Andrea Stella: F1 must avoid Sepang repeat, but "accept occasional glitches"

McLaren F1 chief Andrea Stella says he "accepts" crippling software bugs as seen at Sunday's Bahrain GP in Malaysia are a possibility with the current regulations, but hoped the FIA could avoid a repeat.

The start at a wet Sepang circuit was aborted after a large number of cars suffered a crippling software bug that left them coasting with no throttle input on the formation laps. The bug was triggered by a number of compounding factors - explained in depth here - during F1's very first wet weather race for this generation of complex power units.

It took a 50-minute delay for the race to start, during which time FIA engineers coded a hotfix and sent it to the teams to install on their cars. The stoppage was a major blemish for F1 ahead of what was otherwise an entertaining, mixed-weather race.

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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, whose drivers were also affected but to a lesser extent than some of their rivals, said it was important for F1 to avoid a repeat of the Sepang drama, but also showed understanding for what had happened.

"I think we have to concede that Formula 1 has done an excellent job in making the new regulations, with some question marks from a power unit behaviour point of view," Stella said. "I think we have to acknowledge that there's been really good work to make the show work, to make the racing work. And if there's some glitches occasionally, then we have to accept that there's glitches for everyone."

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

He added: "If we think about the teams, we have many. And if this is about the sport or some common software issues, I think we have to be in acceptance and be supportive to make sure that it doesn't happen again. But as a competitor, I wouldn't feel comfortable saying that this was not at the right standards, considering that as a competitor we have many issues pretty much every weekend.

"When there's this level of novelty, we can accept that there may be some aspects that need some tuning."

FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis addressed the issue after the race and said the specific problem encountered in Sepang will not happen again. "Obviously, that was a major criticality, and we need to make sure we avoid it.

“But can I guarantee it will never happen again? This specific problem, yes. A problem, no. But we will do our best to avoid it, of course.”

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