Drivers have hit out following the chaos surrounding the start of today's Bahrain Grand Prix, as the 2026 rules come under further scrutiny.

While there was a sense of anticipation as F1 was about to witness its first wet racing of the year, it all descended into farce when a software issue affected a number of cars causing the starting procedure to be abandoned and the race restarted almost an hour later.

The FIA subsequently apologised for the issue which was the result of a glitch in the software issued to all the teams but not before the damage had been done.

"It's just horrible," said Lando Norris, ironically one of the few Mercedes powered drivers affected by the issue. "I don't know, it just proves that we shouldn't have any of that stuff, the electronic side."

"I've never seen an F1 race delayed by a bug, that was a new one," added teammate Oscar Piastri. "I got stuck for about a second," the Australian continued. "When the turbo doesn't work on these things, you might as well push the car instead of using an engine.

"It wasn't a great look," he admitted, "but I think it would be unfair to point the finger before there's an explanation."

"That's the problem that we have," said race-winner Max Verstappen, "these engines are so complicated and a lot of software is implemented. When there is some kind of error or glitch, or whatever you want to call it, that's the problem.

"I triggered it first, then I look in my mirror, and I just see everyone... I was like, wait, are they waiting for me or?"

"It was like the Lego race!" laughed Lewis Hamilton, another of those affected by the glitch, the Briton and his teammate dropping down the order as the glitch kicked in.

"Yeah, we had the same speed," said Verstappen.

"It was insane," agreed Kimi Antonelli. "Like at some point we were five-wide in the straight, because we couldn't understand what was going on."

"It's obviously not great what happened today," said Sergio Perez. "I'm sure we will learn from it as a sport, but what happened today is totally unacceptable."

"It is clear the regs are extremely complicated for the drivers, for the teams, for the power units, for the manufacturers," said Carlos Sainz. "It is too complicated.

"Again, my only question mark is who, five years ago, decided that this was the direction to go?" asked the Williams driver. "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 with what was decided four or five years ago, but clearly what was decided four or five years ago is wrong.

"Not a lot more to say," he sighed, "just learn as a sport not to do those mistakes again and not suffer from the same strange cases."

"The whole day felt like a bit of a faff, with the delay and then the red flag and then endless laps under the safety car and then suddenly doing extra laps to allow Sergio to overtake, it didn't feel very F1 today," said George Russell. "I'd have been a bit disappointed if I was in the stands, watching that unfold. That wasn't good."

"I've never seen anything like that," said Oliver Bearman. "I was shocked.

"I didn't even know that the FIA could control our throttle pedal," he admitted. "That was quite scary, actually. My throttle pedal stopped working, but it looks like everybody stopped working as well. The engine was just idling."

Check out our Sunday gallery from Sepang here.