F1’s governing body released a full review of the chaotic start to the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia
Heavy rains forced a delayed start to last weekend’s Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. But when the weather cleared, a bizarre sequence led to a further delay as several cars lost power on an attempted formation lap, bringing out a red flag and necessitating an emergency software patch.
Eventually the race got underway, leading to a win for Max Verstappen, but in the wake of the checkered flag the sport’s governing body promised a full review of the circumstances.
And now, that review is complete.
According to the FIA, “some cars running on low engine RPM in certain circuit sectors where a 250kW power reduction was applied experienced a loss of power beyond the original intent and that could not be recovered in those sectors.”
As a result of this review, the “Power Unit software configurations upgrade” that was pushed to the teams during the delay in Malaysia “will be reinstated for the Singapore Grand Prix should similar weather conditions be expected.” In addition, a further update to the wet weather software “will be released for the United States Grand Prix on October 25.”
The FIA also confirmed that prior to the implementation of the original software package, teams and manufacturers “conducted simulation exercises to validate the software package, which was subsequently tested in full-scale running during Free Practice 1 sessions at both the Belgian Grand Prix and the Dutch Grand Prix.” This was in response to reports that the original software package had not been thoroughly tested prior to last Sunday’s chaotic start.
Specifically, FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis told media in Malaysia that the software was not tested “as extensively as we would have liked because there’s been very little wet running this year.”
In addition, Tombazis indicated that on the formation lap, “some cars went very slowly and almost came to a standstill. There was a bit of a concertina effect between cars and some cars almost stopped completely. That bug prevented then the power to be redeployed and for the cars to start again.”
Returning to the FIA’s review, the governing body found that within five minutes of the starting procedure being suspended after several cars lost power, the technical team had identified the cause and released the updated software configurations to the teams. Then, 18 minutes after the suspension of the start, the FIA provided the 11 teams with “further technical guidance and clarifications in response to implementation, installation and operation of the revised software configurations.”
Looking ahead, thunderstorms are in the forecast for Singapore this weekend, so having this updated configuration in place ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix is probably a good thing.
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