FIA Formation Lap Glitch at Sepang: What Went Wrong

The FIA formation lap glitch at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia was a software problem, not a failing engine. According to the FIA's own explanation, as reported by Sky Sports on 4 October 2026, a mix of low engine speed, low grip, wet-weather energy settings and the layout of Sepang's sectors caused an unintended loss of power on the way to the grid. Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were among the drivers hit.

What does the FIA say caused the Sepang formation lap problem?

The governing body described it as an "unprecedented" combination of four ingredients. Cars were running at low engine speed. The track was slippery. The wet-weather energy management modes were active. And the sector layout at Sepang International Circuit, the venue of round 16 of the 2026 season, put the cars in exactly the wrong place for the system to cut deployment.

Put plainly: the cars did what the software told them to do. The software had simply never met this afternoon.

The FIA also said the issue had not been caught in testing or during the laps to the grid. That sentence matters, and we will come back to it.

Who was affected, and what changed?

Verstappen, who went on to win, and Hamilton were named among those losing power on the formation laps, alongside several midfield drivers. During the delay, the FIA distributed updated software to all competitors that removed energy limit constraints in the affected sectors. Teams could then adjust their power unit settings before the start.

How long did the wait last? RacingNews365 reports the start was delayed by 93 minutes because of torrential rain and thunderstorms. The weather bought the FIA time to fix the software. A drier Sunday might have left the fault buried until the cars were already racing.

Why this formation lap glitch is a bigger story than one wet Sunday

Our view: this is the first real example of a 2026 regulation problem that fans cannot see on the track and drivers cannot fix with a steering wheel. Energy management is now a layer of rules written in code. Code has edge cases. Sepang found one with the whole grid watching.

The reassuring part is the speed of the response. The less reassuring part is the gap it exposes between how cars are validated and how they are used: low-grip, low-speed running on a formation lap happens every race weekend.

This is a guess, labelled as one: the next sensitive moment is the next wet or damp session. Singapore's Marina Bay Street Circuit, scheduled for 11 October 2026 in our calendar data, is a slow street circuit, which is the kind of place where cars spend plenty of time at low engine speed. Whether the Sepang update covers that is a question for the teams, and nobody has told us the answer.

What happens next?

Expect engineers to spend the week simulating every low-grip, low-speed situation they can think of, and expect the next rain forecast to be read with more suspicion than usual.

If you want to put your Energy on how Marina Bay plays out, make your picks on the Singapore round before the weekend begins, and follow the sessions live once they start.

Source note: the FIA explanation comes from Sky Sports' report of the statement; we have not seen the original document.