, McLaren had suffered enough and they escaped without being penalised. "I can't imagine what the penalty would be in the circumstances," he told The Times. "I think Ron Dennis has probably suffered enough. It was the responsibility of McLaren to make sure their system worked and the only people who suffered in this case were McLaren." It should be noted that Williams Technical Director, Patrick Head, told Atlas F1 on Saturday that the FIA had not given the teams any guidelines or restrictions, officially or unofficially, with regards to using the launch control system in the Monaco race.
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The McLaren team escaped a penalty from the sport's governing body, the FIA, following David Coulthard's incident at the Monaco Grand Prix last Sunday, when the Scot driver stalled his car before the formation lap of the race.
(03-11-2005): 
