You may have heard about the “software bug” that caused the chaos that forced the cancellation of the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix start in Malaysia, but what is this bug and how exactly did it cause so much drama?
After torrential rain delayed the initial start by 40 minutes, a start attempt had to be abandoned after several cars crawled or stopped on the formation laps.
This meant the race was delayed by more than 45 minutes and led to complaints from F1 drivers who called it “horrible” and demonstrated that F1 had become “too complicated”.
It emerged after the race that a software bug had triggered the chaos.
There is a mandatory alternative motor mode for wet weather operation with a maximum deployment of 250 kW, compared to a maximum of 350 kW in dry conditions.
There are some areas where a 250 kW reduction is imposed (for safety reasons), including left turn 9 at Sepang, where the problems occurred.
Turn 9 is also an area where a reduction in electric power is not necessary, so the MGU-K can come to a complete stop in an instant.
When the cars fell at very slow speeds behind the safety car, the boost pressure began to drop and there was no MGU-K to rescue them.
At that point, a bug in the system put the cars in what’s called a “continuous lag,” which is a 60-second emergency lockout that had been imposed this year to prevent teams from deliberately shutting down the MGU-K. It can also damage the power of the internal combustion engine.
It’s similar to the now-banned engine trick deployed earlier in the year and revealed by stoppages during testing at Suzuka earlier this year.
As an emergency measure, the FIA released new software that removed the 250kW restriction in these sectors in order to have some MGU-K power to allow them to run in these sections at low speeds.
The FIA released a statement after the race, saying: “During the formation lap ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, an unprecedented combination of low engine revs, low grip conditions, wet weather energy management settings and the sectoral configuration of the Sepang circuit led to an unintended loss of power for a number of cars.
“As a result, the FIA Technical Department has removed the energy limit constraint in the affected sectors through an updated software version distributed to all competitors during the race delay caused by heavy rain, allowing teams to make necessary modifications to the powertrain before the start of the race.
“This issue was not detected by the FIA or the teams during testing or during laps on the grid. The FIA, in conjunction with the teams and powertrain manufacturers, will undertake a full review of the issue.”
Why wasn’t it detected sooner?
The FIA also took the unusual step of sending FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis before the media post-race to explain the situation in detail.
“We didn’t manage to test the software as much as we would have liked, because there was very little wet driving this year,” explains Tombazis.
“There was a small combination of circumstances that caused this bug to appear.
“Basically, (on) the formation lap, some cars were going very slow, almost stopping. There was a little concertina effect between the cars, and some cars were almost stopping completely.
“This bug prevented the power from being redeployed and the cars from restarting. I think if we had done a little more testing we probably would have managed to catch it in time and not end up in such a situation.”
“Once the problem occurred, our guys realized very quickly what was happening and had to work under a lot of pressure to get a software update, which was distributed to the teams, and they had to install it on their cars.
“So the whole thing took about 20 minutes. It may have felt like five hours to the spectators waiting at a race, and to everyone else, which is understandable, and we’re sorry about that. But I think it was a pretty quick reaction given the problem.”
This grand prix was the first true weekend race for the 2026 cars in rainy conditions.
These cars were only tested in the wet during a couple of Pirelli tire tests earlier in the year – the Red Bulls and Racing Bulls tested at Suzuka after the Japanese GP and Ferrari tested at an artificially wet Fiorano circuit in April.
These tests had given warnings that these cars would struggle in wet conditions this year, but the slow speed conditions of the formation laps in Malaysia were not tested.
“I think it was a combination of speed, very low speeds, much lower than you would normally do in such a test, that caused this phenomenon,” Tombazis said.
“I don’t think these (Pirelli) tests were representative of this situation in order to help us detect it in time.
“They weren’t tested enough. Normally software needs to be tested in a lot more detail and unfortunately, well, I don’t know if it’s unfortunate or not, but this year we had, in general, very good weather, and that’s why it happened so late.”
Asked if it was a mistake not to have anticipated it, he added: “Well, every bug is the product of an error. I don’t know of any software that doesn’t have bugs and updates. Your computer probably gets updated every three days, they’re all bugs.”
“Of course, anticipating these things is what you hope to do, but sometimes a combination of events is not properly anticipated and causes the problem.”
Tombazis added: “Sometimes things slip through the cracks and people learn, and you do a better job next time. »
Where does the software come from?
The FIA resolved the situation by sending software to all teams to download and install on their powertrains before the race got underway.
The FIA technical department on site quickly recognized the problem and wrote this code, a “cobbled together and rushed solution”, by Tombazis’ own admission, so that the race could start.
“Just to be clear, the software is developed by the FIA in collaboration with the teams. It is part of the standard code that we have that is common to all cars,” Tombazis said.
“So, yes, we are the regulator and we have that responsibility, but this software is developed by the FIA, by the ECU standard provider (Motion Applied), and by the team and the PU manufacturers, all in collaboration.
“None of these people anticipated the problem. This is clearly FIA software. We obviously have an important role to play. We need to do better, but this is software developed collaboratively by the entire Formula 1 industry.”
The entire powertrain software has been developed over the past three or four years, producing “a huge list of issues found by teams” that resulted in several updates before the start of the 2026 season – but this issue has gone unnoticed.
“Luckily, our guys figured out the problem very, very quickly and the update was done, I think, very competently,” Tombazis said.
“It was obviously a rushed job. The priority was to get back running as quickly as possible, so I think the reaction time was pretty quick.”
“It wasn’t a perfect job. Obviously we didn’t test the updates, but I think it was the way to handle such a case.”
Will this happen again?
The FIA and the teams will conduct a full debriefing after the race and while they are confident that this specific problem will not occur again, they cannot guarantee that there will not be other problems with such complicated engines.
“When electrical energy and combustion energy work together, and obviously when you want to guarantee sporting fairness between teams, it’s complicated,” Tombazis said.
“We all wish it were simpler, but the fact is that when you have so much electrical power, it makes things more complicated.
“We have not done a full debriefing of the situation and we have not seen how we can avoid such a problem. We then have a long debriefing at each race where we attempt the critical points.
“Obviously this was a major flash point, and we need to make sure we avoid it.”
“But can I guarantee that this won’t happen again? This specific problem? Yes. A problem? No, but we will do our best to avoid it.”
Gn sports
