The Racing Whine — The week in F1 YouTube

The Racing Whine: 30 Sep to 6 Oct 2026

The Racing Whine, Week ending Tuesday 6 October 2026: F1 restarts to install updates; Red Bull wins ahead of schedule; Mercedes rolls out a downgrade

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Picture: Composite of Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 and Balloon by The Racing Whine

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F1 restarts to install updates

A bug in the standard ECU locked several cars into emergency power mode on the wet formation lap at Sepang, and the FIA sent teams new software during the delay.1

F1 keeps its Gulf finale, with Imola on standby

Stefano Domenicali says F1 will close 2026 in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, with Imola being prepared as a stand-in.5

Ferrari's broken mirror costs €10,000. The bad luck came free

The stewards fined Ferrari €10,000 for not telling Lewis Hamilton about a damaged mirror it knew about, and warned Hamilton for impeding Gabriel Bortoleto in practice.6

The Big Story

Off and on again

A software bug stopped F1's cars on a wet formation lap at Sepang. Agreeing whose fault it was is taking longer.7

Max Verstappen stopped first, at Turn 9, and as others followed he said on the radio, "LOL, look at this." Edd Straw and Jon Noble of The Race say a bug in the standard ECU tripped a lockout that cuts power for about 60 seconds, because the software decided a slow, wet formation lap was an emergency.8 Some cars reset almost at once, and Lewis Hamilton's left him stopped on the main straight for two and a half minutes. Noble pointed out that the quickest to escape were Mercedes and Red Bull, the two that had used the lockout as a qualifying trick earlier in the season, and allowed that this might be a coincidence.9

The FIA sent every team new software that removed the wet-weather power limit in the affected sectors. Spanners of Missed Apex suspected the delay came from FIA staff carrying a flash drive from garage to garage. He had first blamed Ferrari for Hamilton's stoppage, and on the podcast he apologised to Maranello for his hastily deleted tweets.10

The drivers were less forgiving. Lando Norris called it horrible and said it proved the electronic side should go. Alex Albon picked his words: "I don't want to use the word embarrassing, I want to use the word funny." Fernando Alonso thought it 100% unfair, since the Hondas were fine and the stricken cars kept their grid slots anyway. He then started on slicks and took his best finish of the year.11

The FIA's statement blamed "an unprecedented combination of low engine speed, low grip conditions, wet weather energy management settings, and the Sepang circuit sector configuration". Matt of The Red Flags Podcast was not persuaded: "Who would have known that in a rainy place that it would rain and then, then the cars would have had to go slow."12

The Race was calmer and no kinder. Noble said the day confirmed that the power unit rules are too complicated, and that F1 got lucky, because the same bug in a title decider, with contenders parked at the trackside, would have been far worse than a 90-minute delay. Straw said this bug will not come back, but asked whether there are others.13

The FIA says the issue was missed in testing by both the governing body and the teams, and has promised a full review with the teams and power unit manufacturers. The grid was reset to its original order. Verstappen, the first car to stop, won the race.14

Who's Beefin'

Peter Windsor vs George Russell

Heat: 4/5

Cameron Cc's qualifying reaction with Windsor was titled "Russell Is Cooked!". The next one was titled "Russell Is Finished". Windsor's assessment of Russell's qualifying, eighth and four tenths behind Kimi Antonelli by his account: "George Russell, may the real George Russell please stand up. And he didn't do anything." Cameron Cc then read out Russell's own view: had he joined Mercedes two years earlier, he would be a two-time champion.15

Missed Apex vs Missed Apex, on Colapinto and Norris

Heat: 2/5

In Missed Apex's preview, Jonathan Simon said Lando Norris's comments about Franco Colapinto were a little extreme. In its qualifying reaction, Spanners said: "I just thought it was outrageous of [Colapinto] to wander back into the paddock after that worldy of a crash... Instead, he went on the attack and started attacking Lando Norris' comments".16

The Hard Compound

Windsor's allocation this week: hards on the 2026 regulations, mediums on drivers who won't be coached, softs on who pays for Sepang.

The regulations. Before the weekend, Windsor said the 2026 rules were "casting a cloud over everything that we know and love about motor racing". "Don't like these regulations at all," he said after qualifying, about Isack Hadjar's engine penalty. Nobody changed them before the race, so he said it again.17

Coaching. Windsor thinks George Russell should work with the driving coach Rob Wilson, and he knows how that pitch goes: "You'd be astonished at the number of guys that I've approached over the years". Some say maybe, "and then nothing ever happens. And most of them say, 'What are you talking about? Get out of here.'" His verdict on the trade: "That's below them. They'd never do it."18

Who pays for Sepang. Windsor wants Malaysia kept, and he has found the money: "I think it needs to be financed by Saudi Arabia, really, doesn't it? So we don't have to race there". Saudi Arabia would pay for a race and not get one. Windsor won't miss it: "I can't stand that high-speed S stuff with concrete walls around the back and all those DRS zones. I think it's ludicrous."19

The Creator Desk

  • James' Pit Lane "Russell Done & Told To Stop Moaning" turned out to be about cooling vests. Russell wants them made compulsory. Max Verstappen: "I don't need that cooling vest, and I won't use it."
  • TacticalRab Six days separate "Mercedes HUGE Upgrade LEAKED, Ferrari Respond 😭🚨" from "Mercedes SCRAP Upgrade, Russell Penalty Leaked! 😭💥". The crying emoji survived both. +1 more
  • Tommo Title: "I don't trust F1 anymore." Tommo says the anomalies have stopped him trusting even teammate comparisons: "I'm at the point now where I'm like, well, is there any point because there's so many anomalies that appear to exist." +1 more
  • The Race Before the weekend, Mercedes let its upgraded car out of the garage for five minutes, to be weighed by the FIA. On the evidence so far, those were its best five minutes.
  • Missed Apex In the preview, Jonathan Simon rated Vasseur's chances of being the next team principal fired: "I genuinely believe that he might be possibly one of the top, if not the next fired, top three." It was the same week Ferrari declared its full confidence in him.
  • The Red Flags Podcast Guenther Steiner on Christian Horner: "I think Christian wants to come back to formula one". He also saw an upside for Horner: "he's releasing a book you know so it will help the sale of that one, or maybe not, we don't know."
  • F1 TV Sam Collins's Tech Talk asked "Will the Silver Arrows surge ahead?" Saturday answered.

Every creator in full

The Creator Desk in full

James' Pit Lane

  • "Russell Done & Told To Stop Moaning" turned out to be about cooling vests. Russell wants them made compulsory. Max Verstappen: "I don't need that cooling vest, and I won't use it."20

TacticalRab

  • Six days separate "Mercedes HUGE Upgrade LEAKED, Ferrari Respond 😭🚨" from "Mercedes SCRAP Upgrade, Russell Penalty Leaked! 😭💥". The crying emoji survived both.21
  • In "Hamilton EXPOSES Ferrari CEO, Mercedes Upgrade 👀😨", the exposure was Hamilton saying: "There are obviously also people above Fred, and it's not about one person." The CEO was not named. Fred Vasseur's reply: "It would be a huge mistake to not be unified."22

Tommo

  • Title: "I don't trust F1 anymore." Tommo says the anomalies have stopped him trusting even teammate comparisons: "I'm at the point now where I'm like, well, is there any point because there's so many anomalies that appear to exist."23
  • His fix is to take control away from "these unpredictable somewhat AI systems" and put it "in the hands of teams of human beings who should be able to determine their own success and their own failure." At Ferrari this week, the human beings chose slicks.24

The Race

  • Before the weekend, Mercedes let its upgraded car out of the garage for five minutes, to be weighed by the FIA. On the evidence so far, those were its best five minutes.25

Missed Apex

  • In the preview, Jonathan Simon rated Vasseur's chances of being the next team principal fired: "I genuinely believe that he might be possibly one of the top, if not the next fired, top three." It was the same week Ferrari declared its full confidence in him.26

The Red Flags Podcast

  • Guenther Steiner on Christian Horner: "I think Christian wants to come back to formula one". He also saw an upside for Horner: "he's releasing a book you know so it will help the sale of that one, or maybe not, we don't know."27

F1 TV

  • Sam Collins's Tech Talk asked "Will the Silver Arrows surge ahead?" Saturday answered.28

The Beef League

8 beefs in 2 weeks so far

Beef of the week

Peter Windsor vs George Russell

Heat: 4/5

Top of the league: Lando Norris, heat 9 from 3 beefs.

League table
PosClubPHeatBestForm
1 Lando Norris McLaren 3 9 4 4 3 2
2 5 Peter Windsor 2 7 4 3 4
3 1 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls 1 4 4 4
4 1 Franco Colapinto Alpine 1 4 4 4
5 New George Russell Mercedes 1 4 4 4
6 2 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 1 4 4 4
7 2 Ferrari Company 1 3 3 3
8 2 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1 3 3 3
9 New Missed Apex 1 2 2 2
10 2 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1 2 2 2
11 2 Josh Revell 1 1 1 1

Heat is Who’s Beefin’s rating out of five, added up over the season. P is beefs played; form is the last five, newest last.

Sources

  1. The Race, 0:45: "It's what engineers in the paddock call continuous offset. It's an emergency lockout system that's part of the 2026 regulations." (Jon Noble) · James' Pit Lane, 2:08: "The FIA sent new software to the teams to help cope with the conditions for the new start." (James reading Bradley Lorde) · The Red Flags Podcast, 6:36: "an unprecedented combination of low engine speed, low grip conditions, wet weather energy management settings, and the Sepang circuit sector configuration led to an unintended loss of power for a number of our cars" (Matt reading FIA) · Missed Apex, 2:11: "It does then later seem like all the cars were affected in some way, and then they had to push a massive software update from the FIA." (Spanners) ↩︎

  2. The Red Flags Podcast, 50:57: "the impressiveness of what they've been able to do with the powertrains that like in their first year as like, uh, we're making these engines ourselves, they've won a race" (Matt reading Ted Kravitz) · TacticalRab, 12:26: "A week ago, we thought our best chance of a win was in Singapore, not Malaysia." (Rab reading Laurent Mekies) · FP1Will, 13:18: "Verstappen capped off an already dominant weekend with his first win of 2026" · Peter Windsor, video description: "Max Verstappen went on to score his first win of the season for Red Bull-RBPT Ford, decisively beating the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli" ↩︎

  3. The Race, 7:46: "internal prediction of a three tenths of a second gain actually looked like a four to five tenths backwards step" (Edd Straw reading Toto Wolff) · The Race, 8:23: "one of my worst experiences" (Edd Straw reading Toto Wolff) · The Race, 0:33: "What is abnormal is the timing. This is Mercedes' first upgrade, proper upgrade, since the Canadian Grand Prix." · TacticalRab, 14:43: "The updates have not satisfied the engineers, not so much in terms of numbers as in terms of the car's behaviour on the track." (Rab reading AutoRacer) ↩︎

  4. Missed Apex, 37:20: "This is the third... Is this the third engine-related DNF?" (Spanners) · James' Pit Lane, 0:35: "Sky Sports News saying it understands that Russell will take on a new power unit on Friday in Singapore, which will see him exceed the season allocation of four for each driver, therefore incurring a penalty that will drop him to the rear of the grid." (James reading Sky Sports News) · James' Pit Lane, 3:00: "I don't need to say I think it's gone or whatever, but of course, it's exceptionally unlikely." (James reading George Russell) · The Inside Line, 0:30: "He's not going to be champion this year." (Jolyon Palmer) ↩︎

  5. TacticalRab, 0:59: "We are going to Qatar and Abu Dhabi to close out the season. He says, this is the direction we have taken based on the information we have and the assurances we have." (Rab reading Stefano Domenicali) · The Inside Line, 0:45: Qatar and Abu Dhabi confirmed to close the 2026 F1 season · Missed Apex, 2:40: "It's called the Bahrain Grand Prix, even though it's in Malaysia. And this is funded by Bahrain. This is a legal contractual obligation." (Jonathan Simon) ↩︎

  6. James' Pit Lane, 2:29: Lewis Hamilton warned and Ferrari fined €10,000 for impeding Gabriel Bortoleto in practice · TacticalRab, Mercedes PROBLEM with "Upgrades", Russell 😭 F1 Sepang: Ferrari fined €10,000 over Hamilton's mirror incident · Peter Windsor, 9:27: "Ultimately, you've got to blame the Ferrari radio because they were not giving Lewis any sort of notice of who was coming up behind him" ↩︎

  7. The Race, 0:45: "It's what engineers in the paddock call continuous offset. It's an emergency lockout system that's part of the 2026 regulations." (Jon Noble) · The Race, 7:47: Why F1’s 2026 cars failed in the rain ↩︎

  8. The Race, 1:53: Why F1’s 2026 cars failed in the rain · James' Pit Lane, 1:43: Big Penalty Issued; Fury As F1 Cars Break Down In The Rain, Verstappen Dominant In Malaysia · The Race, 0:45 · The Race, 2:49 ↩︎

  9. The Race, 5:53: Why F1’s 2026 cars failed in the rain · The Race, 7:04 · The Race, 6:27: "Mercedes, we know, had ways to recognise this was happening and get out of it, whereas certain others didn't." ↩︎

  10. The Red Flags Podcast, 6:49: WET RACE MAYHEM! 2026 Bahrain in Malaysia GP Recap | The Red Flags Podcast · Missed Apex, 9:15: Bahrain Race Review: Wet-Weather Chaos, Strategy Calls & Mercedes Tension · Missed Apex, 1:54 · Missed Apex, 6:25 ↩︎

  11. Missed Apex, 1:30:11: "Just proves that we shouldn't have any of that stuff on the electronic side." (Jonathan Simon reading Lando Norris) · The Race, 8:00: Why F1’s 2026 cars failed in the rain · The Red Flags Podcast, 16:56: WET RACE MAYHEM! 2026 Bahrain in Malaysia GP Recap | The Red Flags Podcast ↩︎

  12. The Red Flags Podcast, 6:32: WET RACE MAYHEM! 2026 Bahrain in Malaysia GP Recap | The Red Flags Podcast · The Red Flags Podcast, 8:59: YouTube labels this video “Includes paid promotion” · The Red Flags Podcast, 8:59: "Who would have known that in a rainy place that it would rain and then, then the cars would have had to go slow. It doesn't make fucking, it's dumb" ↩︎

  13. The Race, 8:36: Why F1’s 2026 cars failed in the rain · The Race, 10:39 ↩︎

  14. The Red Flags Podcast, 7:03: WET RACE MAYHEM! 2026 Bahrain in Malaysia GP Recap | The Red Flags Podcast · Missed Apex, 6:37: Bahrain Race Review: Wet-Weather Chaos, Strategy Calls & Mercedes Tension · James' Pit Lane, 4:12: Big Penalty Issued; Fury As F1 Cars Break Down In The Rain, Verstappen Dominant In Malaysia · The Race, 1:53: Why F1’s 2026 cars failed in the rain ↩︎

  15. Cameron Cc, Russell Is Cooked! | Reaction to Bahrain GP Quali (whole video) · Cameron Cc, Russell Is Finished | Peter Windsor Reacts (whole video) · Cameron Cc, 9:13: "George Russell, may the real George Russell please stand up. And he didn't do anything." · Cameron Cc, 12:33: "I was quicker than Lewis two out of the three seasons that we raced. If I joined Mercedes two years earlier, I would be a two-time champion." (Cameron reading George Russell) ↩︎

  16. Missed Apex, 28:59: "I'm with [Colapinto] a little bit. Like, why wouldn't you be salty, regardless of the apology? I think the comments, to be fair, were a little bit extreme from Lando." (Jonathan Simon) · Missed Apex, 47:14: "I just thought it was outrageous of [Colapinto] to wander back into the paddock after that worldy of a crash... Instead, he went on the attack and started attacking Lando Norris' comments" (Spanners) · TacticalRab, 3:22: "I don't think Franco really did any of that for Lando." · The Red Flags Podcast, 39:56: "all this uh uh over social media these threats and all that stuff I mean do really it's a sport at the end" (Guenther Steiner) ↩︎

  17. Peter Windsor, 6:50: "that whole umbrella of the 26 regulations, casting a cloud over everything that we know and love about motor racing" · Peter Windsor, 6:11: "Don't like these regulations at all." · Peter Windsor, 13:56: "It seems a shame in many ways to have to talk about a Lewis lap or even a Max lap in terms of energy management, energy deployment. But sadly, that is kind of what it's still all about these days" · The Race, 9:41: "I would say it's a slam dunk that these power unit regulations are a problem." · Peter Windsor, 17:44: "Don't like these regulations at all." ↩︎

  18. Cameron Cc, 5:13: "he's not as supple as Kimmy, and therefore he doesn't have the same feel as Kimmy. It has a different feel. I'm not saying it's more or less, it's just different, and everything is more spiky with George" · Cameron Cc, 53:25: "That's below them. They'd never do it." · Cameron Cc, 10:58: "That's below them. They'd never do it. No, I can't do that. That's not what Formula One drivers do." · Cameron Cc, 10:20: "the hashtag trending in Formula One, and you're not supposed to be seen to be needing any help. Actually, as a driver, you're supposed to be the best in the world, regardless of what team you're in." · Cameron Cc, 53:34: "You'd be astonished at the number of guys that I've approached over the years... And some of them say, 'Yeah, maybe.' And then nothing ever happens. And most of them say, 'What are you talking about? Get out of here.'" ↩︎

  19. Cameron Cc, 15:16: "I'd rather it wasn't financed by the Bahrainis... I think it needs to be financed by Saudi Arabia, really, doesn't it? So we don't have to race there, and they can finance Malaysia, a much better solution." · Peter Windsor, 2026 Sepang F1 preview with Peter Windsor (whole video) · Cameron Cc, 15:57: "I can't stand that high-speed S stuff with concrete walls around the back and all those DRS zones. I think it's ludicrous." ↩︎

  20. James' Pit Lane, Late Double Punishment; Russell Done & Told To Stop Moaning After Malaysia Quali (whole video) · James' Pit Lane, 2:42: "I don't need that cooling vest, and I won't use it." (James reading Max Verstappen) ↩︎

  21. TacticalRab, Mercedes HUGE Upgrade LEAKED, Ferrari Respond 😭🚨 (whole video) · TacticalRab, Mercedes SCRAP Upgrade, Russell Penalty Leaked! 😭💥 (whole video) ↩︎

  22. TacticalRab, Hamilton EXPOSES Ferrari CEO, Mercedes Upgrade 👀😨 (whole video) · TacticalRab, 15:39: "There are obviously also people above Fred, and it's not about one person." (Lewis Hamilton) · TacticalRab, 5:07: "It would be a huge mistake to not be unified." (Fred Vasseur reading Fred Vasseur) ↩︎

  23. Tommo, I don't trust F1 anymore. (whole video) · Tommo, 3:11: "I'm at the point now where I'm like, well, is there any point because there's so many anomalies that appear to exist." ↩︎

  24. Tommo, 6:22: "Taking control away from these unpredictable somewhat AI systems and putting them in the hands of teams of human beings who should be able to determine their own success and their own failure. That is what makes sport, sport, okay?" · FP1Will, 9:42: "Ferrari to re-establish the balance by placing the seven-time champion on slicks." ↩︎

  25. The Race, 0:33: "What is abnormal is the timing. This is Mercedes' first upgrade, proper upgrade, since the Canadian Grand Prix." · The Race, 8:23: "one of my worst experiences" (Edd Straw reading Toto Wolff) ↩︎

  26. Missed Apex, 33:48: "If you had to have odds on next team principal fired... I genuinely believe that he might be possibly one of the top, if not the next fired, top three." (Jonathan Simon) · The Inside Line, 3:01: "We have full confidence in Fred Vasseur and in his team, and we continue to do so." (Ferrari PR boss) ↩︎

  27. The Red Flags Podcast, 20:47: "I think Christian wants to come back to formula one... and maybe sees an opportunity there because there's a lot of uh you know us known at Ferrari" (Guenther Steiner) · The Red Flags Podcast, 21:34: "he's releasing a book you know so it will help the sale of that one or maybe not we don't know" (Guenther Steiner) ↩︎

  28. F1 TV, Will the Silver Arrows surge ahead? | F1 TV Tech Talk (whole video) · TacticalRab, 20:47: "We don't really know what happened, but the conclusions were... They're much slower on the straights. They do not have the same efficiency as they had before." (Rab reading Toto Wolff) · James' Pit Lane, 0:48: "Very difficult to understand. We've been a little bit caught out on Friday, with some car behaviour that we didn't see all year." (Toto Wolff) ↩︎