Red Bull ‘grateful’ for F1 testing power cut as more disruption hits Bahrain track

A power cut caused a delay of more than an hour during the evening session on the first day of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain, but it may have worked in Max Verstappen’s favour

The first day of Formula 1 testing may have been disrupted by a power cut, but Ted Kravitz thinks the delay might have played into the hands of one team.

The first session of the three-day test went off without a hitch on Wednesday. But the evening’s running was extended by an hour after all the teams had to spend at least that long stuck in their garages because of electrical problems at the Bahrain International Circuit.

For around 30 minutes, many of the team garages were plunged into darkness, prompting mechanics to source torches so they could continue to work on the cars. And the overall delay was more than an hour until all the floodlights around the circuit had come back on.

The extension to the session meant the teams were able to make up most of the lost time. But during that lengthy delay there were still plenty of bemused drivers and engineers frustrated about not being able to get back out on track.

Except, perhaps, in the Red Bull garage. Max Verstappen was behind the wheel of their RB21 during that session and had been out on track going through his programme when the lights went out and the red flags began to fly, amid visibility concerns with the sun setting.

And Kravitz noted that Red Bull’s engineers, under torchlight, were making the most of the delay to the session to do some work on the car which, according to the Sky Sports pit lane reporter, may have been much-needed at the time.

He said during the live broadcast: “There’s about four or five different setup changes and repairs going on at the same time on Max Verstappen’s car. They’ll be grateful for the extra hour. It is all just, it seems to me, trying a different setup.”

Officials later released a statement explaining the cause of the power cut and the lengthy delay to proceedings. It read: “A power outage caused by an external substation failure led to the afternoon session on track to be paused. Power has since been restored and the afternoon session has resumed. We appreciate everyone’s patience.”

The lack of electricity has not been the only unusual delay so far in testing this week. On Thursday morning, despite the fact the Bahrain International Circuit is situated in the desert, rain began to fall to the extent that most of the teams stayed in the garage until the clouds passed over.

Aston Martin and Haas are the only two teams who brought anything other than slick tyres with them to this test. And the latter team may have been feeling particularly smug when they bolted intermediates onto Esteban Ocon’s car so that the Frenchman could go out safely and gather more data while others were stuck in their garages.