Max Verstappen/Lewis Hamilton in crawl mode due to the FIA: “Like Lego cars”

What a stuttering start to this 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix – in the truest sense of the word. The fans couldn’t believe their eyes at what they were seeing – some racing cars were slowing down more and more, some even came to a complete standstill, whilst the other drivers weren’t sure whether they were allowed to overtake those affected or not before their own cars started playing up; it was utter chaos.

It later transpired that the fault lay with a software issue: a standardised programme designed for all teams by specialists at the FIA, the world motorsport governing body, in collaboration with the engine manufacturers – intended to throttle the power of the power units when the track is wet.

The problem now is that the teams and the FIA had hardly any opportunity to test the 2026 race cars on a wet track; otherwise, it would have quickly become clear what has now been revealed in full view of the public: this software is faulty.

During the break before the restart, the power units were reprogrammed, after which the cars ran without any problems.

From a driver’s perspective, two of those affected from the front row – Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton – spoke about the bizarre scenes at the Sepang International Circuit.

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Max begins: “The problem is, these engines are so incredibly complicated, and they rely heavily on software. And when something goes wrong… Well, anyway, I was the one who set the whole thing off; I was getting slower and slower, then I looked in the rear-view mirror, saw the drivers behind me and thought: “Hang on, are they all waiting for me now, or what’s going on? It felt like that Lego race we had as a drivers’ parade at Silverstone.”

Lewis Hamilton interjected: “Yes, we were going at roughly the same speed.”

Max continued: “Same speed, exactly. It was mad. At one point there were five of us side by side on the straight because we couldn’t figure out what was wrong with our cars, and the drivers who weren’t affected didn’t understand what we were dealing with or why we were so slow. Then I did another formation lap and spotted about eight cars in crawl mode – you too, Lewis.”

Hamilton: “What do you mean, ‘at a snail’s pace’? I had to stop on the track, switch off the car and the engine, and restart everything from scratch – just like shutting down and restarting a computer. I’d never done that before.”

Max: “Yeah, what can you say? I mean, that’s not what we want from our sport, is it?”

Lewis: “No, definitely not, and I hope lessons will be learnt from this.”

When asked what exactly had gone wrong with his car, Verstappen replied: “It just wouldn’t go any further – that was the problem. I was crawling up that uphill section at about 35 km/h and kept losing speed. And when you’re driving that slowly or the revs are too low, for whatever reason, the power unit cuts out. Normally it takes a second or two, and the power comes back. I basically had that at the start as well.”

“But for some reason, that didn’t work on the first lap; on the second, the problem was still there, albeit not quite as bad. Then we managed to sort it out. I’ve had a few bad starts this year, but this time it would have meant I’d lose the race.”

The FIA has announced a comprehensive investigation, in close collaboration with the teams, to ensure this problem does not recur.