Brundle says FIA decision to reset Bahrain GP grid ‘smart and fair’

Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle has offered an incisive take on the bizarre formation lap meltdown that threw the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia into utter disarray last weekend, praising race control for making a "smart and fair" decision to issue a total reset.

A torrential cloudburst ahead of the start laid the groundwork for an unprecedented tech nightmare. As the grid set off on the formation lap, machines across the board began mysteriously faltering, stranding cars in traffic and sending drivers into a frenzy of system reboots.

It quickly emerged that a systemic conflict in the standardized FIA ECU software – triggered by low engine revs, poor grip, wet-weather energy management modes, and the circuit layout – was forcefully shutting down power delivery on the slow-moving cars.

Following an extended 40-minute stoppage to deploy an emergency software fix, race stewards opted to reinstate the original starting positions, wiping away the initial formation lap losses.

Code patches and clarity

Reflecting on the sprawling trackside confusion, Brundle highlighted how fast the situation unspooled.

“We started seeing a number of cars travelling very slowly and then stopping altogether, except for the Safety Car which continued at normal pace, increasingly out by itself,” Brundle wrote in his post-race Sky column.

“Those still running were wary of the regulations and reluctant to pass very slow cars. Many of the six Ferrari-powered cars seemed affected, some Red Bull Powertrains and a McLaren Mercedes too. Given this was the first time many of the all-new 2026 cars had run in wet conditions, there was clearly an unexpected issue.

“It turned out to be FIA software settings. All cars must run a standard FIA 'brain' for many essential functions to ensure parity and abide by regulations, which couldn't compute with cars travelling at such increasingly slow speeds, shutting down power delivery.

“Cars were eventually spread out all over the track in two and then three tranches. Drivers at the side of the track effectively having to hit the control/alt/delete to restart their motors. It was chaos and the Safety Car was about to lap many cars which should have been diligently following it.

“The only option was to abandon the whole thing and recover to the pits, at which point the Safety Car was bizarrely mid pack rather than at the front.”

Navigating the rulebook and finding the right path

The grid stoppage sparked instant debate in the paddock. Drivers who had lost ground through no fault of their own – including Lewis Hamilton in his Ferrari – faced the nerve-wracking prospect of starting from wherever they landed in the pit lane queue.

Bypassing strict start-suspension protocols to reset the order was technically unorthodox, but Brundle emphasized that pragmatism rightly trumped rigid procedural rules.

“The next problem was to unravel the problem and regulations; would those who fully stopped and lost position, like Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari, be obliged to start from the position they arrived back in the fast lane of the pits?” Brundle added.

“Although it took 40 minutes all told, which actually conveniently allowed the rain cell to clear the district, a smart and fair decision was made that the restart would be in original grid order.

"Furthermore, the FIA quickly found the issue, rewrote some code altering key power unit operating parameters which are in place for starting procedures when the car is under 50kph, and flashed that 'patch' to all the cars, not all of which had experienced problems, such as the Aston Martins.

“Anyway, it worked, even though cars would now be travelling faster behind the Safety Car on pit exit with much better track conditions, and teams and drivers by then knew what to look out for.”

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The FIA’s swift over-the-air software update resolved the low-speed power unit mapping bug, ensuring that the restarted procedure went off without further hitches once the weather cleared.

While software glitches on F1’s complex modern engines are rare, Sepang proved that new regulations always carry unexpected traps. Ultimately, race control's willingness to hit the reset button prevented a tech flaw from completely ruining the Grand Prix.

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