The FIA said a human error in race control hurt some cars in sprint qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix on Friday. Cadillac driver Sergio Perez crashed in the first part of the session, which brought out a red flag. The red flag automatically switched off Overtake Mode, a boost of extra electric power. Only race control can switch it back on, and nobody did when the session restarted. The FIA said it later turned the mode on for 27 seconds and then off again. In a separate ruling, stewards found that Red Bull driver Max Verstappen broke the yellow-flag rule by passing Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton. They gave him no penalty, and he's set to start Saturday's sprint from pole. F1 has now had two power problems in a week. Last Sunday, a software bug cut cars' power before the Bahrain Grand Prix, which was moved to Malaysia.

The Mistake Hurt Drivers, and It Wasn't Their Fault

Drivers and teams knocked out early say the FIA's error cost them.

Some cars had the boost on their fast laps and others didn't. Williams driver Carlos Sainz is also a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association. He said "half of the cars did the lap with half a second quicker engine than the others." He said he's confused that the sport keeps treating these problems differently, pointing to last week's aborted start in Malaysia.

One driver says the mistake ended his day. Aston Martin's Lance Stroll said he didn't have Overtake Mode on his second push lap, so he missed any chance to fight for a place in the next round. A PlanetF1 data analysis found he lost nearly 20 km/h of top speed on one straight. He missed the cut by about two-thirds of a second.

Both Williams cars could have advanced, the team says. Williams team principal James Vowles said the problem "definitely had an impact on our lap times." He also said the issue "doesn't change the fact that our car performance isn't where we want it to be." He said that without it, the team "had the potential to get both cars into the second part of Sprint qualifying." He said he's confident the FIA will fully investigate.

But There Was No Clean Way to Fix It

The FIA admits the mistake, and some F1 writers say no remedy would have helped.

The governing body admitted the mistake the same night. The FIA called it an "unfortunate human error" that "had an impact on the performance of certain cars based on the timing of their run and their position around the lap." It said the second and third rounds weren't affected.

Neither proposed fix worked. Autosport reported that Williams asked for all 22 cars to go through to the next round. Stewards said no because they weren't sure the rules allowed it. Rerunning the round was out, because teams had no spare sets of tires. Autosport wrote that it's "hard to see how the governing body could have pulled any levers to untangle the mess without causing further angst."

The mistake may not have changed who went through. Josh Suttill of The Race wrote that "it didn't appear to be the difference between a driver making it through to SQ2 and being knocked out in SQ1." Sainz said the lost power didn't help, but that with his brake and tire problems, "we would have always struggled to get through."

Either Way, This Year's Rules Are the Real Problem

Critics say F1's software-heavy 2026 engines keep causing messes like this.

Last week's problem was a software bug. In Malaysia last Sunday, a bug in FIA-supplied engine software made cars lose power before the start. The race started more than 90 minutes late. Verstappen said then that "these engines are so complicated and a lot of software is implemented." McLaren driver Lando Norris said it "proves that we shouldn't have any of that stuff on the electronic side."

Critics say the damage keeps piling up. Kieran Jackson wrote in The Independent that all of this feeds into "the constantly increasing levels of damage this year's questionable set of regulations are doing to the sport." On Thursday, the FIA pledged to "strengthen Power Unit software testing and verification capabilities" after the Malaysia bug.

Where This Lands

Sainz, Stroll and Vowles say the mistake hurt their laps, and Stroll and Vowles say it cost them a shot at the next round. The FIA admits the error and says it didn't affect the later rounds. Autosport says there was no clean fix, and The Race's Suttill says it didn't seem to change who advanced. Jackson and drivers including Norris blame this year's software-heavy engines. Verstappen is set to start the sprint from pole at 2 a.m. Pacific on Saturday.

Sources