FIA explains software glitch that caused Bahrain GP in Malaysia race delay

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.

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 Nikolas Tombazis has now 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. A software update therefore had to be carried out, hence a 53-minute delay to get the race restarted.

“We didn't manage to test the software as extensively as we would have liked, because there's been very little wet running this year, and there was a bit of a combination of circumstances which caused this bug to kick in,” Tombazis said.

Nikolas Tombazis, FIA

Photo by: Kym Illman / Getty Images

“Basically, the formation lap, some cars went very slowly, almost came to a standstill. There was a bit of a concertina effect between cars, and some cars almost stopped completely. And that bug prevented the power to be redeployed and for the cars to start again. I think if we had had a bit more testing, we probably would have managed to catch it in time and not to have such a situation.”

Tombazis praised the FIA’s reaction when it came to fixing the issue as swiftly as possible.

“Once the problem happened, our guys realised very quickly what was happening and had to work under a lot of time pressure for an update to the software, which was issued to the teams, and the teams had to install it on their cars,” he added.

“So all of that took about 20 minutes. It may have felt like five hours for spectators waiting [for] a race and for everybody else, which is understandable, and we are sorry about that. But I think it was quite a fast reaction given the problem.”

Not everyone was so upset about some cars running into trouble, with eighth-placed Fernando Alonso joking at the end of an unusually good day for Aston Martin-Honda: “I had 50% DNFs this year, they never stopped the race for us.”