Because Juan Pablo Montoya’s daughter Paulina was wearing a white dress, her brother Sebastian’s Formula 2 team was fined
Because the daughter of former Formula One driver Juan Pablo Montoya wore a dress, the Formula 2 team Prema has been fined 500 euros. This is because, with her outfit, Paulina Montoya breached the FIA’s dress code during a session.
Article 22.15 of the Formula 2 Sporting Regulations stipulates that all team and technical staff must wear long trousers in the pit lane during all sessions. However, the Colombian was seen standing next to her brother Sebastian’s car in a short white dress during qualifying.
As a result, her Prema team was summoned to appear before the stewards. There, they argued that Paulina Montoya was a guest of the team and not an operational member.
However, the stewards referred to the Event Notes for Madrid published prior to the weekend, in which point 11.1 states that all guests fall under the definition of ‘Participants’ as set out in Article 20 of the International Sporting Code. And that states that participants are all persons who have access to restricted areas – such as the pit lane.
This means that Paulina Montoya must also comply with the regulations – which she did not do by wearing the white dress. As Prema, as a team, is responsible for the actions of all persons to whom it grants access to the restricted area, the team was fined 500 euros.
However, Juan Pablo Montoya’s daughter, who was actually celebrating her birthday that day, took the matter in her stride and posted photos on her Instagram account on Saturday showing her wearing long white trousers, with the caption: “Appropriate attire”.
This is not the first time a guest has caused trouble for a Formula 2 team this year: In Belgium, Noel Leon was even removed from the main race results because one of his guests had been wearing the wrong headset.
As it had a microphone, the guest was counted as a member of the operational team, meaning Campos had exceeded the permitted limit of twelve staff members involved in running the car.
