Carlos Sainz reveals personal apology from FIA after Singapore qualifying controversy
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Williams driver Carlos Sainz has revealed that FIA Single-Seater Director Nikolas Tombazis personally apologized to him following the controversial events during sprint qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix. According to the Spaniard, the Greek official admitted that human error affected the session and acknowledged that the decision to proceed with the second segment despite the sporting unfairness was the wrong call.
Friday's sprint qualifying at the Marina Bay Street Circuit was overshadowed by a Race Control blunder that compromised several drivers in SQ1. The trouble began following an incident involving Sergio Perez at Turn 5, which brought out a red flag to allow marshals to clear debris. However, once the session resumed, the overtake mode remained unavailable to the drivers.
Once Race Control realized the oversight, the system was activated for just 27 seconds before being shut down again. As a result, only a handful of drivers were able to complete their flying laps with the extra power boost, while the rest were denied the same technical advantage.
The FIA admitted that human error created an unlevel playing field during the session. Several drivers, including Sainz, suffered an early exit in the opening phase, sparking immediate frustration from the Spaniard on Friday.
Speaking after the session, Sainz explained that Tombazis approached him directly to acknowledge the mistake made in handling the transition between segments.
"Nikolas came over to apologize and admitted it was a human error, but he also confirmed that the decision between the first and second phase was wrong. He admitted that it created an unfair advantage that shouldn't have happened. I am still amazed that, knowing full well how unfair it was, they just chose to sweep everything under the rug as if nothing happened."
Sainz hits out at FIA's inconsistent approach
The Spanish driver expressed deep frustration that qualifying was allowed to continue uninterrupted, despite the governing body recognizing that drivers had been unfairly disadvantaged through no fault of their own.
He also drew comparisons to the previous race weekend in Malaysia, where a separate software glitch disrupted the schedule, questioning why the federation handled the two situations so differently.
"I'm mostly surprised by the difference in approach compared to Malaysia, where something very similar happened. I still can't wrap my head around it. I will never understand how that decision was made, but at the end of the day, we're not fighting for the championship. We're not even fighting for points. I guess that's why they didn't really care."
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