FIA admits Singapore sprint qualifying result was compromised by race control blunder

The FIA has publicly acknowledged that the competitive integrity of sprint qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix was compromised by a race control error, with single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis calling it “the worst thing” for the federation.

The problem emerged during SQ1 after a red flag was triggered by Sergio Perez’s crash. Race control failed to reactivate overtake mode in time, then briefly turned it back on for 27 seconds before switching it off again — leaving drivers without full power at a critical moment and distorting the elimination order.

Tombazis explained to Sky Germany that the error stemmed from a missed prompt on a race control computer. “There was a pop-up window that came on somebody’s computer that was not acted on quickly enough or when it should have,” he said. “And then under the time pressure and the general other pressure, this was forgotten, unfortunately.”

After drivers began reporting a loss of power over the radio, race control investigated and identified the source of the problem. The brief, erroneous reactivation of overtake mode that followed only compounded the situation. “That was sort of not exactly the correct decision in order for fairness,” Tombazis admitted.

He described the sequence of events as “a bit of a mess, quite frankly”, and acknowledged that some drivers were affected more than others — particularly those who were eliminated in SQ1.

“Our top priorities are always safety and fairness,” Tombazis said. “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.”

The Singapore incident follows a separate software-related disruption at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia the previous week, where a power unit glitch affected multiple competitors and required a software update across all cars before the race could start. The back-to-back technical failures will increase scrutiny on the FIA’s race control procedures heading into the remainder of the season.