A marshal is too blame for the aborted start at the Australian Grand Prix, after they triggered the warning light at Daniil Kvyat’s grid position. Seeing no issue, the race director decided that it was safer to abort the start and do an extra formation lap.
The issue was originally believed to have been caused by confusion on the grid because of Daniel Ricciardo’s empty P10 grid position. Video shows that Sergio Pérez was unsure which grid position to take, but did eventually make it into the correct grid position.
The aborted start was caused by a warning light at Daniil Kvyat’s grid spot which was trigger by a marshal to signal an issue. The car had been the victim of a small fire while sitting on the grid before the formation lap, but there was no such problem present at the start of the race and Kvyat had made no warning signals to the marshal. The light was likely triggered by human error.
Starts a dangerous part of the Grand Prix and must be executed perfectly. Stalled cars or improper starts can have fatal consequences, as we saw during the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix which led to the death of Formula One rookie Riccardo Paletti in on his second race start or in the 1978 Italian Grand Prix when human error caused the green light to be triggered too early, killing Ronnie Peterson in an accident just seconds later.
Neither Formula One race director, Charlie Whiting, nor the other members present in the race control booth could visibly see an issue on the grid. However, Whiting made the decision to abort the start and run an extra formation lap to ensure that there were no issues with the start.
