Oscar Piastri warns of 'recipe for disaster' over growing F1 concern

Oscar Piastri believes F1 could be set for a "recipe for disaster" if drivers are allowed to use straight-line mode (SLM) at grand prix starts. 

The new mode for 2026 is also known as the active aerodynamics and opens the rear-wing in a DRS-style whilst also lowering the front-wing flaps to dump drag before popping back up for corners.

There is already growing concern over F1 starts and launches from the grid after drivers began to struggle with the new procedures, which are easy to make mistakes.

With the removal of the MGU-H, they must manually spool the turbo up to eliminate turbo lag, but be careful not to over-rev the engine and put too much battery charge into the system.

Talks are planned next week to find a solution, with Piastri believing the ability to use SLM at grand prix starts could be "a recipe for disaster."

"We're certainly going to be needing those three days to get everything working the way closer to what we want," Piastri told media, including RacingNews365. 

"The extra testing time has definitely been necessary for just the systems, and as a sport, we need the time. From a performance point of view, you don't really need it, probably, but there are so many things from a borderline safety point of view that need to be figured out and addressed.

"The starts are the most obvious ones for now, and overtaking, but it is always going to be tough until you've actually had a race.

"[It is] whether we use straight line mode at the start because I think a pack of 22 cars with a couple of hundred points less of downforce sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

"So, there are a few of those aspects that need to be spoken about."