FIA reveals cause of chaos before Malaysian Grand Prix start

The FIA has revealed the cause of the chaos that disrupted the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia at the Sepang International Circuit.

Several cars lost power during the formation lap before the race, forcing the start procedure to be abandoned. The incident occurred after heavy rain had already delayed the start by around 40 minutes.

According to the FIA, an unprecedented combination of low engine speeds, low grip, wet-weather energy management settings and the layout of the Sepang circuit resulted in an unintended loss of power for several cars.

The problem had not been detected during testing or during the laps to the grid. During the delay, the FIA's technical department removed the energy limit constraint in the affected sectors through an updated software release, allowing teams to make the necessary changes to their power units.

The FIA's single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis admitted that the lack of wet-weather testing played a role in the issue.

“Some cars went very slowly, almost came to a standstill. There was a bit of a concertina effect between cars, and some cars almost stopped completely. That bug prevented the power from being redeployed and the cars from starting again,” Tombazis explained.

The FIA will now carry out a full review of the incident together with the teams and power unit manufacturers.