FIA vow to 'intervene' if F1 teams seek 'advantage' with new GP start rules

The FIA has indicated it could hand out penalties to any drivers and teams if they seek an advantage over the latest tweak to the start rules.

Following the introduction of the new power unit regulations for this season, with a 50-50 split between combustion and electrical energy, one of the areas of concern has surrounded race starts.

Some drivers have encountered a lack of power off the line, leading to slower-than-hoped-for starts. In some cases, such as Liam Lawson in the season-opening Australia Grand Prix, the New Zealander was almost rammed from behind by Franco Colapinto in his Alpine. Only the lightning reactions of the Argentine prevented a mammoth shunt.

As part of several changes for this weekend's Miami Grand Prix, following numerous discussions with drivers, teams and the power unit manufacturers, a new low-power start detection system has been developed, capable of identifying cars with abnormally low acceleration shortly after clutch release.

Should this occur, an automatic MGU-K deployment will be triggered to ensure a minimum level of acceleration. In addition, there is also a visual warning system, with activating flashing lights on the rear and lateral, on affected cars to alert following drivers.

Whilst other areas of change are being implemented with immediate effect, the race starts proposal will simply be tested and analysed over the weekend before then likely coming into effect for the following race in Canada.

FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis has warned, however, that should the teams try to trick the system, then they will be punished.

"We made it clear that, first of all, this is not supposed to be a mechanism whereby people would be, let's say, even tempted to do it on purpose to come up better off," said Tombazis, speaking to selected media, including RacingNews365.

"So, what this would convert is a disastrous start to a bad one. It would not convert a bad one to a good one.

"Indeed, when we first discussed this option with the teams, we proposed that if this mechanism kicked in for any car, they would have to do a drive-through at the end of lap one.

"The universal position of all the teams, to completely discourage any funny games, was that in that scenario, it is already out of their control and [they are] definitely in a bad place. Therefore, that would not be necessary, and we accepted that.

"But if we see that, for whatever reason, we've missed something, and people started using it for an advantage, then we would, of course, intervene. But we don't think that's the case.

"Basically, there's a detection of how well the cars accelerate after a small amount of time after the start. If that is below a certain threshold, then it kicks in."

Tombazis confirmed the new system would have "intervened this year on two or three occasions total".

Providing examples, he said: "I don't think it would have intervened, for example, for [Max] Verstappen's bad start in China. It would not have been in that threshold.

"It would have certainly intervened in Liam Lawson's start in Australia. No doubt about that."