Something remarkable unfolded in Sepang today: Formula One once again appeared to be a sport that can only be staged in dry—or, more precisely, almost dry—conditions.
It was a troubling combination of unreliable engines and questionable regulations.
Before examining that failure, however, Max Verstappen’s brilliance deserves recognition. A driver capable of excelling in any conditions, he won the ‘Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia’ ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who finished second. George Russell had held third for much of the race before an engine failure ended his challenge and further damaged his title hopes. The Briton climbed from his car shaking his head, now 84 points—or an almost unbridgeable distance—behind Antonelli with seven rounds remaining.
Lewis Hamilton completed the podium for Ferrari after producing an excellent recovery drive. He had been more than a minute behind after starting on slick tyres instead of the intermediate tyres used by most rivals on the rain-affected opening lap. A fine display from Hamilton, even if Ferrari’s strategy hardly inspired confidence.
The bigger story was the apparent inability of this generation of cars—machines combining internal-combustion engines with battery-powered systems—to race properly on a wet circuit.
Their software is extraordinarily complex, and the FIA acknowledged that it had not been sufficiently tested in wet conditions. A review was launched on Sunday night.
Formula One was plunged into embarrassment at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia
The new generation of cars struggled to perform in heavy rain
The start was effectively postponed by 1hr 33min while officials waited for the circuit to dry partially. It marked one of Formula One’s most embarrassing episodes since Indianapolis in 2005, when only six cars took the start amid widespread derision over concerns surrounding Michelin’s tyres at the circuit.
This incident may not have attracted quite the same level of ridicule or made the problem so obvious, but it was still an absurd spectacle.
The conditions were poor half an hour before the lights went out, but hardly apocalyptic. The rain was nowhere near biblical. Umbrellas were necessary on the grid and shoes became wet, but that was about the extent of it.
I have visited Sepang, roughly an hour or more south of Kuala Lumpur, during years when the sky appeared to empty itself over the circuit. This was mild by comparison in a part of the world where the weather forecast is hardly a demanding profession: humid today, storms later. The rest of the day can be taken off.
On some afternoons, the downpour near the Petronas Twin Towers is so intense that you can feel as though you might be swept away.
This modest spell of rain was never a convincing reason to abandon the schedule.
Yet that was precisely what happened, with no proper explanation offered at the time. The FIA later said the delay was caused by a software reset.
The confusion was particularly unfortunate for the Bahrainis. Because of the war in the Middle East, they staged ‘their’ grand prix here and delivered it impressively in so many respects. Around 500 marshals and officials travelled from the Gulf kingdom, alongside Crown Prince Salman, the driving force behind the event.
Sunday’s race was delayed by more than an hour and a half because of heavy rain
It was a polished home-from-home event, organised down to the finest detail. The slow road journey to the circuit and heavy traffic were unavoidable in a city as large as Kuala Lumpur, but the atmosphere was positive and there were few complaints about an event arranged at such short notice.
The sport itself, however, was a farce.
The first delay lasted 40 minutes as the rain continued to fall.
Why?
It is a fair question. Formula One has been held in rain all over the world across many years. Hamilton danced in it at Silverstone, in 2008. It was a defining moment of his career.
After winning seven championships, he does not recall every jot and tittle of his time in two decades, not every race, but he remembers that one. The conditions then in the Midlands of England were far worse than those on Sunday.
You turn back through the pages of history. For example, James Hunt in Japan in 1976, when he took the title and the immortal Niki Lauda pulled out, ceding the championship to ‘Master James’ claiming that to race on would be ‘insanity’.
We add Ayrton Senna at Donington in 1993. It was one of the drives that distinguished his extraordinary gifts.
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Michael Schumacher was called the Rain Meister.
Verstappen, victorious on Sunday by two seconds, drove to the best victory I have seen live in my life in a near-monsoon in Sao Paulo, Brazil, two years ago.
Yet here the drivers sat kicking their heels in their garages while they awaited the call to arms. Finally, they were allowed a formation lap.
Several complained they could not accelerate, their cars basically hostage to their hybrid engines (and that damn ‘software’, whatever it is).
Pole-man Verstappen said he could ‘not move’. He later could, randomly picking up pace, but other cars momentarily broke down, including Hamilton’s red car, which for a few seconds sat at the side of the track. He then got going again. Others accelerated and then decelerated. Random stuff.
The race was red-flagged for 53 minutes, as the ‘software’ was rebooted. What does that mean? It seemed as if nothing could move until the track was dry. But, really, it was primarily a technical issue rather than a safety one. A bit of both, maybe.
This was a disastrous look. Fernando Alonso, the double world champion driving for Aston Martin, asked why the hiatus. ‘It’s racing,’ he protested. He was right.
Anthony Davidson, the former F1 driver who still acts as a test driver for Mercedes, tried to explain on Sky the almost inexplicable complexity of these wretched engines.
‘A lot of it comes down to the homework that should have been done before these wet conditions,’ he said. ‘A lot of it can be simulated.
‘What’s happening is if you are off throttle for too long, the turbo spools down and when the drivers put their foot back down it uses all the engine juice.
‘It’s all there to stop teams having traction control. It’s incredibly complicated and you fall into this horrible trap where the engine can’t reaccelerate.’
Do you understand that, folks? (Zero criticism of Davidson’s illumination is implied here.)
As for the race, Verstappen lost his lead but reacquired his advantage he was never to surrender on lap 13 after a poor re-start by Antonelli. All over.
Yet Antonelli, even though the runner-up on the day, commands a title race that has never taken off. Russell looks out of it.