Formula 2 races will now feature rolling starts to ensure “driver’s safety,” as a consequence of the high number of cars stalling so far in the 2018 season.
A brand new car was introduced to F2 this year. The clutch mechanism has proven to be unpredictable and has led to a significant number of stalls on formation laps and race starts in the opening five rounds.
Drivers were given a 15-minute practice session on Friday morning at the Red Bull Ring in Austria to complete practice starts. The results of this session have been assessed by the FIA who deemed the clutch issues to still be unresolved.
For the two F2 races in Austria and next week’s round seven in Britain, standings starts will be replaced by rolling starts to avoid the hazard of stranded cars at the race start.
Given the logistic demands of the triple header of F2 weekends, it is not possible for a clutch fix to be implemented prior to the eighth round of the season in Hungary.
“This is not an ideal situation, but the drivers’ safety is a top priority,” said F2 CEO Bruno Michel. “As we do not have the time to test and properly validate a permanent fix to the starting issues what the FIA has decided is definitely the safest decision.
“This will also give us enough time to work on a solution to the problem and return to a safe and normal situation for Budapest and the remaining of the season.”
All 20 of the F2 drivers have stalled the car at least once, with current championship leader and McLaren Formula 1 junior Lando Norris stalling at both the Azerbaijan and France rounds.
“With the starts we may as well forget about it, there’s nothing we can do about it, the car is really bad quite frankly,” Norris said in an interview featured on Autosport following his feature race stall in France.
The 2018 F2 car has also suffered electronic issues. Several drivers experienced throttle pedal safety mode glitches during the French round, including championship contenders Alexander Albon and Nyck de Vries.
Trident’s Arjun Maini was outspoken on the problems last week, suggesting that the issues with the 2018 car are “killing our careers.”
