Sainz: F1 'needs to have a hard look at' itself after Bahrain Grand Prix software glitches in Malaysia

Carlos Sainz said Formula 1 "needs to have a hard look at" itself after software glitches on Sunday affected the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, forcing the start to be abandoned and the race to begin an hour and a half later than scheduled after a new software code was issued.

A bug in a wet‑weather engine map caused a number of cars to struggle to move on formation laps before the race, with drivers including Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton reported to have lost power. Sainz, a Williams driver and director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, made his comments in the wake of the incident as the FIA launched a "full review" of the situation.

Sainz said: "It is clear the regulations are extremely complicated for the drivers, for the teams, for the power units and for the manufacturers. Who decided five years ago that this was the direction to go?"

He added: "We are doing the best with what we are given as a sport and as regulations. The FIA and F1 are doing the best they can."

Sainz concluded: "But clearly what was decided four or five years ago was wrong. We need to learn as a sport not to make those mistakes again."

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies said the episode was a reminder to keep complexity under control and that there would be discussions with teams, the FIA and F1 to prevent similar situations. Mekies said: "It's a good reminder for all of us that we should probably make sure that complexity doesn't get out of hand and that we keep things as under control as possible. And I'm sure we'll have discussions with the teams, with the FIA and with F1 to see how we can protect ourselves from those situations moving forward and make sure we can keep the complexity of the cars and the systems under control."

The problem was linked to the scarcity of wet‑weather running this year and to specific circumstances that had not previously arisen, according to the account of the incident. One technical restriction involved in the fault reduces total electrical power in the wet from 350kW (470bhp) to 250kW (335bhp), and teams identified that set‑ups and operation of the hybrid systems played a central role in the failures on the formation lap.

This season's new engine regulations feature a near 50‑50 split between internal combustion and electrical power, which has left the units relatively energy starved, reduced the impact of driver skill and produced counter‑intuitive car behaviour. The engines deliver about 1,000bhp on full power but only 540bhp when the batteries run out; batteries are fully deploying and recharging several times a lap, and a series of complex restrictions has been introduced to manage that process.

One consequence of the current rules is that cars slow at the end of some straights to recharge batteries, a change two‑time champion Fernando Alonso has described as "charging stations for the car". The 50‑50 energy split was decided five or six years ago, teams had warned the FIA of related issues since at least 2023, and the split was only seriously questioned shortly before the start of this year when the full impact became apparent.

Since the cars began to run under the new regulations this year, a series of rule changes have been introduced to address the problems, including altering this year's total amount of recovery allowed depending on how energy starved a circuit is. The energy split will move to 60‑40 in favour of internal combustion in two steps by 2028, and teams and F1 bosses are working on finalising a new engine formula intended to introduce power units that are never energy starved; FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem initially pushed for naturally aspirated V8s with no hybrid, but the current likeliest solution is a V8 turbo with somewhere in the region of 15‑25% electrical power, which will mostly be used as a simple push‑to‑pass system.