Formula One’s governing body has promised a full investigation into a software bug that caused chaos and forced the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia to be aborted, with drivers feeling like they were in battery-powered cars made of Lego. Ferrari’s seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s four-time champion and eventual race winner Max Verstappen were among several affected by the glitch on a formation lap after torrential rain and a long delay at Malaysia’s steamy Sepang circuit on Sunday. Verstappen compared the experience to a “Lego race” held at Silverstone before the British Grand Prix while Hamilton, the sport’s most successful driver of all time, had to stop his car on track and restart it in what he said was a career first.
The episode was the latest in a difficult first season for the new era of cars and engines, with drivers at the pinnacle of motorsport unhappy since the opening race with the power units’ increased electrical component and the need for energy management. FIA said afterwards that “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”. The FIA, together with the teams and power unit manufacturers, will undertake a full review of the issue.” The FIA’s single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis told reporters the lack of preseason testing in wet conditions had played a part in the chaos.
There was a bit of a concertina effect between cars, and some cars almost stopped completely,” he said.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
