Compromise reached on Monaco practice starts

With fears that a launch control failure similar to the four that occurred at the start of the Austrian GP could cause startline mayhem on the street circuit's narrow start/finish straight, many teams are undecided whether to use their systems.

The sport's governing body, the FIA, has left the onus on the teams to decide if their systems are reliable enough to be used in Monaco.

At other races, practice starts are allowed at the end of the pitlane, but due to the confined nature of the Monte Carlo circuit's pit exit, these are banned for Monaco. However, for Monaco only, drivers are allowed to carry out one practice start at the end of each of the weekend's five untimed sessions - two on Thursday, two on Saturday and Sunday's warm-up. No practice start will be allowed after Saturday's single hour of qualifying.

When the chequered flag waves at the end of a session, the drivers will now complete their slowing down lap as usual, but then continue past the pit lane entrance. On the starting grid, they will carry out one start, then file into the pits via the pit lane exit.

Starting on the grid allows the teams to tune their systems to the specific friction levels of the asphalt they will start from come the race itself.

In Thursday's first untimed session, the majority of the 22-car field elected to make a practice start. Ironically, Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Jordan, which was one of the four cars which stalled in Austria, failed to get moving when the German attempted his start. Jordan has already said it will not use launch control in Monaco.