Liam Lawson said it is over to the FIA to act or hold station, as he raised safety concerns over the new F1 2026 regulations.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his near-miss with Franco Colapinto at the start in Melbourne, and experiences that weekend of being around other cars of varying energy status, Lawson<\/a> said that drivers will continue to raise concerns, and the FIA will respond how it sees fit.<\/p>\n Liam Lawson raises F1 2026 starts and SLM concerns<\/p>\n Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for news you can trust.<\/p>\n Only two rounds deep into the new era of Formula 1 competition, the sport, teams and drivers, are all getting to grips with how these regulations manifest into on-track competition.<\/p>\n One area which the sport\u2019s governing body, the FIA, was quick to address was race starts. The new system sees drivers receive a blue flashing light, informing them that the start procedure is about to begin.<\/p>\n These new engines take longer to get into the right configuration for launch, and it is a start procedure change which was well received.<\/p>\n Still, drivers have had varying degrees of success in regards to getting away well off the line. Lawson had a particularly close shave in Melbourne, as Franco Colapinto showed some razor sharp evasive action to miss Lawson\u2019s slow starting Racing Bulls car.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just very complicated,\u201d Lawson said of F1 2026 race starts, as he spoke ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix. \u201cYou see us sitting there for sort of 10 seconds, trying to start our pre-start procedure, and the starts are very inconsistent.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s a new car, but still, it\u2019s very tricky at the moment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll talk about it more anyway. There\u2019s a lot of things that we\u2019re probably talking about now anyway, that haven\u2019t been amazing about the cars. But that\u2019s something that will obviously keep improving.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawson was asked if anything can be done off the back of such conversations. He was told that several drivers have claimed a big shunt is only a matter of time.<\/p>\n Sainz claimed that the sport was \u201cextremely lucky\u201d that nothing happened between Lawson and Colapinto in Melbourne, and feared that there would be \u201cone of those big crashes\u201d if nothing changed.<\/p>\n But, Jonathan Wheatley, the now former Audi F1 team boss, said in China that the FIA was still looking at the start procedure, and had made some small tweaks for that race.<\/p>\n The Australia start was rather unique due to a quirk in the rules, which meant that drivers had different battery levels for the start, depending on whether they launched from beyond or before the timing line.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it keeps going on like this, yes,\u201d said Lawson in confirmation of fearing a future incident at race starts.\u00a0 \u201cWhat happened to me, it\u2019s so easy to happen. If Franco hadn\u2019t done a very good job at avoiding it, that would have been a really, really big crash.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the moment, it is quite dangerous.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, in terms of the decision making, obviously we\u2019re not part of that. We\u2019ll give our opinions on what we\u2019re feeling inside the car, but it\u2019s up to the FIA. If they want to change something, then they will.\u201d<\/p>\n On his start issue in Melbourne, he added: \u201cSometimes we have to have these things happen, to learn from them, to know what it is.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had quite good pre-starts and good starts during pre-season. The issue we had, we hadn\u2019t really experienced too much. We\u2019d had it once or twice before, but didn\u2019t expect it and didn\u2019t see it coming at the start of the race.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something that we understand now, fully, and it\u2019s about trying to apply a fix so that it doesn\u2019t happen again.<\/p>\n \u201cBut from my side, there\u2019s not a lot I can do in the car, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawson admitted that it is \u201cnot straightforward\u201d when it comes to potential alterations, with the engines needing that pre-start opportunity to prepare the turbos.<\/p>\n Though Lawson believes the safety topic stretches beyond just starts.<\/p>\n More on F1 2026 from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n Why F1 2026 power unit rules have delivered exactly what fans wanted<\/a><\/p>\n Why F1 2026 has killed qualifying, and why Sprint races are the future<\/a><\/p>\n In addition to the race starts, there is also the matter of boost and overtake modes from the batteries, lift-and-coast, super-clipping and Straight-Line Mode, where the front and rear wings open to dump drag. All of this influences closing speeds for a car following another.<\/p>\n Sainz has been particularly critical of the new rules on this front. After the Chinese GP, he called SLM \u201ca plaster on top of a plaster\u201d, and suggested that \u201csooner rather than later, there\u2019s going to be a big crash at very high speeds\u201d, pointing to tracks like Melbourne or Jeddah, which feature high-speed sections with kinks.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things that we\u2019re dealing with during the race,\u201d Lawson acknowledged. \u201cThe SLM in the high-speed zones where we\u2019re turning, is one thing as well. Trying to race like that can be quite sketchy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe difference in speed at the end of the straight, when cars are charging, cars are not charging, with overtake, there\u2019s a lot of stuff that we\u2019re learning, and a lot of things that it\u2019s not a simple fix, so it\u2019s something that we\u2019re all dealing with at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Important is Lawson\u2019s use of the word \u2018learning\u2019. It is still very early days in the understanding of this very different formula.<\/p>\n Lawson was asked whether he foresees a point during the season where drivers deploy and save energy at the same points in a lap.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the moment, it\u2019s very inconsistent,\u201d he said. \u201cWe make our own decisions on when we charge and deploy, and it\u2019s quite different between teams and engines.<\/p>\n \u201cIt depends on what the FIA decide to do. But right now, there\u2019s a lot of differences that we have to be quite careful of, because you can be having quite a good run on a car, and all of a sudden, they start charging, and you\u2019re right behind them with SLM open. There\u2019s not a lot you can do to avoid them.\u201d<\/p>\n F1 2026 resumes this week with the Japanese Grand Prix.<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n