“THAT WAS A BIG MESS”: HOW ALL 22 DRIVERS SAW F1’S FORMATION LAP FIASCO IN SEPANG

A software glitch turned Sepang's formation lap into a parking lot. As the field headed out, power units across the grid began failing — some cars slowing to a crawl, others shutting down entirely. Verstappen at the front nearly stopped before a steering wheel switch change revived his Red Bull-Ford. Hamilton's Ferrari went dark seconds later and took longer to fix. Norris, Leclerc, Bortoleto, and Lawson all lost power at different points.

Race control waved it off and summoned everyone to the pits. The FIA pushed a software update; the fix took an hour. The fault traced to circuit-specific power unit settings — a configuration bug that hit Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull units in different ways. Verstappen quipped about the chaos on team radio, less so about the nail his crew found in his tyre during the delay. When the race finally went green, the grid order stood as originally set, minus an hour and the dignity.