Formula One narrowly averted disaster following a dramatic race restart crash at Mugello over the weekend - but what went wrong?
After the Tuscan Grand Prix I was on YouTube, and I was confused as to why we had a pileup from back on restart. George Russell in the Williams was further back from the pack, so he had to speed up to slot behind. The cars have to bunch up for restarts, or they will fall off the pace. The drivers behind floored it thinking the race had started but the front pack was still slow. Russell looks like a nice person, so I don't think the mistake is intentional. Restarts are rare in F1. Maybe teams should do a drill to practice doing them? They practice clutch starts after qualifying.
Bottas sets the pace after pace car pulls in as he is leading, so he starts racing on two occasions. 1 passing start finish line, 2 in between the two lines that define an area he can start in (as in NASCAR). Drivers can't time the start this way.... the teams on the radio have to communicate to the driver when to start. Someone on the pitwall should say "Go, Go, Go" to the driver as the field start shifting fast.
This is the problem with the current FIA rules - the light panels are green but Bottas has not made a decision to start. He wants Lewis in a good draft behind him, and he has to help fend off the driver in 3rd place so a rival team that can take points. Maybe another colour like orange should come out like in a traffic light warning to get ready to go green and start soon?
The Tuscan Grand Prix start line incident was a scary one, and could very easily have caused my greater damage to the cars and track, as well as potentially endanger the safety of the drivers involved.
Was it just a case of bad luck and circumstances that caused the incident, or can the FIA do something about reducing the chances of this kind of accident occurring again in future?
Discuss!