Key F1 rule changes for pitlane starts & damaged cars moving on track.

[John S]

FIA closes some loopholes in loose wording & interpretations of sporting regs for season start in Australia. All cars will now need to do warm up & race starting safety car laps.

They are also seeking to improve safety by ending badly damaged cars shedding bits whilst limping to pits during races.
Wonder if deflated tyres that may fly off rims will invoke the must pull up rule? 

https://f1i.com/news/531941-fia-tightens-grip-on-pitlane-start-tactics-and-damaged-cars.html

[Jericoke]

These rule changes make sense to me.

With fuel load limits a key part of the sport, watching pitlane starts skip a lap or two always felt a tad unfair.  However I will miss those miraculous repair jobs when cars are brought out at the last possible second.  I guess we'll still have that, but the last possible second won't be nearly as dramatically timed.

I hate damaged cars on track.  FIA has done a tremendous job making an inherently dangerous sport safe, and we've seen how dangerous a broken F1 car can be.  The sooner we can get them off track, the better.  I hope all tracks have mandated safe pull off areas so we can avoid safety cars.  (It's nuts watching old races where broken down cars are just left at the side of the road!)

[cosworth151]

I'm not sure about the Pit Lane Start rule.I'll reserve judgement until I see it in action.

The Damaged Car rule sounds like a real can of worms. Do they pull a car for loosing a nose wing endplate? Do they yank out a car that could pit, get a new nose & still be competitive? It needs to be far more specific about the conditions when a car can be sidelined.

[lkjohnson1950]

F1 wasn't always so safety conscious. When Rindt and Cevert died and Jackie Stewart decided safer racing was a must do, he had to threaten a driver's strike to get them to do the smallest thing. Wonder if anyone could get Max to go along with a driver's strike.

[Jericoke]

F1 wasn't always so safety conscious. When Rindt and Cevert died and Jackie Stewart decided safer racing was a must do, he had to threaten a driver's strike to get them to do the smallest thing. Wonder if anyone could get Max to go along with a driver's strike.

That's what makes Stewart a legend in my eyes:  he wasn't just a great driver, but he changed the sport.

If it meant he could race, and boycott press obligations?  Max would be first in line to strike.

[Willy]

Every single driver today owes Sir Jackie Stewart a huge thank you for all his efforts to bring safety to a very dangerous sport.
He was called all sorts of names and shunned by other drivers when he started his campaign.