Martin Brundle has pulled no punches over the formation lap chaos at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, branding the initial scene total mayhem before defending the FIA’s eventual fix as “smart and fair.”
Heavy rain postponed the initial start time. When cars finally rolled out for the formation lap, the drama truly erupted.
Multiple machines ground to a crawl or cut out completely due to an unforeseen FIA software bug. Standard regulation settings could not handle the ultra-slow speeds in wet conditions.
“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,” Brundle noted in his Sky Sports column. “Those still running were wary of the regulations and reluctant to pass very slow cars.”
The glitch hit cars across multiple manufacturers, leaving drivers stranded around the circuit as they tried to reboot their complex 2026 power units.
“Many of the six Ferrari-powered cars seemed affected, some Red Bull Powertrains and a McLaren Mercedes too,” Brundle explained. “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.”
The sheer confusion on track forced officials to abort the start entirely.
“Cars were eventually spread out all over the track in two and then three tranches,” Brundle wrote. “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.”
Handing out penalties… or not?
Controversy loomed over whether drivers who lost positions or stopped—like Lewis Hamilton—would be penalised on the grid.
However, officials opted to reset the original grid order while issuing a software patch to every team during the 40-minute stoppage.
Despite the procedural headaches, Brundle praised the governing body for making the right sporting call.
“The next problem was to unravel the problem and regulations; would those who fully stopped and lost position, like Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, be obliged to start from the position they arrived back in the fast lane of the pits?” Brundle questioned.
“Although it took 40 minutes all told, which actually conveniently allowed the rain cell to clear the district, a smart and fair decision was made that the restart would be in original grid order.”
“Furthermore, the FIA quickly found the issue, rewrote some code altering key power unit operating parameters which are in place for starting procedures when the car is under 50kph, and flashed that ‘patch’ to all the cars, not all of which had experienced problems, such as the Aston Martins.”
The emergency software update held up once racing finally commenced.
“Anyway, it worked,” Brundle concluded. “Even though cars would now be travelling faster behind the Safety Car on pit exit with much better track conditions, and teams and drivers by then knew what to look out for.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris delivers blunt assessment of F1 regs after Sepang chaos
Discussion about this post