Chaos engulfed F1’s pre-season testing on Friday as a practice start involving seven drivers almost went dangerously wrong.
The teams and drivers are currently in Bahrain trying out their cars ahead of the 2023 season, which begins in the Middle East next week. But disaster nearly struck as the lights went out on a practice start procedure on the grid.
As Anthony Davidson and David Croft joked about in the Sky Sports F1 commentary box, seven drivers from McLaren, Ferrari, Haas, Mercedes, Williams, Alpine and Alfa Romeo lined up waiting for the lights to go out.
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Kevin Magnusson pulled up in pole position and set off on his way as the lights disappeared, but four of the other drivers stood still.
That caused a problem for Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz, who were forced to take avoiding action as they pulled away from the grid. Thankfully, the drivers all managed to avoid each other in what could have been a dangerous incident.
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(Image: Sky Sports F1)
(Image: Sky Sports F1)
Davidson jokingly described the drama as “chaos,” although F1 fans on Twitter took a more serious approach. One wrote: “That was actually quite dangerous. Not sure it’s a great idea to do a practice start like that, and if you do everyone has to know what is happening.”
Someone else said: “Could’ve been a disaster.” A third person added: “That was a good way to risk a sizeable crash. Bizarre.” A fourth user commented: “Well, that was nearly very embarrassing!.”
While a fifth viewer chimed in with: “At the end of the morning session, they wanted to do a practice start like a proper race start. Things didn’t go as planned and it could’ve gone very wrong.”
Hamilton and co. don’t have long left until the F1 season starts again, with the first race in Bahrain just over a week away on March 5.
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