McLaren and Cadillac incur no penalty despite Monaco curfew infringement

According to a statement issued by the FIA stewards, personnel from both teams were within the confines of the circuit a few hours after the parc fermé curfew had taken effect ahead of FP3. The statement added that this was the first of four permitted exceptions available to both McLaren and Cadillac this season, meaning no further action was taken by the FIA.

“This was the first of the four individual exceptions permitted for the McLaren Mastercard F1 Team and the Cadillac Formula 1 Team during the 2026 Formula One Championship season and therefore no action should be taken,” the statement read.

It comes as little surprise that both teams were found to be in breach of curfew, particularly given the difficulties they experienced in second practice. For McLaren, Lando Norris came to a sudden halt on track just after the Nouvelle Chicane and 15 minutes into the session. The reigning world champion appeared to lose power, with the issue largely diagnosed as an electrical problem. The McLaren team were also previously fined for a breach of Article C9.3 of the FIA Formula 1 Technical Regulations

For Cadillac, Friday's running ended when Sergio Perez’s car suffered a dramatic brake problem, with flames visible at the front of the car. The Mexican was forced to stop at the Swimming Pool section, with marshals quickly intervening to extinguish the fire.

The McLaren team have since issued a statement to clarify its curfew infringement in the aftermath of Friday’s running at the Monaco Grand Prix. The Woking-based outfit noted in its statement how the team was forced to carry out extensive work on Lando Norris’s car after his incident in FP2. The team also explained how it carried out extensive checks to comprehensively understand the issue. Hence, it opted to breach curfew and replace a few components of the car.

“Following Lando’s car stopping on track in FP2 yesterday, the team carried out extensive work ahead of FP3 this morning. To investigate and address the issue comprehensively, the team elected to break curfew last night and replace the wiring harness, and also changed the ESME pack within the permitted allocation,” the team statement read.

While Norris had his FP2 running cut short, teammate Oscar Piastri endured a subdued outing and was only quick enough for seventh place, albeit over a second behind the benchmark set by Lewis Hamilton.