Ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix this week, Formula 1’s drivers have expressed concerns about the possibility of a serious crash on the grid if a car either does not move or gets away from the grid slowly. The problem stems from a perfect storm of variables that could gone wrong.
As has been demonstrated since the beginning of testing this season, the 2026 cars have proved very tricky to get off the line because of the complexity of their power units. The turbos have to be spooled up by a few seconds of hard revving, and the driver has to get every element of a tricky procedure just right. The cars also accelerate faster now, so that a driver from the back of the grid will be moving at a higher speed when he passes the pole position slot compared to last year.
That both reduces the possibility of reacting in time by a few vital fractions of a second, and creates the potential for a bigger impact if there’s a stalled or sluggish car. The Australian Grand Prix last week saw a lucky escape for Franco Colapinto, who was caught off-guard when Liam Lawson barely moved off the line. When the car in front of the Argentine driver jinked to avoid the stricken Racing Bulls, he had no warning that Lawson was there, and it took a near-miraculous instinctive reaction for him to avoid contact.
“When I started to see the onboards after the race, I was like, it was even closer than what I thought,” Colapinto said in China on Thursday. “Even more sketchy! We talked about many different situations, that these things were going to be a thing to look at, and possibly dangerous situations, and it happened—unfortunately, to me. Luckily, I could manage to escape from it.”
Lawson was equally relieved not to be hit. “It was very impressive from his side to avoid it,” said the Kiwi when asked about the incident by Road & Track. “He had very good reactions. And I was very lucky. Honestly, at that point I had braced already in the car. I was looking in my mirror, and I saw his car on my left when he was close to me, and I was sure he was going to hit me. And then all of a sudden, he came by me on the right.”
Some of the most experienced drivers on the grid have suggested that perhaps next time, those involved won’t be quite so fortunate. And there have been calls to introduce rule changes that make it less tricky to get going cleanly.
“I think in Melbourne we were extremely lucky that nothing happened with Liam and Franco,” said Carlos Sainz. “And my feeling is that there’s going to be one of those big crashes if nothing changes for the start at some point this year. Fingers crossed that we take actions in time to improve it, and it never happens. But if we stay without doing anything, my feeling is that at one point or another, we will see one of those situations.”
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Carlos Sainz, speaking to the media on Thursday.
“It’s just a matter of time before a massive shunt happens,” said Sergio Perez. “These power units are very difficult to start. You can have a good start, or you can have a bad start, by so many different factors. Then that can be very, very dangerous, because the speeds that you end up doing within two to three seconds are extreme.”
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