Sebastian Vettel has taken a stab at the sport’s owners in the wake of a DRS software failure during the 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix season finale which was explained away as a server crash by Formula 1 Race Director Michael Masi
For almost the first 20 laps in Abu Dhabi, the overtaking system was not enabled by race control. Race director Michael Masi said it was a failed server than needed to be rebooted.
“It was a bit like the Kreisliga,” Vettel, referring to one of the lowest divisions in the German football league, told the German broadcaster RTL.
“I don’t know how that can even happen. Perhaps because there is hardly any money in this sport,” the Ferrari driver added sarcastically.
Renault driver Daniel Ricciardo said the DRS failure highlighted why Formula 1 still needs the artificial overtaking-boosting system, “What the situation shows is that DRS is simply necessary at some circuits.”
“You can live without it in Monza, but even if some people think it’s too artificial, we do need DRS with the cars and the speeds that we have. “God save DRS!” declared the Australian with trademark grin.
Masi explained to reporters after the race at Yas Marina, “The simple part is a data server crashed. The timing still operated fine as we all saw but that crashed.
“We immediately disabled it and until we were 100% confident that it was all, not only back up and running but back up and running with the correct data available, that was when we re-enabled it.
“We made various checks collaboratively between the FIA and F1 Group to make sure everything was working hunky-dory. Until that point in time, we were not going to take a chance until we were confident.”
“It is the first time that it has happened. There is a backup but the first part is to actually identify what the first issue was and with any backup system there is a lag in things clicking over.
“We had to make sure it was back up and running in a stable condition that we were confident with what was being sent and that it was being sent equally and correctly.
“Once we were happy with that between us we reactivated it and enabled DRS,” concluded Masi.