The FIA has officially concluded its investigation into the incident on the formation lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix, held this season at Malaysia's Sepang circuit, confirming that a software fault caused several cars to grind to a halt. Heavy rain had already delayed the start by 40 minutes, and as the cars crawled round at low speed, the power unit's electronic management and its energy-limit settings caused the system to malfunction. The governing body's inquiry covered four main areas: the causes of the power loss, preventive measures, wet-weather energy limits and data from the manufacturers.
The FIA flatly rejected reports that the software had not been tested in advance, explaining that teams had run it during free practice at the Belgian and Dutch Grands Prix. To rule out a repeat, drivers will revert to the configuration used before Malaysia for the Singapore Grand Prix, with an entirely new update to be introduced at the United States Grand Prix.
