Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have made it clear that Formula 1 needs to learn hard lessons following the software failure that threw the formation lap at Sepang into total chaos, as RaceFans reports. A sudden technical glitch hit both of their machines right at the start, forcing the drivers and several rivals to slow down to a crawl and ultimately compelling officials to abandon the initial start attempt entirely.
“It was insane,” Verstappen said. “At some point we were five-wide on the straight because we couldn’t understand what was going on. Then we did a lap and then I see eight other cars crawling still, and I saw [Hamilton] crawling.” He added that the spectacle was hardly what the sport needs.
They had to update the software and then you have to load it into the car. I guess some had some faster laptops than others.
Things were bad enough that Hamilton’s Ferrari ground to a complete halt on the circuit. “I had to stop on track and stop the car and engine and restart it,” he explained. “I’ve never done that before.” Both stars are hoping the series takes note to prevent a repeat.
To tackle the issue, race control hauled the entire field into the pits while sending out revised software parameters to every team. The fix ended up adding nearly an hour to a delay that had already been prolonged by rain. Hamilton noted the logistical quirks of the pit lane scramble: “They had to update the software and then you have to load it into the car. I guess some had some faster laptops than others.”
The FIA later confirmed they removed the energy limit constraint in the affected sectors through an updated software release to clear up the trouble. Verstappen detailed just how dreadful the cars felt out on track during the glitch. “It was just like driving at 35 kilometres, going uphill, actually losing speed,” he said. “I don’t know exactly, because when you go too low in speed and too low RPM, for whatever reason, then it just bogs down, and normally it takes one or two seconds and it comes back. That’s basically also what I had in the start. But somehow that didn’t trigger in the first software round, and then in the second software round it was a bit better, luckily.”
