The first free practice session of the Imola Grand Prix have been a bit chaotic for both viewers and teams: the fibre line to the Imola circuit failed, causing a significant loss of coverage. 

The first minutes of the session were lost: broadcasters around the world didn't have pictures coming from the circuit, but could only manage to have a limited coverage later into the session. 

The fibre fail caused issues for teams as well: data feeds, radio connetions or lap times were not available to the teams as well, causing a bit of uncertainty among teams and engineers. The Paddock was forced, then, to use satellite connections as back-up, as RaceFans reports, until the fibre connection was reset. 

The issue caused all team to go back to twenty years or more. Some drivers complained about it, like both McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris. AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost commented the issue saying it was "interesting to observe how confused we were". 

“Normally you’re used to give the driver some advice to tell them, especially at the beginning of the free practice session or what to do and also regarding the traffic and the drivers couldn’t hear us, we couldn’t hear drivers. And it was a completely new situation because no one was prepared for this.”

Frederic Vasseur, Alfa Romeo team principal, also commented saying there was not a big loss of data for teams. 

“The experience was a bit strange because we had no lap time,” he said. “We had the data for safety, for sure, at least, but we had no data and no information on the others at all.

“But as it was just for the first stint until the mid-session, something like this, it’s okay for me, it’s not a drama.

“For sure we are not used to [it] now. We discussed after the session because the drivers were complaining about the radio and I said okay, but 20 years ago guys they were able to drive without radio. And now it’s okay.”