Everything we learned from F1's chaotic Malaysia return
From another Red Bull milestone to multiple teams being confused about why they were struggling, to a new flaw in the 2026 regulations being exposed, Formula 1's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia taught us plenty.
Here's everything we learned from the first F1 weekend at Sepang in nine years...
F1's wet-weather problem is only getting worse
F1 has long looked allergic to racing in the rain over the last decade and the 2026 regulations seem to have made that allergy even worse.
The exact "software bug" that sent things haywire at Sepang wasn't a specific allergy to rain - the cars didn't break down directly because of the water on track. But it was the uniquely low-speed conditions created by the wet Sepang circuit that exposed the bug in the electronic control units fitted to the cars.
And it came after some already glum predictions of how the 2026 F1 cars would cope with a rain-soaked track. Isack Hadjar, who tested at a wet Suzuka earlier this year, said: "The only thing I remember from Japan is that the tyres have zero grip. It would make the racing very dangerous with a lot of water".
The delays needed for the FIA to send updated software to the teams meant we didn't see racing with lots of water - robbing everyone watching of a fascinating spectacle - and it leaves a big question: what will actually happen when these cars finally do race in the rain?
As FIA single seator director Nikolas Tombazis said: "Can I guarantee it will never happen again? This specific problem, yes. A problem? No, but we will do our best to avoid it."
Who knows if a first proper wet race would expose yet more problems with F1's most complicated power units ever. - Josh Suttill
Another great Red Bull F1 story achieved
Red Bull has rattled off some astonishing F1 achievements in its journey to being one of grand prix racing’s most influential and successful entities. And it has now added another stellar chapter to its story: becoming a race-winning engine manufacturer.
A decade or so ago, Red Bull’s engine situation was the butt of a few jokes. Not just because its partner Renault was floundering in the V6 turbo-hybrid era, but because that relationship deteriorated so badly Red Bull struck a deal to run those same engines as a customer while officially branding them as TAG Heuers.
On the surface, we were expected to pretend there was an engine on the grid from a watch company. Well, it’s not quite the same, but now we can say (much more legitimately) there’s an engine from an energy drinks company. And it has won a race.
Do not underestimate the scale of this challenge and success. Ford-sponsored Red Bull Powertrains has achieved something enormous by taking on, competing against, and now beating established F1 engine builders.
The investment has been immense, and the quality of the personnel sky-high, but all the right ingredients in the world guarantee nothing. Just ask Aston Martin.
And it has also ensured Max Verstappen keeps his run going of winning a race in every single season he has competed with Red Bull. Which is not bad in itself. - Scott Mitchell-Malm
Mercedes upgrade has an urgent question mark
A gain of three tenths was the internal expectation for Mercedes' major upgrade going into the Sepang weekend, but it's left it wondering whether it needs to trial it against the old package in Singapore.
Mercedes hadn't brought a major upgrade since the Canadian Grand Prix in May and it probably had a car capable of winning both titles this year even without a further upgrade.
But a step forward at Sepang would have made that title run-in a lot more comfortable and provided a good platform for 2027. But that hasn't happened; instead, it's wondering if its car has actually gone backwards.
Mercedes will have some intense engineering debriefs before Singapore to understand why it underperformed in Malaysia and whether it was simply a one-off because of the Sepang circuit's particular characteristics.
The Race understands Mercedes hasn't ruled out testing its upgrade versus its old-spec car in Singapore, though that would be tricky given Singapore is a sprint weekend. - JS
McLaren needs to understand if it’s been left behind
Not for the first time this year, McLaren was left to rue gambling on the wrong starting tyre. But at least, unlike in Canada, it was not alone in such a misjudgement.
The bigger concern for McLaren is that it simply lacked competitiveness at Sepang. Its point-less return in Azerbaijan was exaggerated by incidents in the race, but that was still a muted weekend and so it was again in Malaysia, where neither Oscar Piastri nor Lando Norris had the pace to do much more in their recoveries.
McLaren was simply fourth-best behind Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari, and that run just a few races ago - where it was scoring poles and even wins - has ended abruptly.
“We have to acknowledge that potentially some competitors have developed their car with bigger steps that we did,” team boss Andrea Stella admitted.
The only silver lining is that it finished with both cars in the points at all. That could have been very different after Norris got away with a huge misjudgement behind the safety car, and only narrowly avoided taking out himself and Piastri.
Given Norris wrongly called for Franco Colapinto to be banned for a lapse in judgement a week ago, this was a major let-off for the world champion. - SMM
Alpine needs help to be best of the rest now
While Red Bull’s main F1 team is now a race-winning force again, sleeping on the achievements of Racing Bulls this season would be a mistake.
Holding fifth in the constructors’ championship means the former Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri team is on course for its best-ever season across any of its identities since Red Bull bought the ailing Minardi outfit.
In Malaysia, Racing Bulls bagged another double points finish - despite neither of its cars starting in the top 10 - while chief rival Alpine let another opportunity to score slip.
These two teams have quite often traded having the fifth-fastest car, but Alpine has been troublingly inconsistent and inefficient of late, failing to score in three of the past six events.
As Racing Bulls is now 22 points ahead, Alpine needs help to finish best of the rest. With the top four teams having a clear advantage, if everything goes as it should the midfielders are fighting over ninth and 10th - or three points per round. There are only seven races left and in sprints, only the top eight cars score.
It won’t play out exactly like this, but even if Alpine beats Racing Bulls with both cars every time from now until the end of the season, it could only gain 21 points unless there’s some outside assistance. - SMM
Aston Martin-Honda doesn’t fully understand wild performance swing
No team is entirely consistent through the year, as circuit characteristics vary against the strengths and weaknesses of a car and engine package, but Aston Martin and Honda have just enjoyed another wild swing.
This embattled team went from detached at the back of the grid one weekend to respectably competitive the next when a big car upgrade arrived in Hungary earlier this season.
But a miserable - truly miserable - Azerbaijan weekend has just given way to Aston Martin’s best result of the year with Fernando Alonso finishing eighth in Malaysia. And no car or engine changes can explain that.
Evidently the Sepang circuit, while still reasonably power sensitive, did not expose the worst of Honda’s lingering deficiencies like Baku did - in fact Honda says it even learned driveability lessons it can use running with the wet weather engine map that limits battery power to 250kW.
And the Aston Martin chassis was clearly working much better last weekend as well. The team just doesn’t fully understand why.
It also nearly fumbled its big opportunity. Aston Martin was among the teams to gamble on slicks when the race finally started, and if safety cars had not bailed it out by resetting the order, Alonso would not have had a chance to take advantage of others having messy races to steal a very unlikely eighth place.
Now it’s on to Singapore - where Honda’s engine issues will be less of a burden once more, so if Aston Martin can really get to the bottom of how to get its car in such a sweet spot again, another opportunity surely awaits. - SMM
Regret and confusion over Haas no-score
Haas earned its first double points finish of the season in Baku, but Sepang was a much trickier weekend - even though Esteban Ocon briefly ran as high as sixth early in the race.
That's because Ocon was on the right tyres (intermediates) while team-mate Ollie Bearman was spiralling backwards on softs.
"I ended up on slicks, and that was the wrong choice. It wasn't my choice. I was adamant that we start on inters, and there was 0% chance that we put the slick," Bearman explained after the race.
"But the team decided to put me on the slick at the last minute, which I didn't know about. Obviously, the decision was made to split the strategy. I didn't agree with it, and in hindsight, I still don't agree with it."
Bearman admitted the team "would have looked like heroes" if the strategy had paid off, but felt "a bit hard done by" to be given what he felt was the "risky strategy" when he was the lead car within the team on the starting grid.
"It was just a shame because I felt like that decision to start me on the soft totally screwed my race," Bearman added. "I lost so much race time. I couldn't do anything about it.
"I don't blame anyone. I just want to understand what we could have done better".
Team boss Ayao Komatsu said Haas decided to "split the risk" but he "regrets" not pitting Bearman as soon as the team realised how much laptime he was losing.
The subsequent safety car closed a lot of that gap back up and Ocon lost hold of his strong points position, with Komatsu explaining, "on pit entry [Ocon] went wide and our pitstop wasn’t the best [3.6 seconds], so we lost position to one of the Racing Bulls and then pushed the new tyres too hard, and from there, Esteban’s race got destroyed."
He ended up finishing behind Bearman as they came home a distant 14th and 15th, bringing Haas's recent run of strong form to a painful end. - JS
F1 can't wait another nine years to return to Sepang
Sepang fell off the F1 calendar just before its Netflix-fuelled popularity boom, so this weekend would have been the first taste of the circuit for a lot of the fanbase - and for over 50% of the drivers.
And it did a lot right on its unexpected return. Challenging track for qualifying? Tick. Overtaking opportunities? Tick. Strategic variation? Tick. Variable weather? Tick (even if the 2026 power units couldn't handle it).
On a calendar dominated by so many new city-centre circuits, it showed the value of an old-school track. No gimmicky corners or awkward constraints to fit your circuit around, just a well-designed, old-school track that makes use of natural elevation.
There were complaints from drivers about the "character" of the aged track surface, but does every circuit need to be a polished, completely flat runway?
The one clear improvement for any Sepang return would be fan management. There were plenty of reports on social media of fans with lengthy journeys out of the circuit, even though shuttling did improve as the weekend went on.
There are no formal plans to return to Sepang beyond 2026, but it's certainly proved itself as an 'F1 supersub', ready to jump in and host whichever country's race has been cancelled. - JS
