FIA admits F1 qualifying blunder “interfered with the results” at Singapore GP

Formula 1’s governing body the FIA has admitted that fairness was impacted as a result of the “human error” that occurred during sprint qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix. 

Following a red flag for debris when Cadillac driver Sergio Perez crashed in the first part of sprint qualifying on Friday, a “human error” from race control resulted in a power disparity at the end of SQ1. 

The FIA reactivated Overtake Mode - a tool that gives drivers an extra boost and is usually active throughout qualifying - for just 27 seconds before deactivating it. This led to some drivers completing their laps with the aid and some complaining they had less power than expected. 

Williams driver Carlos Sainz accused the FIA of having no regard for “sporting equity” after he was eliminated in SQ1 with a time that left him 22nd on the grid for the sprint race. 

Speaking to Sky Germany, the FIA’s single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis admitted the blunder “interfered with the results” and was “the worst thing” to happen for the governing body. 

“We're not happy about it, because it affected some drivers more and some drivers less,” Tombazis explained. 

“So as a result, just in the first session of the sprint, we felt this problem interfered with the results – which for us as 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 for us not good. Of course, 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 to make sure they don't happen again – which is what we're doing.”

Expanding on the error, Tombazis added: “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. 

“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.

“We then went into quite an intense analysis about, was there some other issue, because we could hear, of course, the drivers complaining and saying what's happening. We realised where the problem was.

“At that time there was an erroneous decision to briefly turn it on again, but that was sort of not exactly the correct decision in order for fairness. And then it was turned off again.”