A Formula 1 team felt the pain of a million photographers before them after it forgot to insert an SD card into a camera resulting in a $54,000 (€50,000) fine.
Williams Racing failed to provide an SD card to Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA, which it was supposed to do so that the FIA could monitor how flexible the bodywork of the Williams car is.
The mistake will be familiar to many a photographer. Williams had the camera set up and ready to go, the team pressed record and presumed all systems were go. There was just one problem: Williams hadn’t inserted an SD card.
“The reason for the failure was apparently the team’s belief that the cameras would come fitted with SD cards supplied by the FIA. They did not check if they did,” the stewards of the Chinese Grand Prix says in a statement.
“They apparently relied on an email from the FIA Technical Delegate to one team member that suggested that the teams could supply their own SD cards. The team claimed that they assumed that the cameras that they installed on their cars were fitted with the SD card supplied by the FIA.”
The incident took place during Free Practice One (FP1); the first racing session of the weekend. Williams noticed a red flashing light on the cameras and, confused as to what it was, reported it to the stewards.
“However, they did not know what the flashing light meant and, in any event, it was too late to fit the SD card(s) by then,” the stewards say.
“When the absence of the SD cards was discovered after the session, the team did not report the fact of their failure to install the SD cards to the Technical Delegate.”
For its part, Williams says it was a “miscommunication” between the team and the FIA.
“We had concerns over the cameras not working in FP1, and as a result were in dialogue with the FIA throughout the session,” the team says.
“Following the session, the FIA and ourselves have reviewed all procedures, and we can confirm that the failure to provide footage in the allotted time was down to a miscommunication, and internal processes will be addressed as a result so that this does not reoccur.”
The Race reports that the stewards don’t believe Williams was trying to get away with a breach of regulations, they acknowledge that the team had just made the classic error of not checking the SD card.
The Pain of Forgetting Your SD Card
Most photographers know the sinking feeling of forgetting to insert an SD card only too well.
From personal experience, I once drove 100 miles to a photo job with all of my camera gear only to realize upon arriving at the location that I had forgotten my SD card.
In an embarrassing admission to the portrait sitter and my photo editor, I then had to drive another 40-mile round trip to collect an emergency memory card.
Image credits: Header photo partly licensed via Depositphotos.
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