Start, F2, Paul Ricard, 2018

No standings starts for next four F2 races due to safety concerns

Formula Two

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Formula Two will use rolling starts for the next four races following a spate of problems with its new car stalling.

Several cars were left behind at the start of last week’s race at Paul Ricard. The championship has been trying since the beginning of the season to get to the bottom of the problem which has left some drivers unable to get away at the start of most races.

The series has now taken the unprecedented step of deciding not to use standing starts for the next four races while it attempts to get to the bottom of the problem.

“This is not an ideal situation, but the drivers’ safety is a top priority,” said the championship’s CEO Bruno Michel.

F2 is hosting a total of six races over three consecutive weekends, leaving little time to address the problem. Drivers were given the opportunity to conduct practice starts following today’s free practice session, but after analysing the data from those starts the organisers have decided to use rolling starts for the time being.

“As we do not have the time to test and properly validate a permanent fix to the starting issues what the FIA has decided is definitely the safest decision,” said Michel.

“This will also give us enough time to work on a solution to the problem and return to a safe and normal situation for Budapest and the remaining of the season.”

From tomorrow’s race drivers will start the race by conducting a formation lap behind the Safety Car, which will then return to the pits, leaving the drivers to start the race as per a normal Safety Car restart procedure.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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13 comments on “No standings starts for next four F2 races due to safety concerns”

  1. Unfortunately, that’ll fix no thing.

    Double file restarts is what we want.

    1. That would make more sense as a permanent replacement but there’s no procedure in F2 (or F1) for that and a week is too short to implement one hat cannot be tested.
      I don’t quite get what will happen to those who stall now (I guess SC will lead the cars away from the grid). My opinion would be fire ’em up and let them take up their Quali spot before the start otherwise the whole exercise still punishes drivers who stall, and FIA/F2 are obviously accepting that it isn’t the driver’s fault.
      Just hope they can actually find a solution because standing starts are what we should have and the drivers shouldn’t have to horribly compromise their getaway just to make sure they get away at all!

  2. Why not a double file restart? that’d have been a great compromise.

    But at least these young drivers won’t be disappointed after something outside their control goes wrong… they deserve a fair chance. This is the closest we can get to a normal weekend.

    1. F2 drivers always attack single File to hide their numbers

      1. James O'Brien
        30th June 2018, 2:58

        😌 funny!

    2. Single-file restarts happen in F1, double-file restarts do not.

  3. I thought the Halo was supposed to make the cars perfectly safe?

    1. That’s really not the point.

      1. Its a joke

  4. What a state workd motorsport is in. Here is another pathetic example.

    The FIA need to be sacked.

  5. A wise precaution, better late than never, and the best solution given the circumstances

    1. Considering the number of drivers whose race starts have been compromised by car issues it’s almost too late coming, the championship standings are starting to take shape and I hope start issues to date don’t impact on the final standings.

      1. They already have; the best that can be hoped for is that there are no mid-season sackings on the basis of car problems.

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