Formula One will introduce standing restarts after every safety car period next season, ESPN has claimed.
The rule – which was initially planned for 2015 before being dropped – was agreed after Bernie Ecclestone met with all 11 team principles in Abu Dhabi today, though it will require ratification from the World Motor Sport Council before being officially implemented.
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner told ESPN:
“It spices up the show, that’s the good thing. We all love starts, there is a risk but where there is also a reward – some will win, some will lose. If it brings life into the sport like it was in the old days then there is a long way that we can go”.
It has been a bit of a shock to see this rule introduced. We already knew that from 2017 wet races starting behind the safety car would see the drivers line up on the grid once it was deemed safe enough to do so, but none of us expected every safety car period to result in a standing restart.
The move will no doubt be controversial amongst fans, with the reaction on social media mixed to say the least.
Bernie Ecclestone has been keen to spice up the show in recent years, amidst declining viewing figures that are in part due to Mercedes’ dominance. It is because of this that manual starts were introduced at the start of this season, which has seen both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg falter on the opening lap so far this year.
There is also now another dimension for the engineers to consider.
Currently, the clutches in the cars are designed to last for just a few standing starts – with several drivers experiencing clutch overheating problems in past races that have seen a start aborted.
Clutches are going to have to be made far more durable from next season as they face the possibility of doing two or three standing starts in race trim – although this year’s Brazilian Grand Prix would have seen the field pull away from the grid on four separate occasions.
Crashes could also be a more common occurrence – as Guenther Steiner alluded to – the start is often the most exciting part of the race as it is the most dangerous. Using the Brazil case sample again, who is to say that we wouldn’t see drivers aquaplaning into the first corner, eliminating a large portion of the pack?
It is only fair to judge the rule after we see it in action, but there is understandably a lot of tension in the introduction of standing restarts.
