Esteban Ocon compared the FIA software glitch on the formation lap of the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia to restarting a Windows computer.
The race, held by Bahrain at the Sepang circuit, was already delayed by an hour due to heavy rain, when the formation lap finally began under the Safety Car.
Due to the lowering of the 350kW distribution of the 50/50 hybrid power units in wet weather conditions, teams are therefore required to load software parameters to enable better coping of the torque delivery.
As this was the first true wet race in which these circumstances arose, the testing of such an instance had not ever taken place, and as a result, a multitude of cars ended-up slowing, with some stopping altogether.
Cars were forced to return to their pits, sparking another delay of 40 minutes, in which time an update of the software was hastily created and distributed by the FIA, ultimately fixing the anomaly.
Ocon was one of the cars affected, and when asked to explain his version of events after the race, made the amusing comparison.
“Not too sure [what was happening]. The throttle was not working, so that was quite interesting. I’ve never seen that before,” he told media, including Motorsport Week.
“I did a ‘restart Windows’ and everything went back fine! So I stopped the car, just restarted Windows and went again! So it was quite funny.”
Esteban Ocon ‘started to enjoy first gear race’
Ocon continued to see the funny side of the incident, comparing it to the pre-British GP Lego go-kart race.
“It’s the first time it goes wrong like this. So, I mean, the engineers, they must know better what exactly happened,” he said.
“I don’t think this is something that we will see. But I started to enjoy the first gear race! See who had longer ratios. Who was doing less metres.
“I wanted to achieve two seconds, but they didn’t allow me to push forward, you know. So, maybe we will have… Well, that sounded like the Silverstone go-kart race.
“It was similar. And I fought for the win with Fernando. So, maybe I would have had a chance to win that time.”
Ocon enjoyed a competitive early phase of the race, but after pitting for fresh tyres, began to fall down the order, eventually finishing 15th, one place behind Haas teammate Oliver Bearman.
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