Drivers want rules changes to cut “dangerous” risk of crash at start

Formula 1 drivers want the FIA to make rules changes to reduce the risk of a potentially catastrophic crash happening at the start of races.

Several drivers drew attention to Franco Colapinto’s alarming near-miss with Liam Lawson on the first lap of last weekend’s season-opening race at Melbourne. Lawson was one of several drivers who had difficulties getting their car off the line on Sunday and only a last-second swerve by Colapinto avoided what could have been a significant impact.

Pierre Gasly said “starts at the minute are a lottery” for drivers with F1’s new power units.

“Liam had an issue which wasn’t down to his procedures,” said the Alpine driver. “We had a very good [start]. I think we all know what we [should] do inside the car but when you see the outcomes at the moment, it’s more a consequence of the PU and whether it’s doing what it’s supposed to do, et cetera, so you have a big variation.”

Although Gasly was pleased with his start in Melbourne, he said he had “no idea” whether he could repeat it this weekend. “I might do the same procedure this weekend and lose five places,” he explained.

Gasly said his team mate’s near-miss with Lawson was a “scary” moment. “I thanked him many times again this morning when I saw him because we’re quite short on parts. I think for all of us in the team it was definitely a scary one, but especially for him, and I’m glad that everyone was okay out of it.

“It definitely needs some stuff to be fixed. Liam did a decent job in quali, then his race was over from something which wasn’t in his power, which should not really happen.”

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Drivers will have to perform at least two standing starts this weekend as the Chinese Grand Prix is a sprint event. However the permanent track has a wider start/finish area than the temporary facility at Albert Park, potentially allowing drivers more space to avoid cars which get away slowly.

Max Verstappen, who was also low on battery at the start of the race, said the problem of drivers running low on battery at the start can be solved easily with changes to F1’s rules. “There are a few simple solutions, but they need to be allowed by the FIA with the battery-related stuff,” he explained.

“Starting with a 0% battery is not a lot of fun and also quite dangerous. So we are in discussions with them to see what can be done.

“You could see we almost had a massive shunt in Melbourne at the start. Now, some of that is related to batteries. Some[times], of course, it can happen with anti-stall. But you could see a lot of big speed differences because I was not the only car that had almost, let’s say, no battery, or 20, 30 percent. This is something that I think can be easily fixed.”

Some drivers suffered such a severe lack of power at the start they thought their power unit had failed. “I think everyone kind of suffered the same issue,” said Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who started on the front row of the grid and lost five places when he got away slowly.

“Obviously, [some] people suffered with a bigger magnitude. In my case, obviously, it was very stressful because, exiting the last corner with no battery, I [couldn’t] do any burn-outs. At one point I thought the car was broken because it was not responding to any inputs.”

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Even Charles Leclerc, who took the lead of the race from fourth on the grid, said he hadn’t made a particularly good start. “It looked good from outside, but I think we all had the same problem for some reason, so this is something we’ve got to review because also my battery was very, very low.”

“I thought I would end up P8, P9, but then I started and I saw everybody had issues and I had the one with the least issues, which at the end is what counts. But there’s a lot of margin to improve those starts. It was very sub-optimal, I think, for everybody.

“We kind of expected a messy start. Then I think on top of that as well we are such on a fine line for getting everything right on the PUs, and the lights [went] off very, very, very quickly, [which] I think surprised everybody on top of that and made it even more critical. So it was kind of crazy.”

Esteban Ocon pointed out similar problems previously occured in Formula 2 following a change of regulations in 2018, which led the FIA to force the use of rolling starts instead of standing starts for several races. “We don’t want to see F2 starts happening in F1 – they should not happen in F2 either, but they are, more or less for the same reasons that they happen [here].”

“We don’t want to see somebody stalling in front of you and then suddenly appearing from nowhere, because that’s probably one of the worst crashes you can have,” he added.

2026 Chinese Grand Prix

• Drivers allowed higher power unit recharge limit for Chinese Grand Prix
• Mercedes’ lead is “not an impossible gap to close” – Hamilton
• Drivers want rules changes to cut “dangerous” risk of crash at start
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• Now people understand “GP2 engine” comments about Honda, says Alonso

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