McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said this week's preseason test in Bahrain has exposed three areas of Formula 1's new regulations that need to be changed before the first race in Australia, citing safety concerns for two of them.
All three are related to F1's new power units, which have resulted in complications for teams during the two preseason tests so far and have come under extensive criticism from four-time champion Max Verstappen.
The first of the three issues is related to race starts, which now require a longer and less refined procedure to ensure a clean getaway, leading to the potential for collisions on the grid as some cars make perfect launches and others struggle.
The second is related to the potential for collisions at high speed while cars are running line astern due to the likelihood the lead driver needs to lift off the throttle to recharge their power unit's battery - a practice known as "lift and coast."
And the third is a concern that F1's replacement for the DRS overtaking aid, known as overtake mode, will not provide the necessary speed advantage in real-world racing situations to create wheel-to-wheel action.
Teams were aware of the potential for all three issues in the build-up to preseason testing, but after seeing the cars on track Stella believes it is "imperative" solutions are pushed through before the first race in Australia next month.
"I think it's imperative [changes are made] because it's possible and it's simple," he said. "So we should not complicate what is simple and we should not postpone what is possible immediately. Therefore, I think it's something that we should definitely achieve before Australia."
Race start concerns
Following multiple practice starts by drivers this week in Bahrain, it has become clear just how difficult it will be to make a clean getaway at the start of a race this season.
Until the car is over 50km/h it cannot deploy any of its electrical boost, meaning the initial getaway is reliant entirely on the V6 turbo engine.
Under the previous set of regulations an element of the power unit's hybrid system, known as the MGU-H, was used to spool the turbo to provide the optimum boost pressure for the start, but the MGU-H was removed as part of the changes to the power unit this year.
As a result, the V6 engine now needs to be revved to build up turbo boost pressure and minimize a common phenomenon in turbocharged engines known as turbo-lag.
During practice starts in Bahrain, cars could be observed revving hard for over ten seconds to build turbo boost before finally making their getaway.
There is a concern that the current start procedure -- which sees five red lights illuminated at one second intervals before all five are extinguished and the race gets underway -- will not provide enough time for drivers arriving last at the back of the grid to prepare their turbo in time for a clean start.
Stella believes it raises a safety concern, which he thinks can be easily alleviated by altering the start procedure.
"We need to make sure that the race start procedure allows all cars to have the power unit ready to go because the grid is not the place in which you want to have cars slow in taking off the grid," he said.
"This is of bigger interest than any competitive interest. I think all teams and the FIA should play the game of responsibility when it comes to what is needed in terms of race start procedure. I'm thinking about the timings, for instance, the timing of the lights, the timing before the lights.
"They need to be in the right place to make sure that, first of all, it's a safe phase of the way we go racing."
The issue is complicated as Ferrari is believed to have opted for a smaller turbocharger to combat turbo-lag. A report by The Race claims the Italian team initially raised the issue but was not listened to by its rivals and has since blocked a more recent attempt to change the start procedure.
'Lift and coast' collisions
The other safety concern raised by Stella relates to drivers needing to lift off the throttle to recharge their power unit's battery. Such practices are more likely this year due to the need to maintain battery power, but Stella, referencing Mark Webber's airborne accident at the 2010 European Grand Prix in Valencia, believes they could result in nasty collisions if a car in close proximity is unable to react to the sudden deceleration.
"There could be cars that follow another car and the car ahead may want to lift to harvest [energy]," Stella said. "This may not be an ideal situation when you follow closely and this can give a race situation like we've seen before a few times in Valencia, [Riccardo] Patrese in Portugal and there are a few more that definitely we don't want to see anymore in Formula 1."
Difficulty overtaking
The final issue raised by Stella is to do with concerns over a lack of overtaking, but is again linked to the new power unit and the limitations teams are currently facing under the new regulations.
DRS, F1's long-standing overtaking aid, had to be ditched this year to make way for a new "straight line mode." Although the front wing now opens along with the rear wing in straight line mode, it is available to all cars on all straights and is used as a means to reduce energy-sapping drag rather than as an advantage over the car in front to overtake.
To replace the DRS, F1 has introduced a system that allows the chasing car to use more electrical power up to a higher speed, while the lead car's electrical deployment will tail off as speed increases. The system should give the overtaking car a higher top speed much like DRS used to, but Stella says the evidence from testing is that there is not enough energy available to use it effectively.
"I think, unlike in the past, where we had the DRS and the DRS created such an advantage from an aerodynamic drag point of view for the following car, this year, when you follow somebody, you have the same drag and the same power, so it becomes quite difficult to overtake," Stella said.
"Our drivers have been racing with other drivers during these three days of testing in Bahrain and they found it extremely difficult to overtake. The fact that you have an additional amount of energy when you follow and you are within one second is difficult to exploit because this extra energy may mean that there is just a little bit more deployment at the end of the straight, if anything.
"So I think, again, as an F1 community, we should look at what can be done to make sure that we have a sensible feasibility when it comes to overtaking. Otherwise, we lose one of the fundamental elements of the nature of racing, which is giving drivers the possibility to overtake."
Stella hopes all three issues will be discussed by teams and the FIA at the upcoming F1 Commission meeting on Wednesday next week. He insists his suggestions are not linked to gaining an advantage over rivals but are instead intended for the good of the sport.
"We are not talking about how fast you are in qualifying," he said. "We are not talking about what is your race pace. We are talking about safety on the grid.
"Like I said before, there are some topics which are simply bigger than the competitive interest. And for me, having safety on the grid, which can be achieved with simple adjustment, is just a no-brainer. It's just a bigger interest."