Racing
© Jonathan Borba
The FIA will trial a new Formula 1 start-assist system in Miami and Canada after concluding the 2026 power unit rules could create dangerously slow launches off the grid.
FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis said the procedure is aimed only at extreme cases, with the MGU-K stepping in if a car’s acceleration in the opening phase of the start drops below a defined threshold. The idea is to stop a car from remaining almost stationary and becoming a hazard for those behind, not to improve a driver’s race start in normal conditions.
The concern comes from the technical layout of the 2026 power units. With the turbo setup no longer using the MGU-H, the FIA believes there is a greater chance of a car producing a very poor launch while the system builds the pressure it needs. Tombazis said the change was driven by start safety and pointed to Liam Lawson’s start in Australia as the kind of incident that exposed the risk. Speaking to the Italian press, he also said Franco Colapinto’s reactions there avoided contact that “could have had serious consequences.”
Tombazis said the system watches how the car is moving and accelerating after the first half-second of the launch. If the car is in what he described as a “disastrous” situation, the MGU-K would automatically provide enough support to get it away from the grid at a minimally safe pace. As he put it to Crash.net, the aim is to turn “a disastrous start to a bad one” rather than “a bad one to a good one.”
He said the FIA believes the mechanism would have intervened only “on two or three occasions total” so far this year. Lawson’s start in Australia was one case where it “would have certainly intervened,” Tombazis said. Max Verstappen’s poor launch in China would not have triggered it because that start was bad, but not dangerous.
The FIA also examined whether the system needed an automatic sporting penalty to prevent abuse. Tombazis said it discussed a drive-through at the end of lap one if the support was activated, but dropped the idea after teams argued the system could not be used to gain a hidden advantage. He said the “universal position” from teams was that any car in that situation was already in trouble and “definitely in a bad place.” He added that the FIA would still act if it found a way for teams to exploit it.
The start-assist procedure is the only part of last week’s 2026 power unit rule revisions that has not gone straight into the regulations. It will be tested in practice starts only, beginning in Miami and continuing in Canada, while the FIA also monitors sprint and race starts to see what the system would have done. Tombazis said it will not be used at the Miami race start and will not be adopted until the FIA is satisfied it creates no unwanted side effects, leaving any introduction no earlier than June.