It came as no surprise to us all that our favourite drivers weren't at all happy with what happened in the lead-up to the Bahrain Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc said that this was just one example of why he and his fellow drivers are worried about the current regulation cars.
What started as a soggy formation lap turned into chaos as software issues caused the cars to start losing power. Several cars were reduced to expensive paperweights as their drivers fought against an unresponsive throttle pedal.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Following the race in Malaysia, the Monegasque explained what happened from behind the wheel of the #16 Ferrari.
"Very tricky, very strange," he told reporters. "At first I thought that safety car had switched off the light. I couldn't see the safety car. I was too far and there was too much spray so I thought the safety car had gone and Max Verstappen was taking the gap to warm up the tyres, which I was like, 'OK fine,' and then they told me on the radio, 'we think Max has a problem.' I was like, OK.
"Then Max Verstappen went, then Lewis Hamilton was slow. And I waited and then at one point I was just like, 'OK I'm probably just going to go.' And when I went on throttle I had exactly the same problem and I realized everybody was in the same boat. We were stuck at like 20 kph.
"So, I don't know. It's a little bit scary to see that on a Formula 1 car."
The reasoning became clear when FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis explained that a "bug prevented the power to be redeployed and for the cars to start again" when they had slowed down. He added: "It was mainly in some sectors the full power is reduced. And the triggering factor was some cars reaching a very low speed. I don't know exactly what speed that was, but some cars reaching this very low speed somehow entered into a loop which meant they couldn't reaccelerate. And then it looked as if they came to a stop here."
Source: Motorsport
