Curious incident in Bahrain
“It was a little dark”: power failure in Formula 1
Updated on 02/26/2025 – 5:46 p.m.Reading time: 1 min.
Formula 1 test drives in Bahrain had to be interrupted unexpectedly on Wednesday. The route was suddenly no longer illuminated.
An unusual incident has interrupted Formula 1 test drives in Bahrain for almost 40 minutes. The electricity suddenly failed in the early evening, causing the floodlight system around the route. At that point, dusk was using.
“It was a little dark than I drove out, I thought that I should change the visor,” said Mercedes driver George Russell at Sky. It was only shortly afterwards that he noticed that “that the light doesn’t burn.”
But not only the visual relationships were problematic: the electricity also failed in large parts of the functional buildings and garages. Mechanics therefore continued to work with flashlights in the boxes. Red Bulls Motorsport Advisor Helmut Marko said: “The security systems do not run, we cannot use the team radio either. It is not possible to continue for safety aspects alone.”
The lighting returned after around 40 minutes and the training could continue. At that time, Ferrari-Pilot Charles Leclerc had set up the best time, followed by Russell and McLaren driver Lando Norris. Defending champion Max Verstappen took sixth place. However, the times during the test drives are only of limited meaning because the teams complete different programs.
The test drives in Bahrain run until Friday before the new season begins on March 16 in Melbourne.