Standing restarts proposed

Last week a proposal for standing restarts from Formula One’s Strategy Group was approved by the Formula One Commission.

The idea was proposed to add excitement to the spectacle of Formula One following safety car periods.

Currently when the safety car is deployed during a race, the Grand Prix can often lose its momentum.

Despite moves to close up the racing by shifting lapped drivers to the back of the grid the whole process is slow and tedious, whilst rolling starts offer little chance for overtaking manoeuvres.

The new proposal will still unfortunately have the slow process of allowing lapped cars to make their way to the back of the line, but the cars will then line back up on the grid in race order for a standing start.

FIA’s World Motor Sport Council will discuss the plan this week, with several safety practicalities under review.

For instance pit-stops, this new plan would not prevent teams from making pit-stops under the safety car as it’s likely a pit-lane window will be created so that drivers can make their stops before a re-start.

However for the re-start where will the pit crews be placed? Under the normal starting procedure team personnel are banned from the pit wall and watch from the garage, presumably this would be the case with any re-starts.