Shift in starting procedure a lift for Formula One series in need of drama

New procedure will place more emphasis on driver skill and less on pit wall, writes Graham Caygill

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel drives in front of the pack after the start of the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix at the Hungaroring circuit, near Budapest, Hungary, on July 26, 2015. Laszlo Balogh / Reuters

Not too much will have changed in Formula One when the first race in four weeks, the Belgian Grand Prix, gets going on Sunday afternoon at Spa-Francorchamps.

Mercedes-GP will still have the fastest car in the field, McLaren will still struggle with the limited power of the Honda engines and Marussia will continue to operate at the back of the field.

But there is one change that has the potential to galvanise the racing in what has been an uninspiring season.

The start procedure will be new for the drivers. Previously, they could be given advice and guidance by their engineers on setting their clutch biting point so as to get the optimum getaway when the five red lights go out.

Now they will have to work it out themselves on their installation laps and rely on their own skill and judgement to ensure a rapid take off from the starting line.

The idea is to make the drivers less reliant on the pit wall – something that the FIA, motorsport’s ruling body, has been working on since the middle of last year – and create unpredictability through a varied standard of start that could mix up the order.

For most of the season it has been the Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg dominating at the front, with Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari desperately trying to stay within reach of them as best of the rest.

But at the British and Hungarian grands prix both Mercedes drivers made poor starts, dropped behind slower traffic and were forced to work hard to get back to the front.

Hamilton still won in Britain, but he and his team had to work overtime strategy wise.

In Hungary, Hamilton and teammate Rosberg had chaotic races, largely because of their poor opening seconds, and were unable to recover to finish sixth and eighth.

Hungary was a breath of fresh air. Good racing, lots of overtaking, a couple of collisions and faster cars having to work hard to get past slower ones.

The fastest man did not win in Hungary. Hamilton's speed in taking pole position was stunning and his pace in the race, when in clean air, was equally impressive.

Given that in 70 laps he made a slow start, went off on Lap 1 and lost six positions, collided with Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull Racing car, had to make an extra pit stop for damage to his car, took a drive-through penalty as punishment for hitting Ricciardo and still finished sixth showed just how quick the championship leader was.

It was not a victory, but it was definitely his most entertaining drive of the season.

F1 has a balance to strike between being a sport and being entertainment and what it thinks is most important.

Sport in its simplest form is pure. The best performing man, woman or team will usually win when put into an even battle.

In F1 that is rewarded as the fastest man in qualifying starts first, with the second-quickest lining up behind him and so on. That is fair but does not always make for good entertainment.

The problem with allowing the quickest person to start at the front is that if they disappear into the distance, there is no riveting viewing.

That has happened frequently during the past two seasons as Mercedes have dominated, and there was concern when worldwide TV ratings fell during the 2014 season from 450 million to 425 million.

Starts in recent years have largely been predictable as most drivers and teams have found a start system that works for them.

Mercedes have run into difficulty in recent races for unclear reasons, but Hamilton bogging down, while not great for him, has been a fillip for the sport.

Hamilton has not converted pole position into the lead in the past three races and there is no doubt that, given his speed, he would be more than 21 points ahead of teammate Rosberg in the standings if he had led out of Turn 1 in all those races.

F1 is not in a position yet where it should think about manipulating races with reverse grids and other schemes, but adding a fresh challenge to the drivers, which requires precision and skill and has a high margin for error, cannot be a bad thing if it helps create more ­unpredictability.

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