Aston Martin star used a live bug in a matchbox to decide F1 race strategy

A big bug climbing up a tree in blue, green and yellow hues — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

Aston Martin star used a live bug in a matchbox to decide F1 race strategy

No, this isn't an old wives tale

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Wednesday 27 May 2026 22:56

Is it time McLaren F1 team invested in their own bug? Perhaps so after their recent tyre strategy disaster at the Canadian Grand Prix.

This was, somewhat, the topic on a recent episode of the High Performance Racing podcast, where Jake Humphrey, former F1 engineer Rob Smedley and ex F1 boss Otmar Szafnauer descended further into madness (in the best possible sense).

The trio were occupied with the fallout from last weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, where wet conditions opened up a variety of tyre strategies for the race start. While teams like Mercedes and Ferrari opted for the slick tyres, McLaren made the bold choice to start on the intermediates.

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This was in the event further rain would fall and, if proven correct, could have made the team look like heroes. What transpired, however, was a rapidly drying track and no further rain, a fact Oscar Piastri conveyed to his team on the formation lap.

It was a miserable outing for McLaren in the end, with Piastri finishing P11 after hitting Alex Albon and earning himself a 10-second time penalty, while Lando Norris retired with a gearbox failure.

What's this all got to do with a bug? Let Otmar Szafnauer explain...

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How a bug was used to predict the weather

After discussing McLaren's tyre strategy blunder, Szafnauer then revealed the unique way in which his former colleague and F1 designer Akio Haga predicted the weather.

Haga has worked in F1 for over two decades, beginning at Jordan in 1998 before it became Spyker and then Force India in 2008, where he was their chief designer.

He then moved to Aston Martin as their chief designer in 2021, later moving into the role of head of trackside liaison and eventually moving across to Aston Martin Performance Technologies as their chief designer.

Szafnauer himself joined Force India in 2009, where he worked alongside Haga, and asked Smedley whether he knew about his race strategy trick - which included a June bug, a matchbox and a weather forecast.

"Was Akio Haga at Jordan when you were there? Akio used to have this little June bug in an old matchbox. And if the June bug was on its back, that meant it was going to rain. And if it wasn't, it wasn't raining," he explained.

Szafnauer then paused so Smedley could get his laughter out, before he asked Szafnauer if the story was real and then if the bug was alive.

To this both Szafnauer and Humphrey delivered a passionate 'yes', and the former team boss continued: "So you'd have Mediachance information and Akio Haga information. And then the two of them together.

When asked which was more accurate, Szafnauer said straight-faced: "Akio's bug."

F1 McLaren Aston Martin Otmar Szafnauer