FIA admits wet-weather software was barely tested before the Sepang formation lap chaos

[Romulan32]

The FIA has explained why several cars lost power on the formation lap at the Bahrain Grand Prix, held this year at Sepang in Malaysia, F1-Fansite reports. Single seater director Nikolas Tombazis said wet weather software designed to prevent power surges failed under a combination of conditions it had not been tested in. Low engine speed, low grip and the layout of the Sepang circuit combined to trip it up. "There was a software error, and that meant that some cars, when travelling at very low speeds, couldn't accelerate again," he said

RaceFans has published a fan's video showing cars crawling around the formation lap after the software cut their power, with pole sitter Max Verstappen among those affected. The start was delayed by nearly an hour while corrective settings were reapplied to the cars. Verstappen described the confusion: "we were five-wide on the straight because we couldn't understand what was going on." He went on to win the race, as we discussed yesterday

Drivers were scathing about the new 2026 power unit rules. Both Hamilton and Verstappen compared it to "the Lego race", while Sergio Perez said it felt like "rental karting." Carlos Sainz, speaking for the drivers' association, said: "It's clear that the regulations are extremely complex...It's far too complicated. Once again, my only question is: who decided five years ago that this was the way forward?"

The FIA has promised a full review with teams and power unit manufacturers. The 2026 rules introduced a much greater reliance on electrical energy, with complex management systems that decide when power is deployed. Critics warned that this would make the cars harder to understand and more prone to strange behaviour. Sepang seems to have proved them right, at least in the wet

Are the 2026 engine rules too complicated? And should the FIA have tested the wet weather software more before letting it near a race weekend?

Sainz asks who decided F1's 2026 rules were the way forwardwww.f1-fansite.com

[Iconic52]

Sainz's question about who decided this five years ago is the right one. The rules were designed around energy management that nobody outside the engineers can follow. Fans want racing, not software settings