Bahrain Grand Prix moves to Malaysia

The two thousand twenty-six Bahrain Grand Prix was held at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia instead of Bahrain itself. The ongoing war with Iran ruled out the original location.

Heavy rain delays the start

Heavy rain arrived about half an hour before the start time, delaying the race significantly. The organizers decided on two formation laps behind the safety car to let drivers assess conditions.

A hidden bug emerges

Driving slowly behind the safety car with reduced hybrid power convinced several cars they were breaking a hard-coded anti-cheating rule, triggering automatic sixty-second shutdowns of their electric motors.

Chaos on the formation lap

Car after car slowed as they encountered the problem, with varying reboot times. Max Verstappen of Red Bull described the scene: "At some point, we were five-wide on the straight because we couldn't understand what was going on."

“At some point, we were five-wide on the straight because we couldn't understand what was going on.”

The bug had never been tested

The race organizers aborted the entire start. The bug had never come up in testing, and the FIA had to hastily write and distribute a software update to fix it.

FIA explains the problem

Nikolas Tombazis, head of single-seater racing at the FIA, said wet-weather software settings combined with extremely slow formation lap speeds created a bug that stopped cars from reaccelerating to normal speeds.

Twenty minutes to fix and deploy

The FIA issued the updated software to teams within about twenty minutes. Teams had to update the software in their cars and ask clarifying questions, adding another twenty minutes to the delay.

Rain clears before restart

The delay was long enough for the rain to abate and standing water to drain. Just over half the grid gambled on starting with soft or medium slick tires, while only nine drivers chose intermediates.

Slick tires prove a mistake

The track was still much wetter than expected. Slick-shod cars quickly fell behind as they struggled to put down power. Lewis Hamilton, starting second on slicks, was among those left behind.

Verstappen recovers from terrible start

Max Verstappen got a terrible start on intermediates and dropped to third behind both Mercedes. He said his engine completely died when he dropped the clutch, but he settled in and began closing the gap.

Hamilton gambles on conditions changing

Lewis Hamilton told his race engineer on lap five he would gamble on conditions coming back to suit him rather than pit for intermediates. This decision showed the depth of experience the seven-time world champion brings.

Alonso's Aston Martin finds form

Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin had been multiple seconds slower at the season start, but an Adrian Newey aerodynamic update and Honda's second power unit upgrade helped him move forward through the field.

Gearbox failure triggers safety car

Alex Albon's Williams suffered a gearbox failure on lap forty-three, triggering a virtual safety car. The broken transmission prevented easy removal, so a full safety car was declared, bunching the pack.

Russell's title hopes end

George Russell came to a stop by the pit exit on lap fifty with another power unit failure. He said it was a tough one to take and acknowledged his title chances for two thousand twenty-six were over.

“Another power unit failure, when we were on course for a pretty certain podium.”

Verstappen wins amid chaos

Max Verstappen won the race with Kimi Antonelli second and Lewis Hamilton third after a wonderful recovery drive. Fernando Alonso finished eighth, Aston Martin's best result of the year.

Drivers call for simpler regulations

George Russell, Lando Norris, and Carlos Sainz all criticized the complexity of current power unit regulations. Sainz questioned who decided five years ago that this direction was right for the sport.

“It is clear the regs are extremely complicated for the drivers, for the teams, for the PUs, for the manufacturers. It is too complicated.”

Power units to be rebalanced

Next year, power units will be rebalanced with more power from the V six and less from the electric motor. Another change comes in two thousand twenty-eight, with a major shift to V eights in two thousand thirty-one or two thousand thirty.