FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis has candidly confessed that the procedural blunder during the sprint qualifying session at the Singapore Grand Prix dealt a severe blow to the federation's core values. The chaos erupted immediately after a red flag was deployed following a heavy crash involving Sergio Perez, which completely disrupted the standard operational rhythm inside race control.
As the first phase of sprint qualifying prepared to resume, race control initially failed to reactivate the designated overtake mode. Under intense time pressure, a notification pop-up appeared on an official's computer screen, but it was not acted upon swiftly enough, causing the crucial reactivation step to be entirely forgotten by the busy operational staff.
Drivers out on the track were left utterly puzzled by the sudden lack of power deployment, and those unfortunate enough to be eliminated during this compromised segment felt they were dealt an undeniably unfair hand. Recognizing the unfolding disaster through driver radio complaints, race control made a flawed attempt to rectify the situation by briefly turning the mode back on for 27 seconds before shutting it off once more.
Tombazis acknowledged that the chaotic sequence heavily impacted competitors like Franco Colapinto and Pierre-gasly, whose Alpine machines were directly affected by the inconsistent power delivery. Speaking to Sky Germany, the FIA official admitted that having race results compromised by internal mistakes represents the worst possible scenario for an organization whose primary mandates are safety and sporting fairness.
"We're not happy about it, because it affected some drivers more and some drivers less," Tombazis explained regarding the unfortunate incident. "So as a result, just in the first session of the sprint, we felt this problem interfered with the results – which for us as FIA is probably, in some ways, the worst thing, because our top priorities are always safety and fairness," he added.
The administrative blunder in Singapore follows closely on the heels of other recent operational hiccups across the motorsport calendar, placing mounting pressure on the governing body. Tombazis confirmed that an intense internal analysis is currently underway to dissect the human error and ensure software or procedural failures do not compromise future Formula 1 sessions.
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