The Bahrain GP in Malaysia was one of the crazier races I've seen in F1. Eventually, this collaboration of lateral thinking which ensured a Grand Prix took place on a great track we have missed in F1 for nine years, was a huge success. I want to say straight away that I know from meeting numerous fans over the weekend, particularly at the airport on Monday morning, that a great many people suffered very long delays getting out of the venue and back to their bases.
Road systems became gridlocked and transit buses blocked. While the event was necessarily hurriedly assembled, this was still disappointing, and I want to add my personal appreciation to those fans in Malaysia. At least those I spoke with said they thoroughly enjoyed the race and spectacle, many of whom would also have got as wet through as I did on the grid walk.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player That weather cell and deluge popped up literally just as the cars headed to the grid, and as the 'easy up' shelters were positioned over the cars and wet tyres feverishly wheeled out, the standing water around the track was such that the start procedure was suspended. When the rain eased, and with pleasing urgency, it was declared that there would be two formation laps behind the Safety Car and then a proper standing start. That was all fine until we started seeing a number of cars travelling very slowly and then stopping altogether, except for the Safety Car which continued at normal pace, increasingly out by itself.
Those still running were wary of the regulations and reluctant to pass very slow cars. Many of the six Ferrari-powered cars seemed affected, some Red Bull Powertrains and a McLaren Mercedes too. Given this was the first time many of the all-new 2026 cars had run in wet conditions, there was clearly an unexpected issue.
It turned out to be FIA software settings. All cars must run a standard FIA 'brain' for many essential functions to ensure parity and abide by regulations, which couldn't compute with cars travelling at such increasingly slow speeds, shutting down power delivery. Cars were eventually spread out all over the track in two and then three tranches.
Drivers at the side of the track effectively having to hit the control/alt/delete to restart their motors. It was chaos and the Safety Car was about to lap many cars which should have been diligently following it. The only option was to abandon the whole thing and recover to the pits, at which point the Safety Car was bizarrely mid pack rather than at the front.
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