Martin Brundle drops verdict on Bahrain GP chaos and starting order controversy

Martin Brundle has weighed in on the formation lap chaos at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia and Formula 1’s controversial decision to reset the starting order. 

The start of Sunday’s race in Malaysia descended into mayhem after a heavy thunderstorm caused delays, before several cars encountered issues and crawled to a halt on the formation lap, leading to the attempt to get underway being abandoned and further delays. 

F1’s governing body the FIA had to rush through a software update for the teams after confirming that a combination of low engine speeds, low grip, wet-weather energy-management settings and the circuit layout had caused several issues. 

Following a additional 40-minute delay, the race finally got going. 

“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 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.”

Despite several drivers including Lewis Hamilton losing positions on the original formation lap, the starting order was reset. 

This went against the specific regulations over starting procedures being suspended and caused some controversy, however, Brundle labelled the decision as “smart and fair”. 

“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.”