FIA stewards urge restart procedure review after near-miss in Melbourne

The stewards officiating at last weekend's Australian Grand Prix want a review of the restart procedures in F1 after a dangerous situation was allowed to develop ahead of the race's first restart.

After the first red flag period triggered by Alex Albon's crash, the field made its way to the grid behind the safety car, led by the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.

While the Briton was entitled to dictate the pace of the field, he was dramatically slow in bringing everyone back to the grid.

There was a significant gap in the procession between the sixth-place car of Nico Hulkenberg and George Russell due to the Mercedes driver's tardy exit from the pitlane.

Russell sped up to catch up with the field, and so did the string of eleven cars that followed him. Having bridged the gap with the tip six, Russell suddenly slowed which caught out those positioned in the lower tier of the pack.

Several drivers were forced to take avoiding action while others veered off course to avoid colliding with suddenly slower cars. Haas' Kevin Magnussen darted through the gravel trap and overtook several drivers as a result of the concertina effect.

"When Russell and the cars behind caught up with the cars in front, they were met with a significant speed delta between the two groups resulting in a situation where a number of cars had to take evasive action," the stewards noted in their report.

"This was not at all an ideal situation from a safety point of view.

"Although Russell's start was slow, given that he had to maintain the pit lane speed till he got out of the pits and that he immediately sped up to make up the gap, we did not consider that it would be necessary or appropriate to penalise Russell for a slow start from the pit lane.

"We, therefore, took no further action."

• Read also: Wolff wants more clarity from F1 on use of red flags

However, the stewards did recommend a review of the relevant article in the sporting code that addresses the pace of the lead driver – in this case Hamilton.

Article 58.11 of the sporting regulations states: "At this point the first car in line behind the safety car may dictate the pace and, if necessary, fall more than ten (10) car lengths behind it.”

"We do consider that part of the problem is the regulation that permits the lead car to set the pace even when the restart is for a standing start from the pit lane (as opposed to a rolling start)," the stewards added.

"This should perhaps be looked at in the future to see if this is appropriate for a restart of this nature."

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