F1 drivers stunned by threat of million-euro fines

Formula One drivers expressed shock and amazement on Thursday after the sport's governing body quadrupled the amount stewards can fine them to a maximum of €1 million (AED 3.8 million).

The change to the International Sporting Code (ISC) was approved at a meeting of the FIA's World Motor Sport Council in Geneva.

It said the previous maximum of €250,000 had not been reviewed or amended for at least the last 12 years "and does not reflect the current needs of motor sport".

Mercedes' George Russell, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA), said the new maximum "seems obscene".

"In my first year of Formula One (at Williams), I was on a five-figure salary and actually lost over six figures from paying for my trainer, paying for flights, paying for an assistant," he told reporters at the US Grand Prix.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc said he had no idea what might deserve a $1 million penalty and Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, whose team have one of the smallest budgets, said it sounded ridiculous.

"Charles can give his watch but I would disappear, never to be found again," added the Dane.

Leclerc had an exclusive Richard Mille watch, which reports valued at more than $2 million, stolen off his wrist in Italy last year.