Grand prix starts have always held the potential for chaos, but this year there’s almost guaranteed drama when the lights go out in Australia on Sunday. An unintended consequence of changes to Formula 1’s power unit regulations has made it significantly more difficult to make a clean start from the grid, creating the possibility of numerous position changes before the first corner.

Early practice starts during testing were so bad that McLaren team principal Andrea Stella raised safety concerns over the possibility of collisions as some cars fail to leave their grid spots while others make perfect getaways. That has already led to tweaks to F1’s start procedure to give all drivers more time to prepare on the grid.

Top names like Max Verstappen have since played down safety concerns, saying drivers are free to start from the pit lane if they are worried, but there’s still the possibility for significant shuffling of the order when the lights go out.

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What’s the issue?

The main problem is a phenomenon known as turbo-lag, which manifests itself as delayed acceleration when the driver hits the throttle. Turbo-lag exists because turbocharged engines need to produce enough exhaust gas pressure to spin the turbo before it can deliver the power advantage of compressed air to the engine. Put simply, it’s a very noisy chicken and egg situation.

Under the last set of turbo-hybrid regulations, the complex Motor Generator Unit-Heat (MGU-H) held the answer. The MGU-H was a remarkable part of the hybrid system that not only generated electricity from the spinning turbo, but could also be used as an electric motor to spin the turbo in lieu of exhaust gas pressure.

Under F1’s new regulations for 2026, the fiddly and expensive MGU-H technology has been removed from the power units to make the challenge of entering the sport easier for newcomers Audi and Red Bull. All well and good, but it means the relatively large turbos in F1 now have to rely purely on exhaust gas from a 1.6-litre engine to hit the optimum boost pressure for acceleration.

‘But what about the MGU-K?’ we hear the engineering students ask. Although still very much a part of the power unit in 2026 and more powerful than ever, the Motor Generator Unit-Kinetic is not allowed to kick in and deliver electrical energy to the rear wheels until the car reaches 50km/h. That means it is unable to help out with the turbo-lag induced lack of responsiveness in the initial phase of the start and only comes into play once the worst of the turbo-lag is over.

A rudimentary answer is to rev the engine prior to the start to build boost pressure, and that’s exactly what could be heard from the cars at regular intervals during preseason testing. But for most drivers that process took more than 10 seconds to get satisfactory results, and even then they had to reduce the revs and drop the clutch at exactly the right moment to make the perfect getaway.

“Oh man, it’s complicated,” Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto said during the first week of preseason testing in Bahrain. “The 10-second thing, and then after five seconds I already lost the count and then the engine’s revving up, gear in and out, and you need to release the clutch. It’s quite a mess. It was much easier last year.”

What’s changed?

In order to give all 22 drivers half a chance of making a clean start, an extra five-second hold has been added to the start procedure ahead of lights out. There was a concern that cars arriving at the back of the grid would not have the necessary time to create boost pressure under the normal start procedure, creating slow getaways for the back half of the grid or rushed attempts that triggered the car’s anti-stall and left the driver as a hapless obstacle in the middle of the track.

The new start process trialled in testing is as follows:

– The last car returns to the grid after the formation lap and a flag marshal waves a green flag at the back of the field.
– The flag marshal signals the start of the procedure but rather than the first of the five lights coming on, a five-second delay is initiated. During testing blue lights were displayed on panels along the side of the grid to signal this part of the procedure to the drivers.
– At the end of the five seconds the first red light comes on followed by four more at one second intervals.
– Once all red lights are showing, the official race starter decides when to extinguish them and get the race underway.

Who’s making the best starts?

The variation in start quality during testing quickly became a major talking point. Ferrari appeared to have the most consistent getaways, and during a practice start on the grid in Bahrain, Lewis Hamilton went from 11th place to lead George Russell’s Mercedes, which started on pole position, by the first corner. Although Russell may have lifted somewhat following his initial getaway, the acceleration of the Ferrari was clear to see.

“To win a race, you’ve also got to get off the line quite well,” Russell said. “And I think the two starts I’ve made this week were worse than my worst ever start in Formula 1.

“And, Lewis, down in P11, got into P1. So, at this stage, I don’t think it matters how quick you are [in qualifying].

“I think what’s going to trip you up, it’s always going to be that tallest hurdle. And that’s what we’re trying to get our heads around right now, and we’re stumbling on some at the moment.”

The strong starts for Ferrari were also mirrored by the Haas and Cadillac teams that use Ferrari’s power unit. The lead theory is that Ferrari’s engine is fitted with a smaller turbo than its rivals, making it easier for the driver to achieve the optimum boost pressure before the lights go out.

But while some advantages will likely be baked in by design, it’s also the case that start performances will improve as drivers get more practice.

“I think it’s just very random at the moment, and I think we’re all kind of learning what makes a good start, what makes a bad start,” McLaren driver Oscar Piastri said. “There are some pretty big pitfalls, you can find if you get yourself in trouble.

“But even just managing the power and the procedure is kind of one thing, but also just the way we do starts is much more difficult than last year. It’s trickier from every single angle. And I think what we’re seeing at the moment is people just getting things right and other people getting them very wrong.

“So, I think certainly at the first few races, we could see some starts that look a bit like what we have this week. But I think we’ll start to converge hopefully pretty quickly if you’re on the bad side of that.”

Even so, Sunday’s “lights out” moment in Australia will be compulsory viewing.