Our verdict on Malaysia's crazy F1 return

A complicated, delayed start, wet-weather (at least for a few laps!) and multiple safety cars made the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia an absolute corker.

But the race also threw up some contentious storylines our contributors need no invitation to break down in our post-race verdict feature.

This nonsense needs sorting

Glenn Freeman

Among all the new nonsense (more on that later) F1 served up prior to the race getting going, there's a longer-standing piece of nonsense that really needs to be resolved.

Delaying safety car restarts so lapped cars can overtake the pack is ridiculously inefficient.

F1 chiefs have told us several times this year that all most fans care about is seeing action on track, so why do we have a process that delays and reduces the amount of action fans get to see?

Once the track is clear, the priority should be getting everyone back to racing, not giving a leg-up to the people having a bad day.

I totally get the desire to not have lapped cars in the middle of battles for the major places, so just do the obvious thing and move them to the back. If that makes it almost impossible that they'd ever get back onto the lead lap, so be it - tough luck for being lapped in the first place.

At least the people in charge of the TV broadcast gave us the track map to show us where all the cars were while Verstappen & co. continued to circulate slowly. But seeing how long that process was going to take to shake out just made it even clearer that something needs to change.

Right now the action that matters most at the front of the field is held up because of a process aimed to help the people who are unfortunately least relevant on the day. It makes no sense.

Lost art of racing in the rain

Ben Anderson

My biggest takeaway from this race is that it's such a shame F1 is now so averse - almost completely allergic, in my view - to racing in the rain.

Apart from the fact these 2026 MGU-H-less power units seem incapable of operating properly at the sort of low revs you naturally drop to in such low-grip conditions, F1 just seems to be in the process of regulating out proper wet weather racing completely.

OK, we got a handful of laps after the eventual race start where intermediates were necessary, but only because the outdated Sepang track was holding water back secretly that only got pulled out onto the track surface once the cars started running at speed. And that only lasted briefly before everyone had to converge on slicks.

This should have been a brand new challenge for F1 2026, our first proper wet race of the season, but instead we got nearly two hours of delay, track sweepers, a shambolic pair of formation laps, more delay, and yet more laps behind the safety car before the race eventually started.

The delay was too long and we ended up with a mixed-conditions start, but mostly a dry race. I think that's a real shame when you consider wet-weather driving used to be one of the major tests of F1 skill.

Some of the best wins in F1 history have come in such conditions - think Ayrton Senna at Estoril in 1985 or Max Verstappen at Interlagos in 2016. It would be nice to entertain the possibility of these sorts of races in 2026, too.

F1's too confusing for its own good

Josh Suttill

This weekend proved that F1 has become too confusing for its own good in multiple ways.

Most of all, these power units, having already proven to be too complicated earlier in the year, with quirks causing crashes and deciding pole positions, added another reason why F1 ditching them for a simpler formula can't come soon enough.

On top of that, you've got the TV direction yet again making a good race more frustrating than it needed to be - I believe, in part, due to its over-complication.

There's a strong desire to show off the cool innovations - like picture-in-picture on the timing tower and drone shots like the one on the exit of Turn 9 at Sepang - but those feel like they're coming at the expense of getting the basics right.

When the going gets tough...

Jack Benyon

Max Verstappen was absolutely outstanding today. Like, next-level outstanding.

There's been times where, fighting for the likes of sixth, seventh, eighth etc. earlier in the season, that Verstappen has only been a tenth or so ahead of his team-mate, or beaten by them on rare occasions.

Isack Hadjar may well have had issues today, but he was as much as three seconds per lap slower than Verstappen at times.

I know this isn't news to anyone, but it's a reminder of what you need when you're in a position where your car can win and why you always want someone like Max Verstappen in your car. You need him behind the wheel and performing like he did today, like his pass on Antonelli across Turns 1-3 early in the race and then his seismic pace out front.

Lewis Hamilton had a very different kind of day but similar performance. He was 15 seconds clear of Leclerc before that final safety car restart, which compressed the order.

After the adversity of being on the wrong tyre and watching your best start for months slip away, his pace was unbelievable and good enough to go from 16th to fifth in around 10 laps. No one else was able to achieve such a feat, including his team-mate.

Often the conditions and the drama overshadow the individual performances needed to capitalise on those unique circumstances.

...the tough get going.

Please keep tracks like this on the calendar!

Gary Anderson

Chaos, potential rain before the start led to some strange decisions and apparent confusion from the governing body.

In the end it all worked out and we had an exciting race - in reality the top 10 was more or less as normal.

The old man, Fernando Alonso, just showed that given some help to equalise the power deficit situation he can still bring home a decent result. Kudos to both drivers and the team for sticking it out, they are probably just as happy as Red Bull are with its weekend performance.

After a bad start Verstappen drove exceptionally well and he seemed really happy (for a change) with the latest package. I’m not going to call it 'updates' as I think Red Bull has now simply put all the pieces of the jigsaw that is these 2026 cars in more or less the correct place.

I think Isack Hadjar’s performance since he came back has proven that, and I just wonder if Liam Lawson being brought into the mothership for those three races from Racing Bulls has actually helped them find a newish set-up direction?

It looked early on that Ferrari had done another 'Ferrari' and threw away another race. When the tyre blankets came off and they were on slicks it didn't look good - however, Hamilton who was over a minute behind the leader at one point just stuck it out on soft tyres for some 32 laps.

This saved him a pitstop and in the end he dragged his car up to a podium finish. Really impressive and controlled drive helped by the virtual and full safety cars.

Leclerc had an extra stop early on for a new front wing but still managed a fourth-place finish so perhaps another week where Fred Vasseur's position will be debated - did the wrong tyre choice at the start of the race cost them a potential win, or will that be overshadowed by the decent result in the end? Time will tell, but I’m sure it will create some debate before and in Singapore next week.

To sum up the return to Sepang for the Bahrain GP - please, please, please F1 and the FIA don’t throw away these old-school tracks just for the money offered from new, featureless, follow-the-leader tracks.