The FIA says an unexpected combination of factors caused the car stoppages which delayed the start of today’s race.
Multiple drivers encountered technical problems during the original attempt to start the race which followed the delay due to rain. Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and others suffered a serious loss of power, causing their cars to slow and delay the rest of the pack.Race control eventually abandoned the attempt to start the race and summoned the field back into the pits. The race finally started some 50 minutes later after software changes were applied to the cars.
The FIA confirmed the problem originated with its systems and said it would look into it.
“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,” it said 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.”
However Fernando Alonso claimed several drivers “stopped on the formation lap” and should not have been allowed to restart. “It’s the first time I see it,” he said. “I had half of the races this year with DNF and we never stopped the race. I hope they can do it next time we stop.”
This article will be updated
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