The FIA, which is in charge of Formula 1 races, started looking into a problem on Friday night. There were two fires in the same spot of grass at Turn 7 during practice sessions.
The first fire happened in the morning, and the session had to stop. Then, in the afternoon during sprint qualifying, there was another fire at the same spot. This time, it didn’t stop the session, but it delayed the next one.
The FIA sent people to check the area to find out why the fires kept happening, but they haven’t figured it out yet. It seems like sparks from the F1 cars are causing the fires, but they don’t know why the grass is burning so much.
They checked if there were any chemicals or flammable things on the grass, but they didn’t find anything. Some people think maybe methane gas under the ground is causing the fires. The Shanghai circuit is built on a swamp, so there might be gas coming up from the ground.
However, even after checking, they didn’t find any evidence of gas. So, it’s still a mystery why the fires keep happening.
But to prevent more fires, the FIA watered down the grass and put more fire trucks nearby just in case.
The FIA said in a short statement, “Although we are still uncertain why grass fires occurred in yesterday’s sessions, we are taking pre-emptive measures ahead of today’s track activities. We will be watering the grass in the affected areas and will have an emergency fire response team on standby at Turn 7.”
