F1’s five-second warning will remain despite FIA declaring safety issue resolved

Formula 1’s five-second warning will remain a part of the pre-start procedure, despite FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis saying it is no longer a “safety issue”.

The changes to the power unit regulations for F1 2026 introduced a new problem for the teams – namely, getting the cars off the line cleanly.

FIA confirms F1 five-second start warning will remain in 2027

Launches emerged as a major point of contention during pre-season running, when drivers began practicing race starts and struggled to get off the line.

The issue with the starts stems from a key change to the engines with the removal of the MGU-H. That means it takes far longer for the drivers to get their cars into the ideal configuration for a race start.

The MGU-H helped mask turbo lag across the lower rev range, and without it, the cars are taking longer to prepare for launch than they did in the MGU-H era.

It raised safety concerns, with teams and drivers fearing chaos and a massive crash should a driver fail to get off the line cleanly.

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The FIA took action and introduced a five-second pre-start warning. Under the new procedure, the drivers are given five seconds, signalled by a flashing blue panel on the starting gantry, before the standard starting light sequence begins.

However, even with the pre-start warning, there were a few hairy moments in the opening races as drivers were slow to leave the grid, most notably in Australia were Franco Colapinto narrowly avoided Liam Lawson’s Franco Colapinto’s slow-moving Racing Bulls.

That led the FIA to implement MGU-K assistance whereby a car that leaves the line slowly can be given assistance from the MGU-K to “mitigate start-related risks”.

“Well, first of all,” Tombazis said as per Motorsport.com, “we have worked on start line safety.

“From when we discussed the Miami package in late April until now, we’ve been working on some emergency recovery, so electrical parts to help recover a car that has a very slow start and therefore not to risk cars stalling, etc.”

But while that has gone a long way towards mitigating start line safety concerns, he revealed the five-second warning will remain part of Formula 1’s start procedure.

“I think the five seconds are an established process now, I don’t see why it would change in this regulation cycle,” he said.

“That does not have to do with safety. It has just to do with having different cars arriving on the grid at different times, and drivers need to be able to prepare in order to have, let’s say, a proper start.

“I don’t think it’s so much a safety topic. The electrical part is more of a safety topic.”

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