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As reported on https://www.espn.com/racing/f1/story/_/id/50100614/formula-1-2026-bahrain-grand-prix-malaysia-engine-delays-happened-verstappen [espn.com] and elsewhere:

The Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia {relocated due to war in Iran} already had a farcical name. Formula 1's unnecessarily complicated hybrid engines ensured the race will be remembered as one of the biggest farces in the sport's recent history.

F1's current engines, which feature a near 50-50 split between internal combustion energy and electrical battery elements, are already considered the biggest mistake the sport has made in recent times. Whenever they are consigned to the scrapheap, the foremost memories will be of Sunday's two formation laps in the rain.
[...]
Several corners into the first formation lap is where things started going wrong, when the cars encountered a software bug baked into the algorithms that dictate F1's new complicated engines. During rain, for safety reasons, engine modes run at a maximum deployment of 250 kilowatts of deployment in certain sectors, down from 350kW in dry conditions. Once Verstappen, leading the pack but tiptoeing around on the cold intermediates{tires}, dropped below a speed of 50 km/h, the algorithms dictating the behaviour of his engine started having problems: essentially, the MGU-K [part of the hybrid power unit] no longer kicked in to feed power into his low-revving engine. The restriction on the car's hybrid-electric component is meant to prevent teams from effectively using it as a traction control device at the start of a race; this time, however, the combination of not running on wet tires with an extremely wet tarmac meant drivers were applying much less throttle than normal.

The algorithm did not spot the difference, so kicked in. With the additional power boost locked out, the internal combustion engine was effectively dying without a surge of recovery power from the electrical side.
[...]
"There was a bit of a combination of circumstances which caused this bug to kick in. Basically, [on] the formation lap, some cars went very slowly, almost came to a standstill. There was a bit of a concertina effect between cars, and some cars almost stopped completely. That bug prevented the power from being redeployed, and for the cars to start again. I think if we had had a bit more testing, we probably would have managed to catch it in time, and not have such a situation.

"Once the problem happened, our guys realised very quickly what was happening, and had to work under a lot of time pressure for an update to the software, which was issued to the teams, and the teams had to install it on their cars.

The FIA {sanctioning body} later gave a simpler statement on what had happened, blaming a perfect storm of various factors. The governing body said "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 remedy was a software update -- code Tombazis admitted was a "cobbled up, hurried solution." Rewriting and sending the new code to the teams to install in their systems led to another delay. It meant the worst of the rain also disappeared, we got only a handful of laps on the intermediates and the prospect of a genuine wet-weather classic disappeared.

A few bits of explanation for non-F1 fans added {inside braces} by the submitter. After they got past the delay at the start, it was an entertaining race, on a track that the drivers generally like. The story link has a few additional humorous quotes and more details.

Original Submission