F1 software glitch turns Malaysia GP into 'Lego race' as Verstappen dominates

The formation lap before the Malaysian Grand Prix descended into something no one had quite seen before in Formula 1. As the field circled Sepang behind the safety car in heavy rain, multiple cars began to slow inexplicably, crawling around the track like something was fundamentally wrong with how they moved. Max Verstappen, sitting on pole position, watched in his mirrors as the procession behind him seemed to be malfunctioning. "I triggered it first and then I looked in my mirror, I was like, 'Wait, are they waiting for me or what's going on?'" he said later. "It was like the Lego race." He was referencing a promotional event held before the British Grand Prix in July featuring battery-powered toy F1 cars—a comparison that captured the surreal nature of what was unfolding on track.

The culprit was a software bug embedded in the engine management system that governs how electrical power can be deployed in wet conditions. The problem had been triggered by a specific combination of circumstances: low engine speeds, low grip from the wet surface, and particular features of the circuit layout. Lewis Hamilton, who shared the front row with Verstappen, experienced the same phenomenon. "I had to stop on track and stop the car and engine and restart it," he said. "I've never done that before." At one point during the formation lap, eight cars were crawling simultaneously while others moved normally. Verstappen described the scene with disbelief: "At some point we were five-wide on the straight because we couldn't understand what was going on."

The tropical downpour that preceded the race had already delayed the start by nearly an hour. When officials finally attempted to get the grand prix underway, they discovered that the software managing the hybrid engines—which split power roughly 50-50 between combustion and electrical sources—had never been tested in these exact conditions. Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA's single-seater director, acknowledged the gap in preparation. "Cars are complicated," he said. "We would all like it to be simpler, but when you have electrical energy and combustion energy all working together, and obviously when you want to ensure that there's sporting fairness between the teams, that is complicated." The issue arose because there had been so little wet-weather running throughout the season that this particular scenario had simply never come up in testing.

The malfunction created a secondary problem: the field order had been scrambled during the formation lap, raising the question of whether the grid should be reset for any restart. Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord explained the decision to revert to the original grid order. "If you think of the millions of people watching around the world, they tune in for the start and suddenly the cars are all in a jumbled up order because of something that happened 40 minutes earlier and it was behind a safety car on a formation lap," he said. "That would have been a much harder thing to explain than resetting and then going from where we did." The FIA's software engineers rewrote the code while officials made the call, and the race proceeded from the original starting positions.

Verstappen went on to deliver a dominant victory—his first win of the 2026 season and his 72nd career triumph. The result capped a remarkable turnaround for Red Bull, which had started the year as the fourth-fastest team among the major competitors. Verstappen had battled an inconsistent car all season and faced genuine uncertainty about his future, with performance clauses in his contract allowing him to leave. He had chosen to stay in the summer, expressing faith that the team would return to form. A series of incremental upgrades culminated in a new floor introduced in Baku the previous weekend, and by Malaysia, the package had come together. "We had a very complicated and tough start to the year with all sorts of problems and just not being competitive enough," Verstappen reflected. "But throughout the year, the team has been working very hard to understand our issues and bring good performance upgrades to the car and make it more driveable. Step by step, we've been getting closer and closer."

The software glitch, while bizarre, was symptomatic of a deeper structural problem with the new hybrid engine regulations. The engines are fundamentally energy-starved, unable to deploy their full combined power output at all times, which has forced engineers to layer complexity into the management systems. This has led to counter-intuitive driving characteristics that have frustrated drivers throughout the season. The FIA has committed to investigating the Malaysia incident fully and has already scheduled rule changes for next year aimed at altering the energy split to address these underlying issues. Tombazis said the governing body would work to prevent similar problems, though he stopped short of guaranteeing this specific issue would never recur. "Can I guarantee it will never happen again? This specific problem, yes. A problem, no, but we will do our best to avoid it, of course."

George Russell, who retired with an engine failure five laps from the end while running third, was left to contemplate a championship that has effectively slipped away. Kimi Antonelli's second-place finish extended his lead to 84 points with either 158 or 183 points remaining, depending on whether the season concludes with races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Russell acknowledged the mathematics. "I don't need to say I think it's gone, but, of course, it's exceptionally unlikely and that's just the reality," he said. "I knew if I wanted to come back, I needed luck on my side. Unfortunately, I had luck not on my side." It was not the first time an engine failure had cost him significant points, though Antonelli has faced similar reliability issues. The difference, Russell conceded, was that Antonelli had simply been the stronger performer across the season. With six or seven races remaining, Verstappen's resurgence means the final stretch could yet produce drama, but the championship itself appears decided.