The FIA revealed an “unprecedented” glitch caused several cars to stop in the chaotic start to the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
Heavy rain in Sepang caused a delayed start but when the drivers left the pit lane, multiple drivers almost grinded to a halt including race leader Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton with several drivers in the midfield also experiencing issues.
The start procedure was abandoned and the Grand Prix eventually started properly with the original grid order almost an hour after the carnage.
“On the formation lap ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, 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,” said the FIA in a statement.
“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 enabling teams to make the necessary changes to the Power Unit before the start of the race.
“This issue had not been detected by the FIA or the teams during testing or during the laps to the grid. The FIA, together with the teams and Power Unit manufacturers, will undertake a full review of the issue.”
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A chaotic formation lap halted race start at Bahrain GP in Malaysia
Formula 1 and the FIA have new technical regulations this year which saw the introduction of new power unit which is almost 50 per cent electric.
Some drivers have criticised the new power unit due to its complexities that require an unusual driving style where you can be punished for getting on the throttle early or braking later into certain corners.
Malaysia saw the first wet conditions of the season and Sky Sports F1’s Anthony Davidson explained the slow speed of the cars leaving the pit lane in the rain caused the stoppages.
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Intense rain delayed the start of the Bahrain GP in Malaysia
“Basically, if you run the engines too slowly, the turbo spools down because we don’t have the MGU-H anymore,” he said.
“What’s effectively happening is if you are off throttle for too long, the turbo spools down and when the drivers puts their foot back down it uses all the engine juice.
“As soon as the battery goes flat, you are down to internal combustion engine power only. And because it can’t reach the drivers’ torque demand anymore, because the engine is not creating the power because you have no turbo, you go outside of the FIA regulation.
“It’s all there to stop teams having traction control. It’s incredibly complicated and you fall into this horrible trap where the engine can’t reaccelerate because you are being penalised by this regulation.”
The Bahrain GP in Malaysia was the first time enough rain saw drivers use intermediates in a Grand Prix this year
‘Not good enough’ – Drivers react to bizarre scenes
Most drivers were unimpressed by the scenes and the extra hour’s delay it took for the FIA to implement new software into the cars before the proper race start.
“At first, I thought that the Safety Car had switched off the light,” said Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who was running fourth on the first formation lap.
“I couldn’t see the Safety Car. There too much spray and I thought the Safety Car had gone, and Max was taking the gap to warm up the tyres.
“Then they told me on radio, ‘we think Max has a problem’, then Max went then Lewis was slow. I waited then at one point was like, ‘okay I’m going to go’ then when I went on the throttle, I had exactly the same problem and I realised everyone was in the same boat and we were stuck at 20kph.
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Lewis Hamilton revealed his heart sank when Ferrari chose to start on soft tyres while the majority of other cars started on intermediates
“It’s a little bit scary to see that with an F1 car. That’s a bit of our worry with these cars, not to that extent, of course, this was a problem.
“But when you get out of the corner, sometimes you can have 100 horsepower more, 100 horsepower less. You are not completely in control of the power you are given, and then with this kind of visibility, like at the start of the race, you can have big shunts because of that.”
In the press conference, Verstappen joked it felt “like the Lego race” in reference to the drivers’ parade at this year’s British Grand Prix when the 22 drivers raced in Lego-made cars.
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Watch the best bits of the chaotic Lego parade at the British Grand Prix
“It was insane. Like, it’s the Lego power!” said Verstappen, who went on to win the race in Malaysia.
“At some point we were five-wide on the straight because we couldn’t understand what was going on. Then we did a lap and then I see eight other cars crawling still, and I saw you [Hamilton] by yourself crawling.”
Hamilton replied: “I had to stop on track and stop the car and engine and restart it. I’ve never done that before.”
Verstappen added “that’s not what you want for the sport”. Hamilton agreed: “I hope there is a lesson learned”.
Formula 1 heads straight to Singapore for the last Sprint weekend of the season with track action starting this Friday, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
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