FIA to Investigate Software Glitch That Stopped F1 Cars on the Formation Lap in Malaysia

The FIA has promised a full investigation into a software bug that cut power to several Formula 1 cars on the formation lap of Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, held at Sepang. Max Verstappen slowed dramatically at the front, Lewis Hamilton crawled to a halt and had to stop and restart his car on track for the first time in his career, and the start was abandoned while officials pushed a software update to every team, Reuters reports. Verstappen went on to win the race, but the result is not the story anyone is telling.

What happened on the formation lap?

Heavy rain had already delayed the original start by 40 minutes before the field took to the track behind the safety car on intermediate tyres, RACER reports. Halfway through the opening lap Verstappen slowed dramatically, Hamilton ground to a halt before the final corner, and multiple other cars slowed or stopped.

Charles Leclerc, running fourth, described realising mid-lap that everyone had the same problem and the field was stuck at 20kph, Sky Sports reports. Kimi Antonelli said the cars were at one point five-wide on the straight because nobody understood what was happening. The start procedure was abandoned, a red flag situation rather than a normal formation lap, and the race eventually began with the original grid order, almost an hour after the chaos on Sky Sports’ timing and over 90 minutes behind schedule in total, ESPN reports.

What caused the cars to lose power?

A software interaction nobody had tested for. The FIA said “an unprecedented combination of low engine speed, low-grip conditions, wet-weather energy management settings and the Sepang circuit’s sector configuration led to an unintended loss of power for a number of cars.”

Sky Sports analyst Anthony Davidson explained the chain: at low speed the turbo spools down because the cars no longer have an MGU-H, the battery drains trying to meet torque demand on intermediate tyres, and the car falls outside the FIA’s energy regulations and cannot reaccelerate. FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis told reporters the bug “prevented the power from being redeployed,” Reuters reports, and admitted a lack of wet pre-season testing let it slip through.

How did the FIA fix it during the delay?

By patching the whole grid. The FIA technical department removed the energy limit constraint in the affected sectors through an updated software release distributed to all competitors during the rain delay, enabling teams to change the power unit settings before the start.

Tombazis told SiriusXM that the update was issued within a few minutes of the problem being understood, but installing it on every car and verifying each one cost about 20 to 25 minutes, RACER reports. He also conceded that every checker missed the bug beforehand: the FIA, the teams, the power unit manufacturers and the official ECU provider all failed to spot it in testing.

What did the drivers say afterwards?

They laughed about it, then stopped laughing. In the press conference, Verstappen, Hamilton and championship leader Antonelli joked it felt “like the Lego race,” a reference to the drivers’ parade in Lego cars at Silverstone, Sky Sports reports. Hamilton added: “I had to stop on track and stop the car and engine and restart it. I’ve never done that before.” Verstappen concluded: “That’s not what you want for the sport and I hope there is a lesson learned.”

The sharper verdicts came elsewhere. Reigning champion Lando Norris called the experience “horrible” and said it proves the electronics should not work this way, while Lance Stroll said the field should have been out racing on wet tyres instead of fixing software, ESPN reports. Drivers had already criticised the 2026 power units, which are almost 50 percent electric, since the opening race of the season, Reuters reports.

What did the FIA review actually find? (Update, October 8)

A specific operating window, not a general failure. The review concluded that cars running at low engine revs in circuit sectors where a 250kW power reduction was applied lost power beyond what was intended, and could not recover that power inside those sectors, Reuters reports. That explains why the crawl struck on the slow parts of the lap and why removing the sector constraint during the delay got the field moving again.

The response runs in two stages. The configuration established at Sepang will be reinstated for this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix if wet weather is expected, and a further update to the wet-weather software will be released for the United States Grand Prix on October 25, the FIA said via Reuters. The review also recommended stronger testing measures, with the FIA, teams and power unit manufacturers strengthening validation through independent assessment and input from the supplier of the standardised control unit, Sky Sports reports.

The FIA pushed back on one part of the original story: the suggestion the software had never been tested. It said teams and manufacturers ran simulation exercises before deployment and that the package was then run at full scale in first practice sessions at the Belgian and Dutch Grands Prix, Sky Sports reports. Its published chronology has the start suspended at 3.45 p.m. local time, the cause identified within five minutes, guidance issued to teams at 4.03 p.m., the revised software integrated by 4.20 p.m. and cars leaving the pit lane again at 4.33 p.m., Reuters reports. Drivers are expected to discuss the episode with the FIA in Singapore, where a heat hazard has already been declared for the weekend.

What happens next for the FIA and the teams?

A full review, on a short clock. The FIA said it will review the issue together with the teams and power unit manufacturers, and Tombazis accepted that “sometimes things fall through the net,” Reuters reports.

The test comes immediately: Formula 1 heads to Singapore next for the final Sprint weekend of the season, with track action starting Friday, Sky Sports reports. One driver’s Singapore is already compromised by Sepang’s other failure: Mercedes has confirmed George Russell will start from the back of the grid there with a new engine after his power unit died five laps from the finish. One wet session there and the same software, minus one energy constraint, is back under examination. Sepang was the first wet weekend of the year; the sport now knows what its new cars do in the rain, and so does everyone who watched them stop.