Carlos Sainz hits out at the FIA over sporting equity after an Overtake Mode mix up in Singapore

[Sentinel66]

Carlos Sainz has criticised the FIA over what he sees as a lack of sporting equity, RacingNews365 reports. During Singapore sprint qualifying, a human error in race control meant Overtake Mode was not switched back on after the red flag for Sergio Perez's crash. When it was turned on, the FIA disabled it again after 27 seconds to keep things fair. The result was confusion over who had what power and when

Sainz qualified 22nd for Williams. He says some drivers gained about half a second from the mix up. In his words, half of the cars did the lap with half a second quicker engine than the others. That is a huge difference in a session decided by hundredths

He also linked it to the formation lap chaos at Sepang, which we discussed earlier this week. At Sepang, the FIA restarted the race in the original grid order even though the rules called for the reshuffled positions. Sainz says the FIA's approach seems to depend on who is affected. He said he is a bit confused about why the sport keeps doing different things depending on who is out in Q1 or who is out on lap one

Sainz is also a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, so his words carry extra weight. He noted there was another software issue with the cars, and this time Williams was on the bad end of it. After his comments about Sepang, he is clearly losing patience. It is unusual for a driver to criticise the governing body this directly two weekends in a row

He has a point about consistency. Fans can accept mistakes, but they want them handled the same way each time. The new power unit rules have brought a lot of software complexity, and race control is struggling to keep up. A clear set of rules for what happens when systems fail would help everyone

Is Sainz right to call out the FIA again? And are the 2026 rules too complicated for race control to manage?

Carlos Sainz hits out at FIA over perceived lack of 'sporting equity'racingnews365.com