FIA confirm human error to blame for latest blunder

The governing body clarified that the mistake was separate from the timing-system issue that also disrupted the opening segment at Marina Bay.

Once Race Control realised Overtake Mode had not been activated after the restart, it was switched on for just 27 seconds before being deactivated again. The FIA acknowledged that the error affected cars differently depending on when drivers completed their runs and where they were on the circuit.

In a statement, the FIA said: “During the first period of Sprint Qualifying there was a human error in Race Control unrelated to the timing issue also encountered in SQ1.

The statement did not identify which drivers were affected or quantify the performance differences caused by the mistake.

As covered in GPblog’s report on the disruption in Singapore, the session had already encountered a timing-system failure that prevented some lap times from being registered.

That problem delayed the start of SQ2 while officials checked the classification and assessed whether the session could continue.

The FIA’s initial statement said: “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.”

The latest clarification establishes that two separate issues occurred during SQ1: the timing failure and the human error controlling Overtake Mode. Although the recorded lap times were subsequently confirmed as correct, the FIA has now acknowledged that certain cars’ performance was affected during the opening segment.

Sprint qualifying eventually continued, with Max Verstappen securing provisional pole ahead of George Russell, as detailed in GPblog’s Singapore Sprint qualifying report.

The FIA stressed that neither SQ2 nor the final SQ3 shootout was affected by the Overtake Mode error.

Verstappen also faces a separate post-session investigation over an alleged yellow-flag overtake involving Lewis Hamilton. GPblog reported that Hamilton raised the incident over team radio, while Verstappen insisted he had allowed the Ferrari driver back through.

The FIA’s statement on the Race Control error did not announce any changes to the Sprint qualifying classification or specify further action.

Several F1 drivers have blasted the latest failure, which had impacted a number of cars during he session and raises a question about fairness.
Carlos Sainz said: "Some of the cars did the the lap with half a second quicker engine than the others. There was another software issue with the cars this time around and we were on the bad end of it. And for whatever reason, the FIA, like in Malaysia, didn't decide to to do sporting equality, and we're happy to do half of the quali with cars having a higher power than than the others. So a bit confused why the sport keeps doing different things depending on who is out in Q1 or who is out in lap one."

British Grand Prix - incorrect Safety Car restart message Race Control displayed "Safety Car In This Lap" even though the race would finish behind the Safety Car.

The FIA attributed the incorrect message to a software error.

Importantly, the governing body said the Safety Car procedure itself complied with the regulations: the mistake was announcing a restart that would not happen.

Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia - power-unit software failure during the formation laps

Multiple cars lost power while circulating at low speed in wet conditions at Sepang, forcing the start procedure to be suspended.

The FIA's review found that cars running at low engine RPM in sectors subject to the 250kW wet-weather power restriction could lose more power than intended and could not recover it within those sectors.

An emergency software configuration was distributed so the race could proceed.

The software had undergone testing, but the specific combination of conditions that triggered the failure had not been detected.