Sainz slates FIA lack of ‘sporting equity’ after Singapore qualifying error

SINGAPORE – Carlos Sainz has attacked the FIA over a “human error” in sprint qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix gifted some cars additional power.

The FIA has conceded fault for the error and expects protests to be launched.

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Sprint qualifying was halted with little over six minutes remaining in SQ1 after Sergio Perez crashed his Cadillac and spread debris around the circuit as he recovered to the pits.

This led to a timing screen error, as it was advised that overtake mode had been enabled. But 28 seconds later, after the chequered flag had fallen, the system was disabled once more.

Overtake mode offers drivers an additional 0.5mJ of energy with which to attempt an overtake over the course of a lap, and it provides drivers with a significant pace advantage.

Sainz was among the drivers not enjoying this advantage, and qualified as the slowest driver.

“Unfortunately, we had a really poor lap there,” he said.

“We only got one lap, and we had some issues with the brakes in FP1. We had to change them for SQ1 [sic], and we were having some brake issues still. And yeah, I had a few lockups and was struggling a lot with that and with the tyres.”

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Turning to the power boost enjoyed by some drivers, he added: “But on top of that, half of the cars did 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 do sporting equity, and were happy to do half of the cars in quali with a higher power than the other half of the cars.

“So I’d be confused why the sport keeps doing different things depending on who is out in Q1 or who is out in lap one.”

Sainz’s comments come after the chaotic formation laps in Malaysia, which saw multiple cars lose power due to a software glitch.

It also saw the original starting order declared after drivers returned to the pits, despite the regulations clearly stating that drivers should resume the race in the order in which they enter the pits.

For clarity, there are different rules for deciding a restart order based on when the stoppage occurs.

Asked about his brake problem, Sainz was in no mood to let up on his frustration.

“Well, I mean, first of all, we did the whole lap with a half a second less power than any other lap of the weekend,” he said.

“So that’s never going to help. But with all the issues that we had on the brakes and tyres in that quali, we would have always struggled to get through.”

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