Mercedes 'dummy' pit stop:

[CNR]

how are Mercedes still getting away with'dummy' pit stops ?
https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/33461454 this is from 2015 and they did it 2 times in the last race
Formula 1 teams are to be warned they face penalties if they repeat the "dummy" pit stop used by Mercedes during the British Grand Prix.

But teams are to be reminded the practice is against the rules and they could face sanctions in future. Charlie Whiting, the F1 race director for governing body the FIA, said he had "no intention of giving them chances".

It is not clear what punishments could be meted out, but it would be likely to be some form of time penalty during the race.

[The Black Knight]

how are Mercedes still getting away with'dummy' pit stops ?
https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/33461454 this is from 2015 and they did it 2 times in the last race
Formula 1 teams are to be warned they face penalties if they repeat the "dummy" pit stop used by Mercedes during the British Grand Prix.

But teams are to be reminded the practice is against the rules and they could face sanctions in future. Charlie Whiting, the F1 race director for governing body the FIA, said he had "no intention of giving them chances".

It is not clear what punishments could be meted out, but it would be likely to be some form of time penalty during the race.

It’s always seemed like one of those pointless rules to me. How do you prove it was a dummy? The team are entitled to react to changes in the race like whether another competitor pits or not, so perhaps they had every intention of pitting and decided against it at the lat moment. It seems like one of those unenforceable rules to me. Charlie said a lot of things he never followed through on unfortunately.

[airshifter]

It's one of those very strange rules, but IMO with good intentions. Obviously we don't want multiple teams just playing games constantly with their crews hitting the pit lanes, but it seems to still happen a decent bit. Being that at times the strategy call is either to counter another team, or riding on a very thin delta time, I just can't see it stopping any time soon. You can't pull off sub 2 second stops by not being ready when the driver pulls into the box.

[Jag_Warrior]

I don't know. It's been going on for years. I think it's only become a real issue or source of complaint if a team does it repeatedly in the same race. Otherwise, it's really hard to prove that they were throwing a dummy, and not intending to stop, but something changed.

I guess if the race director hears the offending team principal laughing on the radio after their main competitor falls for it and comes in on the bluff, then they could dream up a penalty. But to me, this is a really minor issue, considering all the other things going on.