Renault suffers start setback

Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso became key men to watch when the lights went out in F1 races during 2004 as they rocketed away from the line, thanks to brilliant electronics on their cars and a weight bias to help acceleration, but insiders have told autosport.com that the team will no longer be able to expect perfect getaways each time.

Sources claim that the sport's governing body, the FIA, informed the teams earlier this week at a meeting of think-tank, the Technical Working Group, that it has now changed the way it wants drivers to start races next year. This comes as part of its bid to ensure drivers are actually playing as big a role as possible in the outcome of races.

It is understood that from the start of 2005 the drivers will now have to apply and vary the pressure of the clutch for the entire duration of getaways next season - something that has not happened up until now.

Renault's brilliant getaways were believed to be the result of a rear weight bias on the car, to improve traction, and a clever clutch lever system that locked the biting point into place and allowed the drivers to pre-select the level for the perfect getaway. Once the start began then the drivers flicked the clutch away and then traction control systems took over - something that will not be able to happen for 2005.

With the drivers no longer able to lock that lever into place, because they will not strictly be applying the pressure themselves, then Renault will no longer be guaranteed such great getaways.

To further compound every teams' problems, the FIA edict also states that the drivers cannot be given any indication from cockpit lights or other systems that the clutch is at the perfect biting point.

Although Renault could be the biggest loser with the new rules, every team will be affected. BAR ace Takuma Sato has been practicing his starts at Jerez this week - and admits that new starts, where the driver controls the clutch for the entire duration of the getaway, will take some getting used.

"When you start driving a road car it is natural to feed the clutch in with your foot," he told autosport.com. "But doing it with your hand is not so easy and it is going to take a bit of learning to get it perfect for the start of next year."

Sources close to Renault have said that in theory their cars will still be able to make as good starts as before, but this will now be down to the drivers finding the perfect clutch bite point - something that is unlikely to be as successful and consistent as computers were.

"The start will be now down entirely to the driver," said the source. "Hopefully we won't lose that much time, but it will be up to the drivers to modulate how it goes."

Renault is not the only team to have found a technical advantage wiped away by recent technical clarifications, however.

BAR is understood to have had to abandon a special gearbox system, which changed gear without a loss of drive to the engine as in normal systems, because the FIA now insists that there must be at least 200 milliseconds between gear changes while shifting up and 300 milliseconds when shifting down.