Bahrain Grand Prix: F1 and FIA criticised over communication during Malaysia delay

red bull, malaysia, verstappen, 2026 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

F1 and FIA called out over major failure during chaotic Malaysia GP delay

This was an open goal and they did not even shoot

Graham Shaw Consultant Editor

Digital sports specialist running global brands for 30 years

Tuesday 6 October 2026 22:29 Updated: 22:51

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The Bahrain Grand Prix turned into a chaotic disaster for F1 in Malaysia on Sunday, but it really did not have to be that way.

The sport, and its governing body the FIA, missed a golden opportunity to control the news agenda and present this as something of a win. Instead they left everybody in the dark and settled for a resounding defeat.

The race at Sepang International Circuit was supposed to get under way at 3pm local time, but instead we waited 93 minutes to see any meaningful on-track action.

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The long delay, and why it happened

The reason was a 40-minute rain delay, followed by a catastrophic loss of power for multiple cars on the formation lap.

The FIA statement post-race read: "On the formation lap ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, an unprecedented combination of low engine speed, low-grip conditions, wet-weather energy management settings and the Sepang circuit’s sector configuration led to an unintended loss of power for a number of cars."

That at least eventually explained what had occurred, but it was the next paragraph which really caught our attention, and highlighted a glorious opportunity wasted.

"As a result, the FIA Technical Department removed the energy limit constraint in the affected sectors through an updated software release distributed to all competitors during the race delay caused by heavy rain enabling teams to make the necessary changes to the Power Unit before the start of the race."

So this was "unprecedented" and it required a major software rewrite and release DURING an F1 race. This was incredible stuff - did nobody at F1 or the FIA think explaining that at the time might have been a good idea?

This is PR 101 - when things are going well, tell people everything. When things are going badly, tell them even more. Own the story, don't let somebody else do it for you.

This didn't have to be a story about a 93-minute wait with nobody knowing what on earth was going on. It could have been a breathless race against time to do something unprecedented under incredible pressure. And it actually worked.

Tell the story, control the narrative

Too often the sport appears to be too secretive or too scared (or both) to really tell its stories in detail. Doing so might just transform some of that negative coverage to something a little kinder.

Instead of F1 and FIA being able to control the narrative, get out in front of the story, they were lame ducks for the storm of criticism which followed. Again, this is not rocket science, it is basic PR and comms strategy.

This is not just GPFans singing this song either, F1 broadcaster and Drive to Survive veteran Will Buxton said pretty much the same thing on this week's 'Up To Speed' podcast.

He praised the tech superstars behind the scenes for identifying the issue and resolving it quickly enough that we actually got a Grand Prix race.

"The fact they were able to make this change in as short a time as they did, this software update, brilliant, absolutely brilliant."It shows the strength of Formula 1, the brains trust that exists in Formula 1 to be able to dial down on the problem, figure out what it was, create a fix, install it, and have it run such that the problem didn't occur again. Brilliant, hats off."

'Get together, figure it out, and tell the broadcasters'

The problem for Buxton though came with the communication of this process, or lack of.

He continued: "But the FIA has a press department, F1 has a press department. Get together and figure it out and tell the broadcasters, tell the journalists - 'guys, the reason we're still sitting here an hour after we were, we had this original formation lap is because of this issue."

Will Buxton: F1 and FIA comms need to be so much better.

Buxton fears the reason for this lack of proactive comms is a fear and trepidation to get out there and tell the story.

"I think there may be so much trepidation and fear that people are already querying and questioning this modern version of a power unit and the heavy level of electronics on them.

"There may almost be a fear of 'Oh God, we don't want people to know there's a problem with that thing that has been a bit of a bugbear for us this season'.

"But if they'd just levelled with the public and been honest about it from the first moment they knew and that they were creating a workaround for it, when that workaround arrives an hour later, that shows the brilliance of F1.

"And then it allows you guys to keep the folks at home updated rather than kind of keeping it hidden and everyone feeling a bit in the dark and wondering 'well why were you waiting for so long'.

"At least then it gives you guys something to talk about as well when you're having to fill for 90 minutes."

By effectively doing very little to explain and control the narrative, F1 and the FIA instead sat on their hands and waiting for the punches to rain down.

If the sport really does want to embrace fans new and old, as it claims, then storytelling should be at the very heart of that strategy.

Time to do better.

Written by

Graham Shaw - Consultant Editor

Digital sports leader with 30 years of senior level experience running global brands. Built sportinglife.com to be a behemoth in the UK as well as being in charge of the Planet Sport network of sites including planetf1.com, football365.com, teamtalk.com and planetrugby.com. Then grew goal.com to be the world's biggest soccer website in 18 languages and 37 territories. Was GM of Portals for Perform Group (now DAZN) with overall responsibility for sportingnews.com, spox.de and voetbalzone.nl.

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