A row of young men in shorts and T shirts sit on grey metal chairs in a karting centre waiting room, phones out, one of them with a black balaclava pulled over his whole head ready for a helmet. Yellow and white text across the clip reads “ALL THE F1 RACERS SPOTTED GO KARTING IN LANGKAWI.”

The 14 second video was posted on September 30, 2026, by the TikTok account @flyfm (Fly FM Malaysia), and a small line in the corner of the footage credits it to a user on X, so the account that posted it is sharing someone else’s phone footage. The caption names the drivers: “George Russell, Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, Ollie Bearman, Oscar Piastri and Gabriel Bortoleto were spotted enjoying some downtime in Langkawi, where they went golfing and even raced each other in go-karts.” It adds one result: “George Russell reportedly topped the karting session.”

The first six seconds stay on the waiting area: a wall poster of a race car, a group seated along the chairs, a few people filming and one in a maroon top laughing as the camera pans along. Then the shot moves to the group standing up, close together in a hallway. A tall man in a plain black T shirt talks and points toward a man in a light grey shirt, who grins and looks at the floor. The final frames hold on the man in black looking up at a screen mounted near the ceiling while a staff member in a branded team style jacket and another visitor in a cap stand behind him. Nobody is seen on track in the clip, and no lap times are shown.

That means the karting result rests on the caption’s word “reportedly.” The video shows the group at the venue; it does not show who won.

Why Six F1 Drivers Were in Malaysia at All

The caption’s line about the “Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang” reads like a mistake, but it is accurate. On July 26, 2026, the FIA and Formula 1 confirmed that the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia would host the Bahrain Grand Prix on October 2 to 4, 2026, slotted between the Azerbaijan and Singapore races. The FIA’s announcement says the arrangement allows Formula 1 to preserve a Grand Prix that would otherwise not have happened.

It was also a return to an old venue. According to Formula 1, Sepang held the Malaysian Grand Prix 19 times from 1999 to 2017, and only ten drivers on the 2026 grid had raced there before. The official timetable lists the lap at 5.543 kilometres and the race at 56 laps or 120 minutes, whichever came first, starting at 3 p.m. local time on Sunday, October 4.

How the Karting Crowd Did on Sunday

The weekend did not follow the caption’s karting script. Formula 1’s official race report says Max Verstappen won the rain hit race from pole, ahead of Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton. Russell, the man the caption names as the karting winner, was running in the top three when his car stopped just before Turn 1 during a late Safety Car period, ending his race. Of the others named in the caption, the report lists Piastri sixth, Bearman 14th, Sainz 17th and Bortoleto 18th after a 10 second penalty for a collision with Sainz, while Albon did not finish.

If You Book a Rental Kart Session

The waiting room in the clip, with its row of chairs, a balaclava already on one visitor and a screen mounted near the ceiling, is the kind of setup found at rental kart tracks. A few practical steps before you go:

• If the track offers a balaclava, wear it under the shared helmet, and check the helmet itself before you put it on. Motorsport UK’s karting safety guidance says a cracked helmet is not acceptable even if it carries the correct standard label.
• Turn up in closed shoes and clothing that cannot flap loose. Motorsport UK lists gloves, boots and overalls that meet a standard as required kit for licensed karting.
• Use the timing display. If the venue posts lap times, compare your laps with the fastest ones to see where you lose time instead of guessing.
• Treat a group session as a race only after the briefing. Ask the staff what the flags mean on that track and where you are allowed to overtake.