Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were left describing their experiences of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia‘s bizarre software outage as something simlar to a Lego go-kart race.
The incident at the Sepang circuit was brought by Formula 1‘s first real wet-weather conditions of this season, meaning it was also the first time under its complex new regulations.
With the 350kW output of the new 50/50 hybrid engines reduced to 250, as per the regulations, when wet, cars began to stop out on track during the formation lap.
This was, as the FIA explained after the race, down to lack of testing of this particular aspect of the new ruleset, with software parameters loaded by the teams enabling more controllable torque.
But the anomaly was swiftly fixed by a software update over a 40-minute delay before proceedings could properly get underway.
Verstappen momentarily lost power, with Hamilton slowing further and coming to a stop altogether.
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen agree with ‘lesson to be learned’
Speaking after the race, both men speaking to media, including Motorsport Week, were asked about how they felt during that particular moment, and about the concerns that the weather caused such a seismic and bizarre issue.
“That’s the problem that we have,” Verstappen said. “You know, these engines are so complicated and a lot of software is implemented.
“And, yeah, when there’s like some kind of… I want to call it… That’s the problem. And, yeah, I triggered it first and then I look in my mirror, I just see… I was like, ‘Wait, are they waiting for me or what’s going…?’ It was like the Lego race.
“Yeah, we had the same speed,” Hamilton replied.
“Same speed. Yeah, it was insane,” Verstappen continued. “Like, it’s the Lego power. At some point we were five-wide on the straight because we couldn’t understand what was going on.
“Then we did a lap and then I see eight other cars crawling still, and I saw you [looking at Hamilton] by yourself crawling.”
Hamilton: “Well, I had to stop on track and stop the car and engine and restart it. I’ve never done that before.”
Verstappen “Yeah, what can you say? I mean, that’s not what you want, right, for the sport.”
Hamilton concluded by issuing a firm wish for this issue to be eradicated.
“Yeah, I hope there is a lesson learned,” he said.
Verstappen recovered to win the race from pole position, with Hamilton initially dropping down the order from second after starting the race on Slick tyres whilst the track was still damp.
The Brit completed a remarkable drive to work his way up through the pack to finish third, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli sandwiched by the two champions on the podium in second place.
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