There was a great quip in this past weekend's coverage of the Spanish GP about Mario Andretti. Apparently he was great friends with the starter there, back when they used to wave a green flag in F1. Mario asked him when he was going to wave the green, and the starter replied, "Mario, when you go, you can be sure I'll wave the flag." Or words to that effect.

I like starts and I treat them as an opportunity to have fun. This is going back to the days when I drove the slowest car in the region and the only chance I had to run with ANYONE unless it was raining, was at the start. So I'm pretty assertive about trying to maximize any advantage I can get. I also think I'm pretty good at it but it might just be that most of the rest of us don't care. And the downside of playing that game is that sometimes one gets caught flat-footed and get dealt a net loss.

I'm also almost always back in the pack, so by nature there's more accordion influence. This means there's more to be won or lost depending on how the variables are manipulated. That's part of the fun.

And to me, it's not a matter of laying back multiple car lengths. That's a false promise. It's about relative instantaneous acceleration relative to the other cars. That can be gained in very small amounts of distance, and multiplied over the much greater distance down the length of the start straight. The trick we're trying to engineer is "going" while the other guys/gals are "not going," and have that work out in a way that's helpful, relative to when the green flies.

One other little detail: For me, it's Job One to be on the inside of Turn 1. Then the inside of Turn 2, 3, 4, and rest of the first lap. We're never truly up to speed at that point so it doesn't matter if my line isn't optimized, and the last thing I want is to get gobbled up in someone else's mistake: Those tend to go OUT rather than IN.

K