Brundle sees signs of F1 fatigue after recent technical glitches

After glitches in Malaysia and Singapore, Martin Brundle says Formula 1 is showing signs of “fatigue” and putting its systems under strain. Speaking on Sky Sports F1 during the Singapore weekend, he cited six races in seven weekends and nine in 11.

On Friday in Singapore, timing screens failed to register multiple drivers’ lap times at the end of SQ1, delaying the start of SQ2 by almost 20 minutes while race control verified the classification. After a crash involving Sergio Perez, race control briefly activated overtake mode for roughly 27 seconds before switching it off; only part of the field received an uneven energy boost. Race control conceded an operational human error. Brundle said the sprint-qualifying glitches were not all from the FIA.

At the Bahrain Grand Prix, held the previous weekend at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, a wet-weather power-unit mapping bug caused unrecoverable power loss on the formation lap under the mandatory 250 kW restriction. The FIA distributed an emergency fix that bypassed the energy limits so the cars could safely get going.

Brundle said the Malaysia problem was fixed quickly, although one unnamed team needed longer than the others to get the patch signed off at headquarters, costing another 10 minutes. He also said the recent problems had not diminished his affection for the sport and that he still loved driving the cars. The FIA has confirmed that a permanent update to the standard ECU’s wet-weather parameters will be rolled out for the United States Grand Prix in Austin.