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." Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 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.
"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." 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.
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