A week after Formula 1’s software glitch embarrassment at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, a further issue occurred during qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix Sprint.
During SQ1, a number of cars complained about a lack of power, with Overtake Mode enabled at 20:52:08 local time – this handing drivers an extra 0.5mJ of energy from the 50/50 hybrid power unit.
However, Overtake Mode was disabled 28 seconds later – after the chequered flag to end SQ1 was flown.
This left some teams complaining that, potentially, a disparity caused one of its cars to miss out on appearing in SQ2. Sources have informed Motorsport Week that Lance Stroll was projected to progress, but was, instead, out in SQ1.
The FIA, having issued timing screens issues in the build-up to the incident, and upon the conclusion of SQ1 issued an update reading: “Start of SQ2 will be delayed due to an issue with timing systems, some lap times had not been registered.
|That is now resolved and the current timings are considered correct. We are investigating whether we can proceed with the rest of the session.”
After qualifying, a statement from the FIA, issued to media, including Motorsport Week, admitted to “human error” for the enabling of Overtake Mode.
“During the first period of Sprint Qualifying there was a human error in Race Control unrelated to the timing issue also encountered in SQ1,” it read. “This issue in question meant Overtake Mode was not available after the red flag period during SQ1.
“When it became apparent that Overtake Mode was not active after the restart, it was then activated for a period of 27 seconds before being deactivated again.
“The FIA acknowledges that this unfortunate human error had an impact on the performance of certain cars based on the timing of their run and their position around the lap.
“The second and third periods of Sprint Qualifying were not affected.”
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