The Story
Cars were left stranded around the track at the first attempt to start the race.
Formula 1 faced a farcical start to the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on Sunday when an FIA software glitch left cars stranded around the Sepang circuit on a soaking wet formation lap before the start.
For a while, it looked like the sport’s worst PR disaster since the 2005 US Grand Prix, when the Michelin runners pulled out at the end of the formation lap, and only six cars completed the race.
The issue involved a wet-weather mode in the common software used by all teams and power unit suppliers. In essence, it’s there for safety reasons: to trim electrical power from 350kW to 250kW in certain sections of the track.
It was only when cars were running slowly at low rpm on the wet formation lap that issues began to arise, with front row men Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton the first to report a problem, before others down the field began to slow or coast to a halt as drivers asked their teams how to do the equivalent of control, alt, delete.
It was a complex issue, but in essence, as cars ran at ultra-low speeds on the formation lap – with the wet weather mode in operation for the first time in an official session – a bug was triggered that put the power units into a sort of sleep mode for 60 seconds.
After the race, the FIA’s single-seater boss Nikolas Tombazis, the man largely responsible for the 2026 regulations, explained what happened. “We didn’t manage to test the software as extensively as we would have liked, because there’s been very little wet running this year,” he said. “And there was a bit of a combination of circumstances which caused this bug to kick in. Basically, the formation laps, some cars went very slowly, almost came to a standstill. There was a bit of a concertina effect between cars, and some cars almost stopped completely. And that bug prevented the power from being redeployed and the cars from starting again. I think if we had had a bit more testing, we probably would have managed to catch it in time, and not to have such a situation.”.
Why It Matters
It also put the FIA technical department into the spotlight, although Tombazis stressed that it wasn’t that simple.
CarMotion Daily’s Take
Formula 1 faced a farcical start to the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on Sunday when an FIA software glitch left cars stranded around the Sepang circuit on a soaking wet formation lap before the start. The detail bears tracking. Supply chains, regulations, and consumer demand are reshaping the playbook faster than five-year plans can keep up. Dealer networks and service capacity will need to evolve alongside whatever the headline announcement implies. Regulatory filings, supplier contracts, and any production-volume adjustments usually trail the headline by a quarter or two. Stock price moves and dealer council chatter are leading indicators worth monitoring.
📝 Source & Copyright Notice
This story was first reported by RoadandTrack. For the full article with original photography and complete coverage, visit the source: Read the full story at RoadandTrack →
