It is more difficult for a team with a small budget to pay than it is for top teams.

“It’s clear that $1,000 to one man is very different to $1,000 to another man and/or team, so maybe there is an argument that says that the penalty is viewed more harshly by some than by others,” said Graeme Lowdon, a director of the low-budget Marussia team.

“In a driver contract we’ll have a clause that says something along the lines that the driver is responsible, and usually the driver indemnifies the team for any fines that are due to his actions,” he added. “But the driver would not be responsible for something where it is the team’s fault. A good example can be pit-lane speeding. If the driver forgets to press the pit-lane speed limiter, or presses it a little too late — and we can see it on the data — then the driver pays the fine. But if by accident when the controls guys set the limit, if they make a mistake and set the limit too high or too low — if it is a team mistake — we would pick up that one for that.”

The fines for unsafe maneuvers, he said, are usually clear cut and the responsibility of the driver.

Lowdon said he thought the system usually worked well, but he noted that in some cases it was problematic, as with fines for an unsafe release of the car during a pit stop. He worried that some teams might be willing to pay the fine in order to have the advantage — gaining a spot ahead of another car, for example — that a quick but dangerous release of a car might bring.

Nico Hülkenberg, who drives for the Force India team, has the record for pit-lane speeding this year: He was fined €7,200 when he was caught driving at 95.5 kilometers an hour in a 60 k.p.h. zone. Pastor Maldonado, a driver at the Williams team, paid €1,200 for speeding at 66 k.p.h.; at a previous race, he paid €1,400 for going 66.1 k.p.h.

Compared to Grosjean and Vergne, Maldonado got off easy after causing a collision at the British Grand Prix in July: He was fined only €10,000. And Sebastian Vettel, the defending world champion, received only a reprimand for causing a collision at the Canadian Grand Prix in June.

For his error, Grosjean accepted the stewards’ decision, apologized and called it a learning experience.