One of the priorities for the regulatory amendments was to avert safety risks at the start, due to turbo engines now lacking the MGU-H and therefore being slower to reach the necessary pressure. April meetings led to the development of a new emergency system, capable of activating the electric motor before the usual 50 km/h to react to a dangerously slow start. The concern, especially among Ferrari engine supporters, is that this could compromise the starting superiority of Maranello’s power units, but the FIA has ensured that the procedure does not give any advantage.
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How the system will work
During a meeting with the Italian press, Nikolas Tombazis, FIA single-seater director, provided more details on the operation of the new Low power start detection system: “The system aims to detect very bad and dangerous starts. It’s not that if someone made a decent start, they would be able to overtake those in front of them. The safety system only monitors how much the car is accelerating in the first half-second. If it detected a disastrous situation, it would provide assistance to ensure the car leaves the grid, not at the same speed as the others, but at least not in a dangerous way.”
“The car that will benefit from this system will always be one that has made a bad start,” continues Tombazis. “For example, the system would certainly have intervened in Lawson’s case in Australia, while it would not have done so for Verstappen’s start in China, which was bad, but not dangerous. Obviously, if we were to see that it is being used in some way with different intentions, we would not hesitate to act, but we do not believe it is necessary.”
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A penalty proposed
The FIA official reveals the proposal to impose a penalty on anyone who resorts to the emergency procedure: “We even discussed with the teams the possibility of introducing a penalty at the end of the first lap if this system were activated. For example, a drive-through could be served, to ensure that this does not give any subtle advantage. The teams were unanimous in saying that, as we created it, the system will never give an advantage, but only prevents a dangerous situation.”
The system, however, will not come into force before June. The intention is to conduct tests in Miami and Canada, verifying every possible implication: “The starting system will only be tested in the next two races. It will not be adopted yet, because obviously we need to be sure that it does not create any side effects. For this reason, we need to do some testing together with the teams,” concludes Tombazis.
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