Major start-line shunt inevitable unless engine rules changed, drivers say

BEIJING, March 12 : A massive start-line crash seems inevitable this season unless Formula One's new engine regulations are tweaked, several drivers said ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, with some teams' power units now seeing cars pull away far faster than others.

Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson told reporters he had braced for impact after his car struggled off the line at last weekend's Australian Grand Prix and he spotted Franco Colapinto's Alpine rapidly closing in his rear-view mirror.

"If it keeps going on like this, then yep," the New Zealander said when asked whether anything could be done to improve the consistency of the starts or whether it was only a matter of time until there was a big shunt.

"At the moment, it is quite dangerous," he added, while praising the Argentine for his lightning-fast reflexes, with a rapid change of direction preventing the Alpine car from going over the back of the struggling Racing Bulls machine.

Under the new rules, about half of the car's peak power comes from the battery, while the turbo is no longer pre-spooled by an electric motor removed from this year's power units, making it harder to build up sufficient energy and turbo boost as the cars sit on the grid waiting for the lights to go out.

Due to the introduction of a 50-50 spilt between electric power and the combustion engine, the 2026 cars produce far more torque, meaning that a car from the back of the grid can reach the start line at a far higher speed - a recipe for disaster if a front-runner is struggling to pull away.

"It's just a matter of time until a massive shunt happens," Cadillac driver Sergio Perez said. "These power units are very difficult to start.

"And then it can be very, very dangerous, because the speeds