The FIA has vowed to launch a "full review" into the carnage seen on the formation laps at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
With the start of the grand prix delayed by 40 minutes due to rain, the field eventually pulled away for two formation laps to sight the track conditions, but a number of cars either slowed to a crawl or stopped completely.
Pole-sitter Max Verstappen was one of these, with second-placed Lewis Hamilton falling down the order as his machine stopped on the back-straight after holding the field up. Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas also stopped before the start sequence was suspended and red flags flown.
This suspension lasted for just under one hour, with a software patch being worked on and immediately transferred to the teams as a fix, with the race then resuming without any further similar trouble.
The formation laps were the first time the 2026-spec F1 cars have tried a formation lap in competition in wet conditions, with the only previous wet weather running coming in Pirelli tyre testing or in pre-season shakedowns.
FIA single-seater technical director Nikolas Tombazis explained that the confusion was essentially down to the software "not being tested in those specific conditions" as he explained how the FIA had quickly implemented a fix.
The governing body then issued a formal statement, confirming that the issue "had not been detected by the FIA or teams" until it was too late.
The full statement is available below.
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FIA statement in full
On the formation lap ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, an unprecedented combination of low engine speed, low-grip conditions, wet-weather energy management settings and the Sepang circuit’s sector configuration led to an unintended loss of power for a number of cars.
As a result, the FIA Technical Department removed the energy limit constraint in the affected sectors through an updated software release distributed to all competitors during the race delay caused by heavy rain enabling teams to make the necessary changes to the Power Unit before the start of the race.
This issue had not been detected by the FIA or the teams during testing or during the laps to the grid. The FIA, together with the teams and Power Unit manufacturers, will undertake a full review of the issue."
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