Wet races and why future of F1 engines appears to be V8 turbos - Q&A — SkimNews
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- Max Verstappen won his first race of 2025 at a rain-affected Malaysian Grand Prix, with Mercedes's Kimi Antonelli finishing second and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton recovering to third after an incorrect tyre choice at the start.
- The wet race delay in Malaysia was caused by a bug in the FIA's wet-weather engine settings—not conservative race control—forcing Verstappen and Hamilton's formation laps to be aborted while a new code was written and uploaded to all teams.
- Lewis Hamilton's claim that he could have won on intermediate tyres is unverifiable, per the source, because there was never a direct pace comparison: Hamilton was always on older rubber than Verstappen, and once he cleared Isack Hadjar there were only three laps remaining.
- Malaysia's return to the F1 calendar drew a record weekend crowd of 261,000—more than double the previous record of 126,690—after the Bahrain Crown Prince brokered a deal with the Malaysian government, which had previously dropped the race over rights fees.
- Red Bull Powertrains secured their first F1 win as a power-unit manufacturer in Malaysia, with team principal Laurent Mekies describing Ford as a "key strategic partner" that manufactures key engine components and embeds specialist engineers in Milton Keynes—well beyond a sponsorship deal.
- F1 appears headed to a new engine formula for 2030 or 2031 featuring V8 turbos with roughly 15-25% electrical power used mainly as a push-to-pass system, despite Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris, and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem publicly favouring a return to naturally aspirated engines.
Why it matters: F1's likely V8 turbo formula for 2030 or 2031 is a deliberate compromise: it preserves hybrid road-relevance for manufacturers and keeps a credible net-zero path, while giving fans a measure of the engine sound they crave. Red Bull Powertrains' first win—built on genuine Ford component manufacturing and engineering, not just badging—signals the post-Honda structure is working, but the Malaysia software bug exposed how fragile increasingly complex F1 systems have become.
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