Software fault caused penalties for Rosberg, Button teams
A fault with the pitlane speed limiter software resulted in penalties that denied Rosberg X Racing pole and demoted Jenson Button’s JBXE team in the Extreme E qualifying shootout.
In the afternoon session on the desert course in Saudi Arabia, RXR driver Molly Taylor and JBXE’s Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky were penalised for speeding in the driver change zone.
The rules give a five-second penalty for every km/h a car exceeds the 30km/h limit. This resulted in a 60s penalty for RXR to drop it from first to third in the combined times.
A 150s penalty was handed out to JBXE to demote it to sixth. A further 25s penalty for a
driver change that was under the minimum 45s was later rescinded due to a timing error.
It has transpired that both speeding penalties were the result of a software failure with the Spark Racing Technology-built Odyssey 21 E-SUV, which handed pole to Lewis Hamilton’s X44 team and its drivers Cristine Gutierrez and Sebastien Loeb.
RXR driver and three-time World Rallycross champion Johan Kristoffersson told Motorsport.com: “That was frustrating, but no blames on Molly.
“She hit the pit speed limiter button; it went into pit speed limiter. Then all of a sudden it just jumped out. Very, very frustrating for all of us.”
Molly Taylor, Rosberg X Racing, and Johan Kristoffersson, Rosberg X Racing
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Kristoffersson, first approached by Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg via an Instagram direct message, added that he and Taylor would be better off on their own rather than use a device which is “so unreliable”.
“The team has done a fantastic job to prepare the car,” he added. “We had no issues all day and when there's such a software thing, that's very annoying.
“Obviously, you focus on just holding full throttle and let the software do the job. But if we knew that it was a problem, it would have been much better to just control it yourself instead of to rely on something which is so unreliable.”
Button confirmed to Motorsport.com that his teammate Ahlin-Kottulinsky had suffered from the same issue, with the 2009 F1 title winner recognising immediately that she was too quick.
He said: “Mikaela came in, she pushed the button. In the data, you see that she's pushed it. But there isn't a limiter there, so she sped through it and then had to push it again.
Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky, Jenson Button, JBXE Extreme-E Team
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
“It's a shame. She obviously did go quite quick. But the problem is the limiter wasn't there. We got that penalty. We also got a penalty for being too quick on our driver change but we weren't. We got that penalty taken back, which is good. We did 45.09s so we just perfected it.
“We would have been fifth without the speeding penalty.”
Related video
Agag: “A miracle” so few cars broke in Extreme E qualifying
Rosberg X Racing, Andretti United win Extreme E semi-finals
Why McLaren has taken its unprecedented off-road left turn
McLaren will be in distinctly unfamiliar territory this weekend as it makes its Extreme E debut. But this rugged left turn serves as a means to an end to inspire a greater good
How XE's Arctic adventure gave a chilly reminder of the fixes to find
Extreme E’s third round provided the very definition of extreme conditions in the Arctic Circle, and despite settling on a successful format and Andretti United taking a maiden win, there remains plenty of work to do with the spec cars that froze in action
Why McLaren’s surprise electric path can benefit everyone involved
McLaren's announcement that it will enter the Extreme E series for electric SUVs next year came as something of a surprise. But it brings benefits that other championships it could seek to enter cannot, while providing a timely boost to a start-up that has had to cancel two of its South American rounds.
Why Extreme E's Senegal round hints at the series' true potential
Extreme E's second round on the sands of Senegal refined some the more clunky aspects of the series' debut event in Saudi Arabia. Even though its star-studded finale between Lewis Hamilton's X44 team and Rosberg X Racing proved anticlimactic, the pieces are in place for the series to only get better
How Extreme E exceeded expectations to pass its first major test
The racing may have lacked the explosive conclusion to Formula E's first race in 2014 and was not without its hiccups. But Extreme E's leap into the unknown appears to have paid off, delivering a spectacle quite unlike anything else
Extreme E: The team-by-team guide
The world’s newest motorsport discipline is set to go racing for the first time this weekend. Extreme E’s innovations and plans have raised some eyebrows, but it also provides an exciting list of competitors and teams for the inaugural campaign
How Extreme E’s charging solution could transform motorsport
The new off-road SUV series aims to go boldly into the unknown on several fronts, but perhaps its most significant measure will involve the energy source powering its fleet of cars
How XE's star power puts Formula E under pressure
With the addition of Jenson Button's own team to join the involvement of fellow Formula 1 champions Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in Extreme E's ranks, the new electric SUV series is brimming with star power to enable it to deliver on its promise