F2 set for standing starts return in Hungary

Standing grid starts are set to return in Formula 2 from the next round of the season in Budapest at the end of the month after two race weekends' worth of rolling starts due to recurring clutch issues.

Following numerous stalls on the grid for drivers due to problems with the clutch on the new-for-2018 F2 cars, the series announced ahead of last month's round at the Red Bull Ring in Austria it would be introducing rolling starts for the next two rounds.

FIA race director Charlie Whiting confirmed in a post-race debrief at Silverstone on Sunday that F2 would be aiming to return to standing starts from the next round at the Hungaroring in Budapest, with more fixes being put in place and additional measures being taken.

"I’ve got a high level of confidence in the changes that are being made," Whiting said.

"All engines are going back to Mecachrome to be run on the dyno first of all to make sure they’re all good. They’re all having new clutches. There are additional people working on the control software, and they’ve found one particular thing which was most likely the principle cause of the stall. It seems that the engine wasn’t generating enough torque at the point that the driver wanted to drop the clutch and hence it was stalling.

"Everyone’s going to get all their engines back from this mid-season check, everyone will get a new engine, which will all be exactly the same as there’s also been a little bit of suggestion that a couple may not be quite equal, so we’ve got to even that out. Everyone’s going to get their engine back after a ballot.

"Then I think the Wednesday of the week before Hungary they’re going to get their engines back and we’ll let them all do a start test. They’re going to get a new set of tyres each, they’re going to get an unlocked ECU so they can run the cars, and they’ll be able to go to any venue they like to do practice starts.

"We’ll limit the amount of mileage they can do to 100km and we’ll have full recordings of exactly what they do so they can’t do any laps, we just want them to practice starts. That’s what every team is going to be allowed to do before they get to Hungary to make sure everything’s working as expected and they get plenty of time to practice it."