F1 stewards call for review of standing restart procedure after Australian GP near miss

There is another debate over whether a standing restart is a good idea after the late-race turmoil in Melbourne, but another problem arose early in the event.

When the First Danger Signal Is Gone Alex Albon’s crash on Lap 7 triggeredthe go-ahead for a standing restart was given by race control.

The rules require the safety car to lead the cars in the restart formation before pitting.

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But this time, as the race leader, he nearly caused a major accident. Lewis Hamilton I was slowing down the formation lap in front while the cars behind me were closing in on the pack at high speed.

this is, George Russell I left the pitlane late so I was running fast to close the deficit.

As he joined the rear of the train and slowed down, other people behind him were caught and some had to hit the brakes hard to avoid an accident.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez Williams’ Logan Sargent had to take evasive action to avoid the attack Valtteri Bottas in the alfa romeo.

Kevin MagnussenI approached a slowing car at high speed.

The incident was reviewed by the race stewards after the Grand Prix, who felt that no driver was particularly responsible for what happened.

“When Russell and the car behind caught up with the car in front, there was a large speed difference between the two groups and many cars had to take evasive action,” the stewards said in a statement.

“From a safety point of view, this was not an ideal situation at all. Russell had to maintain his speed in the pit lane until he came out of the pits and quickly picked up speed to close the gap, which made for a slow start. I didn’t think it was necessary or appropriate to penalize Russell for the slow start from the pitlane.

However, the stewards feel that the rules regarding the formation lap procedure could be improved, especially when the leaders determine the pace.

Article 58.8 of the Sporting Regulations stipulates that if the lights are on, the car ahead must stay within 10 cars of the safety car before the restart.

However, once the message has been given to the teams that a standing restart will be carried out, the safety car lights will go out and the leaders will be able to retreat.

Article 58.11 of the Sporting Code states: “At this point, the first car in line behind the safety car will set the pace and, if necessary, may be ten or more car lengths behind the safety car.” It has been described as.

The stewards feel that this freedom for the lead car to dictate the pace early in the lap could be addressed with better rules.

“We think part of the problem is the regulations that allow the lead car to set the pace, even if the restart is a standing start from the pitlane.
against rolling start).

“We’ll probably have to look into that in the future to determine if this is appropriate for this kind of reopening.”