How FIA software bug caused chaos in Bahrain GP in Malaysia – and the emergency fix that saved the race
by Ronald Vording · AutosportExtremely low speeds behind the safety car triggered an unexpected problem with the FIA software at Sepang. The governing body explains what went wrong and how it rushed through an update to get the race under way
The start of the first wet-weather race of the 2026 Formula 1 season descended into chaos. Leader Max Verstappen was the first to suffer from a lack of power while driving slowly during the formation laps behind the safety car, after which Lewis Hamilton came to a standstill and several other cars followed.
Race control was forced to stop the formation lap with a red flag, after which there was a 40-minute delay before fans actually got to see some F1 action.
FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis confirmed to media including Autosport that a bug in the software supplied by the FIA and developed together with the teams over the course of multiple years was responsible for the chaos.
“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. There was a bit of a combination of circumstances which caused this bug to kick in,” Tombazis said during an impromptu media session post-race.
“Basically, on the formation lap, some cars went very slowly and almost came to a standstill. There was a bit of a concertina effect between cars and some cars almost stopped completely. That bug prevented then the power to be redeployed and for the cars to start again.”
This is closely related to the reduction in electrical power to 250kW in wet conditions.
Although the software required for this was tested by several teams, including Red Bull and Racing Bulls, it was not tested in the conditions behind the safety car – and therefore not at these extremely low speeds.
At the Sepang International Circuit, those low speeds were reached in certain minisectors, with all the consequences that followed.
“It was mainly in some sectors where the full power was reduced. I don't know exactly what speed that was, but some cars reaching this very low speed somehow entered into a loop, which meant they couldn't re-accelerate and then it looked as if they came to a stop.”
In practice, this left drivers feeling as though the throttle pedal was no longer responding, something Oliver Bearman told the media with some surprise.
“I've never seen or felt anything like that. I was shocked that… I didn't even know that the FIA could control our throttle pedal. That was quite scary, actually,” the Haas driver said.
“My throttle pedal just stopped working. It was like it was not connected and the engine was just idling. It was so weird, I mean, shocking.”
One of the questions is why the internal combustion engine was also affected, when that should not be the case at extremely low speeds. The FIA does not yet have a formal answer to that question, but the initial suggestion is that the bug caused all throttle input to go towards recharging the MGU-K, which explains why drivers felt there was no response from the throttle pedal at all.
At first glance, it appeared as though the Mercedes-powered cars were less affected by the issue than other manufacturers, but Tombazis explained that there is no technical reason for that. It was simply related to the speeds reached in certain minisectors.
“Not all cars reached the same low speeds on the formation lap. There was a bit of a concertina effect. I think Max slowed down quite a lot, being at the front, and then some cars braked harder as they were surprised and so on. That caused some cars to experience the problem and some others to not experience it.”
How the FIA provided F1 teams with an emergency fix
The FIA then had to react quickly to get the race near Kuala Lumpur under way after all, as Tombazis explained when asked by Autosport.
“Fortunately, our guys understood the issue very, very quickly. I think the update was done very competently. It was obviously a rush job. The priority was to get running as quickly as possible again, so I think the reaction time was quite fast,” he said.
“It wasn't a perfect job and, clearly, we didn't test the updates, but I think it was the way to handle such a case.”
In practice, the update meant that the FIA lifted the energy limit constraint – the restrictions associated with the 250kW limit – for the minisectors in which the low speeds had triggered the bug. Logically, this is not a watertight solution going forward, but it was an emergency measure to ensure the race could go ahead.
“In some of the sectors, some of these reductions of power were overridden,” Tombazis confirmed. “Clearly, we didn't have five days to do the updates. We only had a few minutes, but fortunately, I think we managed to do it without compromising any safety, any racing or fairness.”
How could this happen in the first place?
After the FIA update, all the teams still had to install the modified software, which explains the delay before the restart. The Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia was saved as a result, but that still does not explain how the FIA could have missed this issue throughout all its preparations and why it only surfaced in round 16 of the championship.
“The software was tested. It just wasn't tested in those specific conditions,” Tombazis replied. “What caught us out was the fact that cars went in that very, very low speed, which was not normally contemplated.”
During the tyre tests in which the software was tested, the extremely low speeds were understandably not reached. Nevertheless, there is a crucial counterargument to that: in the rain, the likelihood of a safety car – and therefore low speeds – is very high. Should the FIA not have anticipated that, and was that the governing body’s biggest mistake?
Asked that question by Autosport, Tombazis responded: “Well, any bug is a product of a mistake. I don't know of any software that doesn't have bugs and updates. Your computer probably gets updated every three days and those are all bugs.
“Of course, anticipating these things is what one hopes to do, but sometimes some very combination of events isn't properly anticipated and causes the problem. 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.”
Although the cause of this problem is now known and a temporary fix has been introduced, the FIA still has many questions to answer internally – also to ensure that it does not happen again.
“We would all like it to be simpler, but the fact is when you have as much electrical energy, it does make it more complicated. I think you appreciate that the race has now finished about one hour ago and we haven't done a full debrief of the situation to see how we can avoid such an issue.
“Every race, we have a long debrief afterwards where we identify criticalities. Obviously, that was a major criticality and we need to make sure we avoid it.
“But can I guarantee it will never happen again? This specific problem, yes. A problem, no. But we will do our best to avoid it, of course.”
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- The Autosport.com Team
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