Major start-line shunt inevitable unless engine rules changed, drivers say

SHANGHAI – A massive start-line crash seems inevitable this season unless Formula One’s new engine regulations are tweaked, several drivers said ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, with some teams’ power units now seeing cars pull away far faster than others.

Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson said he had braced for impact, after his car struggled off the line at last week’s Australian Grand Prix and he spotted Franco Colapinto’s Alpine rapidly closing in his rear-view mirror.

“If it keeps going on like this, then yep,” the New Zealander said, when asked if anything could be done to improve the consistency of the starts or whether it was only a matter of time until there was a big shunt.

“At the moment, it is quite dangerous,” he added, while praising Colapinto for his lightning-fast reflexes with a rapid change of direction preventing the Alpine car from going over the back of the struggling RB machine.

Under the new rules, about half of the car’s peak power comes from the battery. The turbo is no longer pre-spooled by an electric motor removed from 2026’s power units, making it harder to build up sufficient energy and turbo boost as the cars sit on the grid waiting for the lights to go out.

Due to the introduction of a 50-50 spilt between electric power and the combustion engine, the 2026 cars produce far more torque.

This means that a car from the back of the grid can reach the start line at a far higher speed – a recipe for disaster if a front runner is struggling to pull away.

“It’s just a matter of time until a massive shunt happens,” said Cadillac driver Sergio Perez.

“These power units are very difficult to start. And then it can be very, very dangerous, because the speeds that you end up doing within two to three seconds are extreme.”

Williams driver Carlos Sainz said he also felt there would be a big crash unless the rules were changed. He added that the new boost mode introduced to aid overtaking also meant cars could be 40-60kmh faster while quickly bearing down dangerously on the driver ahead during the race.

Colapinto, meanwhile, said he thought the teams would quickly figure out how to get a better balance on the start line, but conceded that “at the minute it is a little bit dangerous”.

Caution seems to be the consensus at the moment and it is not just the starting-line situation that seems to be an issue.

Drivers are still figuring out how to navigate the new engine and chassis regulations, and several of them have also said that the rules have taken out some of their bravery in the middle of the race.

Last weekend’s season-opening race in Australia drew a mixed response. Some praised an increase in overtakes due to new overtake and boost modes, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen compared the on-track action to racing video game Mario Kart.

With more power generated by electricity this season than from 2025’s engines, there is greater emphasis on being tactical with energy deployment and regeneration.

That has led drivers to sometimes be best served by lifting off the throttle on high-speed straights and coasting into corners – rather than being brave and slamming on the brakes – to ensure they have sufficient battery to deploy elsewhere.

“We used to fight for our life,” twice world champion Fernando Alonso said. “We were challenging the limits of the physics going through those corners, and the driver had to use all the skills and be brave in some moments as well.”

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc enjoyed racing Mercedes’ George Russell at the beginning of last week’s race, which the Briton won, but agreed the regulations had changed what gave drivers an edge over the field.

“It’s a bit more strategic than it used to be in the past, where it was more who was braking later kind of battles,” he said.

“In the past, you could take quite a lot of risk and make an overtake work. Now it’s always, if I have this action now, what will happen in the next straight, in two straights time?”

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri felt the same, saying: “It’s a very different kind of challenge. It’s not quite as simple as just who’s the bravest and who’s willing to carry the most speed. I got braver and braver in qualifying, and it made me slower and slower down the straights.”
AFP, REUTERS