Malaysia F1 start attempt abandoned after multiple cars stop
An attempt to start Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on a damp track was aborted after multiple cars ground to a halt on the formation laps.
The 2026 F1 drivers and teams are in uncharted territory in Sepang amid the first rain-affected race under these new power unit regulations, with a hefty downpour pre-race leading to the initial start being delayed by 40 minutes.
That new start began with two formation laps behind the safety car on intermediate tyres, but that had to be abandoned five minutes later.
Polesitter Max Verstappen’s Red Bull slowed at the front of the field, reporting an apparent issue, while Lewis Hamilton, second on the grid, ended up crawling around in his Ferrari before stopping on the start/finish straight.
Hamilton told his Ferrari team "I'm pressing the throttle and nothing is happening".
He was able to restart his car and returned to the pits after the red flag was shown and the start was aborted.
He wasn’t the only Ferrari-powered car to stop on track either, with Ferrari customers Esteban Ocon (Haas) and Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) also stopping.
Liam Lawson's Racing Bulls was slow to get away from the grid at the start of the formation lap, but eventually going and that might be an unrelated issue to some of the others seen.
Verstappen’s team-mate Isack Hadjar aquaplaned off at the Turn 3 right-hander, before recovering to the track and retaking is eighth place position.
The drivers arrived back in the pitlane under the red flag in a jumbled-up order.
Some cars did not want to overtake under the safety car and waited behind slow-moving cars, causing huge gaps around the track. That led to the bizarre sight of the safety car being in the middle of the pack, rather than leading it into the pitlane.
The race will resume with the drivers in the original starting grid order, so Hamilton is able to regain his second place.
Mercedes' deputy team boss Bradley Lord says the FIA has sent new software to the teams to help cope with the conditions for the new start.
"I think all the teams have been sent some new parameters to load into the cars as well, which is happening up and down the grid, because there may have been something, a sort of software issue of some kind that was behind some of the difficulties we saw earlier," Lord told Sky Sports F1.
Gary Anderson says...
I wonder how big an accident we need to see before the powers that be realise that these power unit regulations and applications have no place in F1? It's a sad situation we have found ourselves in.
New software code apparently installed during a suspended start procedure...who had that all ready and tested in their back pocket? Normally, any new software needs hours of testing and proving before it's used in anything, never mind a projectile like an F1 car!
