The FIA has again acknowledged human error at the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix, with Single-Seater Director Nikolas Tombazis describing the incident as “the worst thing” for the federation.
Following a red flag triggered by Sergio Perez’s crash during sprint qualifying, the conclusion of SQ1 was marred when race control failed to reactivate overtake mode, briefly enabled it for 27 seconds, and then disabled it once more. Drivers were left confused by the sudden lack of power, and those eliminated in the opening segment felt they were unfairly disadvantaged.
Speaking to Sky Germany, Tombazis explained that the oversight stemmed from the intense workload in race control. “Normally it is a manual process to re-enable it, because clearly when it gets re-enabled we want to make sure from a safety point of view it’s okay to do so,” he detailed. “Unfortunately, there was a pop-up window that came on somebody’s computer that was not acted on quickly enough or when it should have. And then under the time pressure and the general other pressure, this was forgotten, unfortunately.”
Sergio Perez, Cadillac Racing
Photo by: Clive Rose / Formula 1 via Getty Images
“We then went into quite an intense analysis about whether there was some other issue, because we could hear the drivers complaining and asking what was happening. We realised where the problem was,” Tombazis continued. “At that time there was an erroneous decision to briefly turn it on again, but that was not exactly the correct decision in terms of fairness. And then it was turned off again.”
Tombazis went on to admit the situation was “a bit of a mess, quite frankly,” given its impact on the competitive order. “We’re not happy about it, because it affected some drivers more and some drivers less,” he added. “So as a result, just in the first session of the sprint, we felt this problem interfered with the results – which for us as the FIA is probably, in some ways, the worst thing, because our top priorities are always safety and fairness.”
“Of course, to have a situation where a result is not fair or incorrect is not good for us. It is a complicated job, and people do make mistakes, and we need to be conscious of that. But we also need, when we do make mistakes, to analyse them and ensure they don’t happen again – which is what we are doing.”
