Ferrari were fined €50,000 for releasing Kimi Raikkonen’s car in an unsafe manner during the Bahrain Grand Prix, which resulted in the Finn inadvertently knocking over and breaking the leg of one of his mechanics.

It marked the third race in the last four seasons in which Raikkonen has retired due to unsafe release, and the second time over the weekend that Ferrari suffered such a problem, with the 2007 world champion also forced to stop in second practice in Sakhir with a loose wheel.

And it came after Haas, who use the same rear-wheel components as Ferrari through their technical partnership with the Italian outfit, suffered two unsafe releases during the Australian race, which cost them 22 points.

“It’s looking like less and less like a coincidence but the two incidences in Melbourne were quite clearly wheelgun operator error,” said Whiting. “They cross threaded the nuts and thought it was tight, came off and then realised a little too late it wasn’t.

“[With the incident in Bahrain], the guy hadn’t even taken the wheel off, which is slightly perplexing.”