1) The rolling restart after the safety car in F1 is nothing like the rolling starts in karting. It's single file for a start and more importantly, the leader controls the pace from pit entry so generally scampers off into the distance. The field is massively spread out. In karting, contrary to popular belief, the leader does not control the pace, the marshals/clerk/starter does. They all seem to want a slow, bumper to bumper start and it is this that causes the loading and accidents. Yes, the drivers shouldn't do it, but it only takes one driver to start loading and the rest follow; not to gain advantage but simply to survive. Once everyone is doing it, it's hard to spot who to punish.
2) The limited evidence we have (two S1 rounds and a PFi Minimax round) has shown that standing starts have much less accidents. The evidence for rolling starts being less safe (discounting the years of first corner crashes for every class at every club in the country) is the Senior Rotax grid at Rowrah Super 1. Same circuit, different start method on each day, less accidents for standing starts.
3) Karts accelerate slowly. The danger of a kart from the back of the grid hitting a stationary kart at the front of the grid is far less than the danger of a kart from the back of the grid hitting a spun kart at the front of the grid in a rolling start. Most will have the bent karts, damaged drivers and ruined weekends to prove it.
4) Indy and Nascar have many crashes after a rolling restart from full course yellows as well as for their normal rolling race starts. These are starts where the field is bunched up.
5) If the CIK go back to direct drive karts (as they may) our drivers won't be used to rolling starts so could be at a disadvantage (although rolling starts aren't hard so it probably won't matter).
6) Standing starts are a bit rubbish but then, I don't much like clutches either.
|
|