Ferrari has been told to stop covering their cars’ onboard cameras when in the garage or on the grid. The Italian team has said that the camera was covered in order to keep the camera electronics cool, but other rival teams suggested that it was a tactic to prevent TV cameras from looking at the settings on the car steering wheel.
Ferrari was warned by the FIA to stop the practice ahead of the Italian Grand Prix. Ferrari agreed, although they still used an umbrella to shield the steering wheel from view and keep the camera out of the hot sunlight. Previously, the team had been using a small bag of dry ice that covered the camera when the car was in the garage or sitting on the grid before the race.
Since the FIA already has access to Ferrari’s software, as they do with any team, and are able to confirm that everything is legal, they were not concerned with the team hiding the steering wheel from view. Instead, the FIA insists that FOM (the commercial rights holder of F1) was the reason that the FIA requested Ferrari to stop. FOM was unhappy about how the cameras were being treated and also unhappy footage, that could potentially be used in the TV broadcast, was being concealed.
No other teams have a need to cool the electronics within the camera. This practice was exclusive to Ferrari and no other team did the same thing.
