F1 urged to ‘have a hard look at themselves’ after Bahrain Grand Prix chaos

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This season’s new engines — which rely on 50-50 split between combustion and battery power — have already faced severe criticism.

And the sport’s contentious regulations are again back in the spotlight after multiple drivers were struck down by failures ahead of Sunday’s rain-hit round, forcing the start to be abandoned. The race eventually got under way one hour and 33 minutes later than advertised.

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who temporarily broke down in his Ferrari, likened the embarrassing scenes to the Lego race ahead of the British Grand Prix in July, while Mercedes’s George Russell said it “didn’t feel very F1,” and added: “I would have been disappointed if I was in the stands and watching that unfold.”

And Williams’s Carlos Sainz — a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association — has now heaped further pressure on the sport.

The 32-year-old Spaniard, who has also raced for Ferrari and McLaren, said: “[F1] needs to have a hard look at themselves and see how we ended up in this situation.

“It is clear the regulations are extremely complicated for the drivers, for the teams, for the power units and for the manufacturers. Who decided five years ago that this was the direction to go?

“We are doing the best with what we are given as a sport and as regulations. The FIA and F1 are doing the best they can, but clearly what was decided four or five years ago was wrong. We need to learn as a sport not to make those mistakes again.”

The FIA said it has launched a “full review” into the chaotic scenes after 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.”

The F1 circus will head this week to Singapore for the final round of a triple-header. British driver Russell’s failure to finish in Malaysia leaves him 84 points behind team-mate Kimi Antonelli in the standings, with just seven scheduled rounds left and 183 points available.

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