FIA reveal findings after review into Sepang formation lap bug

The FIA has concluded its review into the formation lap incident at the Bahrain Grand Prix, held at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, attributing the issue to a "software bug".

The governing body opened its probe after the formation lap was disrupted during the event, which took place at Sepang rather than Bahrain's usual home circuit as part of this year's calendar.

Following a delay due to wet weather, the formation lap got underway some 40 minutes after the scheduled start.

However, several cars ran into issues when running at low speed, with some even coming to a complete stop on the circuit due to power unit problems.

It resulted in a further delay to the start of the race while the FIA diagnosed the issue and implemented a fix across the grid.

After the race, it announced that it was conducting a review, which it has now revealed focused on four key areas. They were;

• The precise cause of the loss of power experienced by a number of cars on the formation lap  
• Measures that can be introduced to mitigate a recurrence of the same issues  
• The future management of wet-weather Power Unit settings (energy limit restraints)  
• Learnings from the data from individual team and Power Unit manufacturers  

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FIA confirm change for US Grand Prix in Austin

Having assessed the situation, the FIA has detailed that should similar conditions occur this weekend in Singapore, the power units will revert to the configurations used in Malaysia.

For the round that follows Singapore in the USA, the FIA has promised to introduce a further update to the wet-weather software.

In a statement, the sport's governing body stated: “The review also recommended that measures would be implemented for testing of the software, recognising that opportunities for testing are limited, to make it robust as possible. 

“The FIA, together with the teams and Power Unit Manufacturers (PUMs), will continue to strengthen Power Unit software testing and verification capabilities, enhancing the overall validation process through independent assessment and collaborative feedback, including input from the supplier of the standardised Electronics Control Unit (ECU).”

After the race, the FIA's single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis declared that the software was not tested in such conditions as seen in Malaysia.

The FIA has clarified that comment, stating: “The FIA would like to address comments suggesting that the software had not been tested prior to its deployment. 

“Before implementation, teams and Power Unit manufacturers conducted simulation exercises to validate the software package, which was subsequently tested in full-scale running during Free Practice 1 sessions at both the Belgian Grand Prix and the Dutch Grand Prix.