Max Verstappen gives verdict on Bahrain GP start chaos
Verstappen made his feelings known about the pre-race madness
SEPANG – Max Verstappen has criticised F1’s “complicated” power units after chaotic scenes during an aborted start to the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
The four-time F1 champion bounced back from a poor start to take his first victory of the 2026 season.
Max Verstappen’s confusion over formation lap chaos
Following a 40-minute delay to the race start due to heavy rain, the 22 cars left the grid for a pair of formation laps behind the safety car.
However, this did not go to plan, as some drivers were left without power and crawled to a halt.
The FIA later confirmed that these problems were at least in part due to a software problem, with a fix sent to teams before a restart close to an hour later.
Full details of the problems can be found here, with the FIA committing to a “full review of the issue”.
This was the first wet-weather running of the season, and asked how concerning it is that the power units appeared to struggle immediately, Verstappen said: “That’s the problem that we have.
“These engines are so complicated, and a lot of software is implemented. When there’s like some kind of…I want to call it…that’s the problem.
“I triggered it first and then I look in my mirror, I was like, “Wait, are they waiting for me or what’s going…?” It was like the Lego race.”
On the formation laps, drivers were off-throttle for significant periods, something which the modern power units do not like, as the turbo needs to be kept spooled up – hence the period of rev building before the regular five lights starting procedure.
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“There was nothing going on,” said Verstappen when describing the feeling of pressing the throttle.
“That was the problem. It was just like driving at, what, 35 kilometres, going uphill, actually losing speed.
“I don’t know exactly, because when you go too low in speed and too low RPM, for whatever reason, then it just bogs down. And normally it takes one or two seconds, and it comes back. That’s basically also what I had at the start.
“But somehow that didn’t trigger in the first software round, and then in the second software round it was a bit better, luckily.
“Otherwise, I think I would’ve been stuck as well at the start, which I had probably a few times in the beginning of the year as well when I had a poor start, but it meant that I was lost. So at least now it was a bit better.”
Max Verstappen’s engine “completely died” on start
When the race did finally begin, Verstappen suffered a horrendous launch.
Unlike the Ferrari pair of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, this was not because he was on slick tyres, but his engine bogging down.
Asked about his reaction to the Mercedes drivers passing him into Turn 1, Verstappen said: “I was not surprised because my start was horrendous.
“Again, dropping the clutch and not having power. The engine just completely died on me.
“But then you just have to settle in, try not to overreact as well, and just slot in, try to keep your position there.
“The race is long, a lot of things can happen, and, step by step, I could close the gap. And then I had quite a, I think, quite a nice battle on the slicks with Kimi.
“It’s quite slippery in some phases of the corner, but, yeah, it was nice.”
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
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