The FIA has given insight into why Formula 1 cars experienced technical issues ahead of Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
The start of the Sepang race was delayed by 40 minutes due to a downpour; then a chaotic formation lap saw the likes front-row starters Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton suffer from a glitch which rendered throttle input ineffective, with numerous cars coming to a standstill. The red flag was waved.
Nikolas Tombazis FIA
The situation was branded “unacceptable” by Sergio Perez, who likened it to ‘being in a rental kart and running out of time’; Lando Norris described it “just horrible” and evidence that “we shouldn't have any of that stuff, the electronic side”, given this was linked to Formula 1’s new machinery, which features 47% electrical power.
FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis explained that given F1 had never had competitive running in actual wet conditions this season, it was caught out by the power unit’s reaction to cars driving extremely slowly at that time. An unprecedented combination of low engine speed, low-grip conditions, wet-weather energy management settings, and the Sepang circuit's sector configuration led to an unintended loss of power for a number of cars.
As a result, the FIA Technical Department removed the energy limit constraint in the affected sectors through an updated software release distributed to all competitors during the race delay caused by heavy rain. Teams quickly installed the software within roughly 20 minutes under immense time pressure, and the Grand Prix eventually started properly with the original grid order almost an hour after the carnage.
Source: Autosport
