Red Bull confirm talks to ensure F1 'complexity' does not get out of control

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies believes F1 was served a welcome reminder during the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia that the complexities of the current cars cannot be allowed to "get out of control".

Following a torrential downpour that delayed the race at the Sepang International Circuit by an initial 40 minutes, the event finally got going with a planned two formation laps behind the safety car ahead of a potential standing start.

But chaos ensued when a software bug in the standard power unit code triggered sudden and unexpected power loss across multiple cars during the formation lap.

Lewis Hamilton, Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas were among those who came to a complete halt on track before restarting their power units, with the disruption also affecting Red Bull, Audi, Haas, Cadillac, Alpine and Racing Bulls machinery.

The FIA later explained that the glitch stemmed from a safety-mandated wet-weather mode designed to cut electrical output from 350kW to 250kW.

At very low speeds, the system triggered an instant MGU-K shutdown in specific sectors, locking cars into a 60-second emergency offset that left them stranded.

Race control aborted the start procedure, and the FIA issued an emergency software patch to all competitors before the race eventually got underway.

Max Verstappen went on to win the rescheduled race, with Kimi Antonelli and Hamilton completing the podium.

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Red Bull thought issue was of its own making

Mekies, speaking to select media including RacingNews365, admitted the mayhem initially looked like it was a Red Bull-specific problem before it became clear the fault was shared across the grid.

"I think it took everyone by surprise," said Mekies.

"First of all, we all felt it was an issue on our own car and power unit, and as it turned out, it was a central issue.

"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 as possible.

"I'm sure we'll have discussions with the teams, the FIA, and F1 to see how we can protect ourselves from those situations moving forward, and we make sure we keep the complexity of the cars and the systems under control."

The episode has reignited broader concerns within the paddock over the demands of the 2026 power unit rules, which shifted to a near 50-50 split between combustion and electric power and removed the MGU-H in a bid to simplify the hybrid system.

Despite that goal, the wet-weather energy control maps involved in the Sepang incident had seen minimal real-world running before the fault emerged.

The FIA has confirmed that it will undertake a thorough review of the incident that was an embarrassing look for F1.