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Drivers opposed to standing restarts - Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo says F1's drivers made it clear they were against the standing restarts rule which has been approved for the 2015 season.
The decision, which will see drivers line up on the grid after a safety car period rather than conducting a traditional rolling start, has drawn much criticism since it was approved by the World Motor Sport Council on June 26. Ricciardo says the feeling amongst drivers seemed to be unanimously against the idea.
"As of next year, I don't like the standing restarts. If I could, I'd take that out," he said. "We all pretty much disagreed as far as I am aware. I will let the veteran drivers speak their minds. I've said I don't think it is the best thing. We will see what other drivers say about it."
Ricciardo says his chief concern with the idea comes down to safety, as well as the fact he thinks it would create an unfair lottery in races.
"I don't want to go into it too much, but in a nutshell, if you are leading the race by 20 seconds, the safety car comes out and you lose that 20 seconds advantage, then what was looking like an easy victory is now questionable. That is already a big disadvantage for the leader who has worked hard to build up that gap. Now to then put him on the start, and anything can happen at the starts, not only an accident, but you get a poor start you can be from first to fourth before Turn 1. It seems harsh on the leader."
One of the chief concerns is how cars on very worn tyres will react to standing restarts, with Pirelli admitting it needs to do more research on the rule change, something Ricciardo thinks has not been considered properly.
"Then what's happening with the tyres? If you cannot change them you will lose a lot of temperature. At first my argument was the big disadvantage for the leader, but the big one that everyone is talking about is safety.
"Starts in F1 are already quite tight a lot of the time and that is with new tyres, and tyre warmers. If we have tyres with 20 laps on them or even more, because when there is a lot of rubber that has been taken off the tyres, they don't hold temperature, it will be significantly more difficult."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
