F1 timing glitch lets Hulkenberg escape penalty after Sainz incident

SINGAPORE – The Singapore GP stewards revealed there were more timing issues during Saturday’s qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix, with the information received by the teams “not fully synchronised” and slow to update.

As a result, Nico Hulkenberg escaped a penalty for impeding Carlos Sainz, while the Williams driver may feel hard done by for the second day in a row.

FIA explains ‘extraordinary mitigating circumstances’

Fighting for a spot in Q3 in qualifying at the Marina Bay street circuit, Hulkenberg was on the racing line on the entry to Turn 5 on a cooldown lap as Sainz came flying up behind him on a hot lap.

Sainz had to abandon his lap and was eliminated in 14th place.

Hulkenberg, summoned to the stewards for potentially impeding Sainz, admitted it didn’t look good.

“I don’t know, I didn’t get told, I thought he was on a cool lap or whatever, I don’t know,” the Audi driver told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media.

“I didn’t have a call. Yeah, doesn’t sound great, unfortunately.”

Both Hulkenberg and Sainz, along with team representatives, spoke with the stewards after qualifying, where it emerged that F1’s timing system had suffered yet another glitch.

As such, Hulkenberg avoided a grid penalty for impeding, with the stewards citing “extraordinary mitigating circumstances”.

The FIA verdict read: “The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 27 (Nico Hulkenberg), the driver of Car 55 (Carlos Sainz), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system
data, video, team radio, timing and in-car video evidence.

“Video showed that Car 27 was driving slowly on the racing line on the approach to Turn 5. Car 55 arrived from behind on a push lap and had to abandon the lap. 

“That Car 55 was thereby impeded was not in dispute. The issue was whether Car 55 had been ‘unnecessarily’ impeded.

“The team stated in the hearing that they believed, based on timing information to which they subscribed, sourced from the official timekeeping provider, that Car 55
had already taken the chequered flag and conveyed that information to the driver by radio. 

“Therefore the driver of Car 27 did not expect Car 55 to still be on a push lap when it was closing in.

“The stewards acknowledge the fact that the data referenced by the team led the team to reasonably believe that Car 55 had received the chequered flag. Indeed, it was evident from Car 55’s radio messages that its team had formed the same belief relying on the same data.

“The misunderstanding was revealed to be attributable to the information initially received by the teams not being fully synchronised and only being displayed in a correct manner after a short period of time.

“However, that post-processing did not occur until Car 55 arrived behind Car 27, depriving the team of any reasonable opportunity to correct the information conveyed to the driver.

“In the stewards’ assessment, because the source of the data upon which the team relied was the official timing provider, it was not unreasonable for the team to have relied upon it, even though the team also had available to it the official timing data which conflicted.

“On the objective facts, the stewards determined that Car 55 was unnecessarily impeded. However, there were extraordinary mitigating circumstances in this case because the incident was attributable to the team’s reliance on information that was, for a brief period, inconsistent.”

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It was the second time at the Singapore Grand Prix that a timing issue that Sainz can feel went against him. The Spaniard was also one of several drivers who could not use Overtake Mode when Friday’s SQ1 was restarted following a red flag caused by Sergio Perez, while others had access to the additional power.

The Williams driver, who was slowest of all in Sprint qualifying, blasted Formula 1’s lack of “sporting equity”.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

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