(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-09-07 12:44

MONZA, Italy - Formula One leaders McLaren, already beset by a spying controversy, were fined $50,000 on Thursday for using a gearbox that had not passed a crash test.

Driver Fernando Alonso drives into the pits in Istanbul in August 2007. The McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team has been fined 50,000 dollars by motor sport's ruling body (FIA) for failing to crash test a new gear box prior to Fernando Alonso's victory in Hungary. [AP]

Stewards met at the Italian Grand Prix to consider the infringement committed at last month's troubled Hungarian race.

McLaren were barred from scoring constructors' points in Budapest after their double world champion Fernando Alonso impeded his team mate and overall leader Lewis Hamilton in qualifying. That sanction is under appeal.

After hearing from McLaren's engineering director Paddy Lowe and team manager Dave Ryan in Monza, the stewards ruled that the Mercedes-powered team had broken the rules.

They said McLaren had informed race director Charlie Whiting on the Thursday before the race in Budapest that they had installed a 'lightweight gearbox' in their cars.

The statement said McLaren were of the opinion, based on their own computer models, that the modifications to the original gearbox were not significant enough to warrant a re-test.

However the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) disagreed.

The stewards said McLaren had "deprived the FIA of the opportunity before the race to consider the changes made and require impact testing to be carried out before use.

"Had such information been imparted in due time the tests could have been satisfactorily completed prior to the Hungarian Grand Prix, such that their use at this event would have been without criticism."

The stewards censured McLaren, while noting that the team had reverted to their old gearbox in the next race in Turkey before the lightweight version passed an impact test.

"The view of the stewards is that the components having been satisfactorily tested indicate that the cars complied with the technical configuration required when they raced in Hungary," the statement said.