Formula 1 has heeded the fears of varying fortunes of drivers off the start line, with the announcement of a new procedure for this weekend’s curtain-raiser in Australia.
F1 is facing a plethora of changes on track via its new radical rulebook, and race starts has transpired to be one of them.
The new 50-50 hybrid V6 power units are missing the MGU-H component, which translated into issues when mock race starts were conducted during pre-season testing in Bahrain.
With this component no longer featuring, the engines’ turbo takes longer to be spooled, and therefore drivers need to rev for longer.
This meant that the usual start procedure would put drivers towards the foot of the grid at an added disadvantage, as they would be given less time to rev whilst stationary due to having joined the grid last.
When this problem became evident in Bahrain, the solution came in the form a blue panel shown to drivers for five seconds, once the final car in the queue had lined-up on the grid.
It was only then that the traditional procedure of five red lights, following by a hold and then the green lights, would commence.
In his usual pre-race notes, F1’s Race Director, Rui Marques, confirmed that this procedure would continue.
“For the safe and orderly conduct of the Competition, once all F1 Cars starting from the grid have returned to the grid at the end of the formation lap or laps prior to the Race, the starting grid light panels will be illuminated blue [flashing] for 5 seconds and the information panel on the start gantry will display the message “Pre-Start”, following which the light sequence defined in to Article B5.7.2 of the FIA F1 Regulations will commence,” he wrote.
Then, the ‘Straight Mode’, a part of the ‘active aero’ element of the regulations, which is the replacement for the previous DRS, will not be activated until after the first corner on the opening lap, to ensure any slow starters – and fast starters behind them – will be under less risk of collision.
READ MORE – Aston Martin reveals drivers’ ‘permanent’ health risk at F1 Australian GP
Discussion about this post