Andrea Stella says F1 must take further steps to address safety concerns raised by the sport’s new 2026 regulations after what he described as a near miss during the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
Speaking after Sunday’s race at Albert Park Circuit, the McLaren team principal warned that large speed differences between cars at the start could lead to a serious crash if the issue remains unresolved.
The incident involved Franco Colapinto narrowly avoiding a slow-starting Liam Lawson on the grid. Stella said the moment showed the current start procedure may still leave drivers exposed to danger.
A near-miss at Albert Park
The moment came seconds after the lights went out in Melbourne. Colapinto swerved at high speed to avoid Lawson, whose car launched slowly from the grid.
The close call followed months of debate about the start procedure under the new 2026 power-unit rules. Teams must now spool up their turbochargers before launch to ensure a strong getaway.
The FIA already added five extra seconds to the pre-start hold to help drivers prepare their systems. Yet Stella said the Melbourne incident showed the fix may not be enough.
“I think the concern remains. Today, the start was a bit of a near-miss,” Stella said, according to Motorsport. “There was a huge speed differential on the grid.”
He urged Formula 1 to keep studying the problem instead of waiting for a bigger incident.
“We can hope for the best, or we can just do something further to make sure that we reduce this speed differential,” Stella said. “My appeal is to say we should do more.”
Super clipping and dangerous closing speeds
Stella also repeated concerns he raised during preseason testing in Bahrain about another effect of the 2026 rules: sudden speed gaps on straights when cars run low on battery power.
Drivers call this effect “super clipping.” It happens when a car stops deploying electric power and begins harvesting energy while still at full throttle.
The issue became clear on the flat-out run between Turns 8 and 9 at Albert Park. Cars sometimes slowed suddenly as their energy systems changed modes.
McLaren driver Lando Norris warned after the race that the situation can be unpredictable when cars run close together.
“In my view, this was mainly a point of concern in the first lap,” Stella said. “Lando made the point that it’s quite tricky when you have cars very close to you that may still have deployment ongoing or not.”
He said the speed swings make it hard for drivers to judge distance and timing. Stella added that the sport should stay proactive about safety even if nothing bad happens.
“Nothing happened,” he said, “but we should always be on the front foot when it has to do with safety.”
The race itself produced dramatic early battles. George Russell and Charles Leclerc traded positions as battery strategies played out across the opening laps.
Stella said that action may not represent the normal pattern for the rest of the season. Once teams settle into similar energy deployment patterns, he expects overtaking to become harder again.
Andrea Stella predicts racing in China
The championship now moves to the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, the second round of the 2026 season and the first Sprint weekend of the year.
Stella believes the track layout there should reduce the extreme battery behaviour seen in Melbourne. The circuit includes heavier braking zones that allow cars to recharge energy in a more traditional way.
Speaking to GPblog, Stella said Melbourne forced drivers to manage energy in unusual ways. Drivers often lifted off the throttle on fast sections to protect their battery levels.
“If anything, what is affected by the circuit layout… Bahrain would be more similar to what we were doing before,” Stella said. “You harvest in braking and deploy as you go on power.”
He explained that Australia required drivers to control energy with lift-off techniques and super clipping. That changed how cars behaved in traffic and during overtakes.
Shanghai, he expects, should bring racing closer to what F1 teams were used to before the new rules arrived. The broader safety questions, however, remain open.
For Stella, the lesson from Melbourne is clear. The first race of the season showed that the concerns teams raised before the regulations arrived have not disappeared.
