Rolling Starts at Street Races

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Tourer

To me, rolling starts are an abomination and a lessening of the skillset required to compete in circuit motor racing. I do understand that there are some situations where they are needed, such as:
Ovals - really no other way to start on them
Historic racing - to ease loads on the gear that a standing start generates
Pro/Am type races where skillsets vary so much that a standing start feels inappropriate
Some Endurance races where the start is a small part of the race and building a car to withstand a standing start compromises it for the other aspects in the race itself.

Other than that, best left alone I think. As others have said, rolling starts have all cars bunched, sometimes closer to each other than an F1 Standing start and they arrive at the first corner going faster - most likely a more risky proposition.

Lastly, to me standing starts are very much part of F1 and it would need a very, very strong argument to go away from them, which we currently do not have.

I like them both. Rolling starts were originally adopted for ovals and have become a standard feature of AOWR, just as the standing start is very much a feature of F1 and the various junior formulae. It's one of those things that differentiates, particularly between F1 and IndyCar just like racing on ovals.

I don't know if a standing start necessarily requires a higher skill set than a rolling start, both have their good points and bad points and each requires its own, high level of skill. They should keep things as they are.

[Purist]

CRM, yes, it's just normal that you would look at the start/finish/pit straight for the race starts and restarts. A track like Mid Ohio is an anomaly. (Also, that track doesn't really have general spectator access to view the pit straight.)

The main one where a location change might actually help overall, and where they already have the facilities in place to do it, is Silverstone, by moving a rolling start to the old pit straight. In therory, Hangar Straight could work too,but there aren't any of the main viewing stands in place there, and building yet a third set of those at one track seems a bit absurd.

At Bahrain, the second and third longest straights are also bookended by slower corners. Having a rolling start in the middle of the back stretch at at Montreal, Hockenheim, Sochi, or Austin could reduce issues of forming the grid, but probably doesn't help matters in the first braking zone. Furthermore, there are no main viewing stands at any of those locations on those four circuits. The back straight at Shanghai leaves you with a "slow chicane" type issue, like Catalunya and Suzuka, and with the need to have the start line farther from the corner at the end of the straight with the hairpin there.

You wouldn't really solve anything moving the start at Yas Marina to over by the support pits because the corners at both ends of that "straight" are slower than the ones at either end of the F1 pit straight.

So, yeah, in most cases, the various trade-offs mean you're pretty much just as well to leave things as they are.

As for the comments about sportscars, the start is less important in an endurance race. Also, with multiple classes, having the entrie field formed up together is less necessary. As for that other stuff, um, the Le Mans start was an echelon-formation standing start, and honestly, they could have just kept that up using the procedure from Le Mans in 1970.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by S griffin

And sportscars need it, as there are too many cars for a standing start

Also, with the longer races the emphasis is slightly different. Less risk at the start is a little more important.

It’s just a different discipline.

[peebee2]

Can’t see F1 switching due to safety. Rolling starts are just so much more dangerous, especially in sprint racing.

[Armco Bender]

Rolling start at Monaco would be a circus act.

[S griffin]

We have enough trouble getting 20 cars or more around Monaco on the first lap