David Coulthard explains why Ferrari can't argue against F1 race start regulation tweak

David Coulthard believes Ferrari’s potential concerns over F1’s start-related regulation tweaks are outweighed by the need to prevent dangerous speed differences off the grid

Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard has claimed that while Ferrari could argue against some of the regulation tweaks, safety far outweighs any argument the Maranello outfit would have.

One area that Ferrari dominated in the opening three rounds of the season was the race start, and now a refinement to the regulations has been introduced to prevent dangerous situations caused by cars becoming bogged down at the start.

A new 'low power start detection' system, which will identify cars with abnormally low acceleration after clutch release, will be introduced from the Miami Grand Prix. Once a car is detected as having low power, an automatic MGU-K deployment will be triggered to give a minimum level of acceleration.

Coulthard discussed the regulation tweaks on the Up To Speed podcast with co-host and Sky Sports F1 presenter Naomi Schiff.

"One of the questions that I got from, clearly a Ferrari fan, was, 'What do you think of the FIA changing the rules to disadvantage Ferrari at the start?' and I was like, 'Yeah, I understand where your mind's at with that,'" Coulthard explained.

"But actually, on the grounds of safety, they've tweaked the potential for a massive sort of danger, if we call it that, as the cars go off the grid. So, if you have a big variation in speeds, then we could have a dangerous situation.

"You could argue that if somebody was to stall the engine on the grid, there's always the potential for that. But over the years of development of Formula 1, they've developed anti-stall systems that make it incredibly unlikely that that would ever be the case.

David Coulthard on the grid during the Sprint

Photo by: Dom Gibbons / LAT Images via Getty Images

"So effectively, what they've done is help the teams that have, for various reasons, designed a power unit that is more tricky to get off the line using the internal combustion engine turbo combination. They've allowed a power deployment there if it drops below a certain torque level, which will then enable the car to keep moving at a predetermined speed.

"So yeah, look, Ferrari could arguably go, 'Well, that's not entirely fair because we made a choice when we designed our engine.' But on the other side, and this is where actually Formula 1 does come together in the interest of safety, no one can argue that it's not the right thing to do.

"These cars are incredibly strong, incredibly safe. But if you have a standing car on the grid and another one arriving at 100 miles an hour, there's a lot of weight, a lot of mass, and a lot of potential there.

"So that's the beginning and end of it. The change has been made. That should mean we're not seeing big closing speeds off the start. And it still comes down to the same thing. You don't win the race at the start. You can certainly lose it. You win the race at the chequered flag, which is an hour and 20 minutes or an hour and 30 minutes after the start."