The opening free follow for the Australian Grand Prix was interrupted with a pink flag after GPS issues on the Albert Park observe, with a difficulty with the distribution of reside tyre data being blamed.
The reside tyre data that’s utilized by groups and reside feeds to indicate the place automobiles are on observe failed simply after the forty minute mark inflicting the black out of knowledge, though the GPS system itself was nonetheless lively in System 1’s monitoring station inside race management.
The session was halted for round 9 minutes whereas a repair was put into place, with drivers successfully driving blind on account of the failure, which meant the pit wall couldn’t see the place they had been on observe nor warn them about any sooner automobiles coming from behind.
With the observe throughout free follow periods typically busy as groups try to study their automotive and easy methods to greatest set it up for the weekend, the smart choice was made by the stewards to by the pink flags, ending the chance of inflicting an pointless accident on observe.
Valtteri Bottas was one of many drivers who supported the choice for the session to be stopped, the Alfa Romeo F1 Workforce Stake driver believing it could have been dangerous to maintain automobiles circulating with out the knowledge from the pit wall.
“It’s a bit difficult clearly,” Bottas is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “It will depend on the observe however when there’s numerous visitors and half of the sphere is on a quick lap and half of the sphere is on a sluggish lap then it’s a bit blind. So, I believe it’s a little bit of a security factor.
“I believe it could be manageable [to carry out without teams having GPS positioning information], however there’s this one additional danger issue that anyone’s parked in a blind nook and somebody who comes flat out with out data.”
