Source :- THE AGE NEWS
By Ian Chadband
Oscar Piastri has raised concerns about safety issues at the upcoming Australian Grand Prix, worried about potential chaos at the very start of the F1 season opener.
The McLaren ace warned it sounded like “a recipe for disaster” to have the sport’s new-look “low downforce” cars, still untested in race conditions, jostling for position, and he also brought up uncertainties surrounding overtaking.
Piastri noted his concerns after a successful but very long day behind the wheel of his new McLaren on Friday in which he churned out 161 laps – more than anyone – and finished fourth quickest in the standings behind a Mercedes 1-2 led by Kimi Antonelli.
Oscar Piastri deep in discussions with a member of his team in Bahrain.Credit: AP
Piastri believes his concerns will need to be looked at before his home grand prix in Melbourne in three weeks when the first race will take place since F1’s cars, rules and regulations were completely revised.
“Starts need to be addressed because, probably as we’ve all seen, it’s a pretty complicated process now to have a safe start, let alone a competitive one,” he said after the final session of the first official pre-season testing at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain.
“There’s plenty of topics to address. Starts, and overtaking is certainly going to be different as well.
“Whether we use straight mode at the start or not as well.
“I think a pack of 22 cars with a couple hundred points less downforce sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, but there’s a few of those aspects that need to be spoken about.
“The thing is, everyone’s going to need different things for the start, and to be completely honest with you, I’m not sure any of us know exactly what we need yet.
“There’s so many things just from an even borderline safety point of view that need to be kind of figured out on track, that do need addressing.”
Australia’s star F1 driver Oscar Piastri.Credit: AP
The F1 rules overall this week copped criticism from Max Verstappen who said the new regulations could hasten his departure from the sport because the 2026 cars are “not fun to drive”, “anti-racing” and “Formula E on steroids”.
In an astonishing attack after two days of pre-season testing, Red Bull’s four-time world champion did not hold back on his assessment.
The 2026 cars will be powered 50-50 between internal combustion engine and battery which will require drivers to “manage” the deployment of power at their disposal, backing off and recharging their batteries regularly so that they can then use the energy “boost mode”.
“Not a lot of fun to be honest,” Verstappen said. “I would say the right word is ‘management’.
“On the other hand, I also know how much work has been going on in the background, also from the engine side, from the guys, so it’s not always the nicest thing to say. But I also want to be [honest]. As a driver the feeling is not very ‘Formula 1-like’. It feels a bit more like Formula E on steroids.”
On Friday Piastri was talking to reporters after the drivers went through a practice start in Bahrain, which turned into a fairly chaotic exercise, but he said that wasn’t connected to the new engines but to a miscommunication.
The Australian had failed to get away in his McLaren but explained: “I got told to wait until whoever was in front of me had gone and then do my own launch, and not do it to the lights.
“Clearly, some other people had a different idea. So that was nothing to do with the power units.”
As for his verdict on which teams looked most powerful over the week – McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari all seemed their usual powerhouse selves – he shrugged: “Where we are in the pecking order, I don’t know.
“It kind of looks like the top-four teams are still the top-four teams, but I don’t know where exactly we sit in that at the moment.”
Mercedes’ George Russell, second-quickest on Friday ahead of Ferrari’s third-fastest Lewis Hamilton, was still adamant Red Bull had a “pretty scary” advantage over the rest as Max Verstappen finished fifth on the timesheets.
Red Bull, in turn, reckoned Mercedes looked impressive as the pre-Melbourne mind games started to get into gear.
AAP, with theage.com.au
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