The FIA has admitted "human error" caused a power disparity during Sprint Qualifying in Singapore. Following a red flag for debris in SQ1 caused by Cadillac's Sergio Perez, the FIA did not activate Overtake Mode - an extra power boost that is normally active throughout qualifying and used in races to aid overtaking. The FIA reactivated Overtake Mode for 27 seconds before deactivating it again, thus causing an unfair advantage in the first part of Sprint Qualifying.
Sky Sports F1 understands the brief re-activation of Overtake Mode happened in the last minute of SQ1 when several drivers were on flying laps before being turned off. It is also understood Williams petitioned for all teams to progress to SQ2, which was declined, and no protests are expected. Williams' Carlos Sainz was one of the six drivers to miss out on SQ2 and says the drivers who had Overtake Mode for those 27 seconds gained around half a second.
There was also a timing issue during Sprint Qualifying, which the FIA says was "unrelated" to the "human error". Overtake Mode provides a car an extra half a megajoule of electrical energy at high speed.On a normal lap, when the car reaches 180mph, it has to, by regulation, ramp down its electric motor power. With Overtake Mode active, that speed tolerance raises to 209mph.In races, a driver within one second of another at a track’s detection zone can use Overtake Mode over the next lap to aid an overtake.
"This issue in question meant Overtake Mode was not available after the red flag period during SQ1," read an FIA statement. "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." The human error comes just five days after an "unprecedented" software glitch at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia caused several cars to grind to a crawl or a halt. Sainz, who qualified last for Saturday's Singapore Sprint at 10am (build-up from 9am), live on Sky Sports F1 and Main Event, claimed half of the field had an advantage in SQ1. "Half of the cars did their laps with half a second quicker engine than the others," said Sainz.
"There was another software issue with the cars this time around, and we were on the bad end of it. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player "For whatever reason the FIA, like in Malaysia, at the end decide to do sporting equity and were happy to do half of the cars in qualy with higher power than the other half of the cars. "A bit confused why the sport keeps doing different things depending on who is out in Q1 or who is out in lap one." All of the main contenders progressed to SQ2 although Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll would have fancied their chances of getting through.
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