Hamilton bemused as software glitch turns F1 into 'Lego race' before Bahrain GP in Malaysia

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were left bemused after a software glitch slowed multiple cars before the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on 4 October 2026, with Verstappen likening the spectacle to a "Lego race" and going on to take a dominant win while Hamilton finished third.

A tropical downpour delayed attempts to get the grand prix under way for the best part of an hour, and when the field set off on formation laps behind a safety car many cars struggled to move. Organisers said a bug in the software that mandates how the engines' electrical power can be used in wet conditions had been triggered by a combination of low engine speeds, low grip and specific aspects of the circuit layout.

Verstappen described the incident during the post-race news conference and said: "These engines are so complicated and a lot of software is implemented. "I triggered [the problem] first and then I looked in my mirror, I was like, 'Wait, are they waiting for me or what's going [on]...?' It was like the Lego race." The Dutchman called the victory "amazing"; it was his first win of the year and his 72nd career victory, and the report notes he had been the man all weekend at Sepang and had previously won at the track in 2017.

Hamilton, who had shared the front row with Verstappen, said: "Yeah, we had the same speed. I had to stop on track and stop the car and engine and restart it. I've never done that before." Mercedes driver George Russell retired from the race with an engine failure and said: "It didn't feel very F1." Russell later added: "I don't need to say I think it's gone, but, of course, it's exceptionally unlikely and that's just the reality. "I knew if I wanted to come back, I needed luck on my side. Unfortunately, I had luck not on my side. "So, you know, a three-point loss today being behind Kimi turned into an 18-point loss. Of course, if it was on the other side it would have been an 18-point gain. So it's a real shame, but that's just how it is." He also said: "You've almost got to laugh. I'm beyond disappointment. It's just so many times this season it's happened. It's a real shame. Of course, but just keep on fighting."

Nikolas Tombazis, the single-seater director for the FIA, said there would be a full investigation and added that the software had been tested but "it had not been tested in these specific conditions. Largely because there has been so little running in the wet this year." He said: "Cars are complicated. We would all like it to be simpler, but when you have electrical energy and combustion energy all working together, and obviously when you want to ensure that there's sporting fairness between the teams, that is complicated." Tombazis warned: "We haven't done a full debrief of the situation and 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. 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."

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella reflected on the presentation of the sport and the new regulations, saying: "What happened at the start obviously is not ideal in terms of presentation of the sport. "But at the same time it is the first year of new regulations, quite complex from a regulatory point of view, and it was also the first time we started in such conditions. "So we have to concede that F1 has done an excellent job in making some new regulations that came with some question marks from a power-unit behaviour point of view when it came to racing for instance. "We have to acknowledge there has been really good work to make the show and racing work, and if there are some glitches occasionally, we have to accept they are glitches for everyone, be supportive and make sure it doesn't happen again." The article also notes the latest hybrid engines have a "near 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power," which has required added management complexity and prompted rule changes for next year to alter the energy split.

The software issue also jumbled the field order on the formation lap and, after FIA software engineers rewrote code, officials determined "as this situation had never occurred before, and as the problem was out of any competitor's control, the most appropriate order was to revert to the original grid." Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord said: "If you think of the millions of people watching around the world, they tune in for the start and suddenly the cars are all in a jumbled up order because of something that happened 40 minutes earlier and it was behind a safety car on a formation lap. That would have been a much harder thing to explain than resetting and then going from where we did."

Kimi Antonelli finished second in Malaysia and Russell's late retirement extended Antonelli's championship lead to 84 points. The report states there are "six or seven races remaining, depending on whether F1 gets the security reassurances it needs to give it the final confidence to commit to the end of the season grands prix in Qatar and Abu Dhabi," leaving either 158 or 183 points available in total.