F1 racing director Charlie Whiting has dismissed the fears that the grid-restart might result in 'carnage', even though the drivers are concerned about the safety of the rule.
From 2018, restarts after a red flag can be made from the grid rather than behind the safety car, as was the case until now. Whiting himself will make the decision whether a race continues from the grid or behind a safety car, depending on weather and track conditions.
There were tests of the new rule at the pre-season testing in Barcelona, which drew criticisms from some of the drivers. Whiting has however said that these criticisms are unfounded, since teams usually change tyres anyway under a red flag, so it shouldn't be any different from a regular race start.
"It seems a bit of an odd comment to me, because they all put new tyres on whenever there is a red flag."
"So I am not too concerned about it. I think the grip was quite low in Barcelona anyway, and they didn't put new tyres on because it was a quick procedure."
The most vocal driver on the issue has been Haas F1's Romain Grosjean, who is not fond of the new rule at all.
"Safety-wise I'm a bit concerned," Grosjean said about the idea of doing a restart on used tyres. "To me it could be carnage."
"You could lose the car in a straight line. Honestly, I was not having much fun, just trying to upshift and downshift was tricky."
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