Formula 1 flirted with disaster at the Australian Grand Prix when a start-line tangle forced Franco Colapinto into some last-second gymnastics to avoid Liam Lawson. Carlos Sainz says that lucky escape is a warning flare, not a one-off.
What actually went wrong in Melbourne
At the season opener, a slow getaway left a cluster of cars having to improvise avoidance moves. It was one of those moments where you think, wow, that almost became a headline you do not want to see.
Sainz says the sport was fortunate nothing happened, but he believes the current situation with the new regulations is creating conditions that could lead to a genuine, ugly crash if they are not addressed.
The two safety headaches
- Starts: The way cars behave off the line this year is risky. Drivers are finding unpredictable braking and closing speeds in the opening moments of a race, which makes the first corners a potential chaos factory.
- Straight Mode: Activating the so-called SM setting robs cars of downforce, and that means closing speeds of 40, 50, 60 kph or more when one car is reeling another in. Sainz calls it "very sketchy" both at race starts and when battling wheel-to-wheel.
Who will balk at change? Probably some teams
Sainz expects pushback. When performance and championship positions are at stake, teams naturally defend whatever gives them an advantage. He says that is exactly why the sport's regulators need the authority to step in and make safety changes even if some teams complain about how it affects lap times.
In short: teams might grumble, but safety should trump the spreadsheet. Sainz wants the sport to act now, not later, and to do so even if it ruffles a few performance feathers.
Final thought
There is a simple, slightly terrified logic to Sainz's plea: we got lucky in Australia. The new cars are behaving in ways that can turn ordinary race moments into dangerous ones. F1 can either tweak the rules and avoid a headline-storm, or wait and hope nothing bad happens. Fingers crossed they choose the boring option: fixing it.
