McLaren is calling for an engine rules rethink following this week's test in Bahrain, the Woking outfit citing its concern over safety as the reason.
Unsurprisingly, all three issues the Italian raises relate to the new power units, the cause of much criticism from drivers this week.
The world champions cite three main areas of concern, race starts, the use of lift and coast when drivers are following one another, and fears that the overtake mode does not provide the required speed advantage to essentially do what it is supposed to.
There were concerns even before the Bahrain test, and over the last three days McLaren, in particular, fears those fears have been realised.
"I think it's imperative because it's possible and it's simple," said Andrea Stella. "So, we should not complicate what is simple and we should not postpone what is possible immediately. Therefore, I think it's something that we should definitely achieve before Australia."
Over the course of the three days drivers performed numerous practice starts, but in the final moments of Friday's session the practice descended into farce. While Frano Colapinto almost put his car into the barriers as he performed burn-outs on his way to the grid, a number of drivers, including Oscar Piastri, failed to get away when the signal for the start was given.
With the new power units, an electrical boost is not provided until the car is going over 50km/h, leaving the ICE to do all the work. Previously, the MGU-H - which has now been done away with - provided the optimum boost. Consequently, the ICE now has to be revved in order to boost turbo pressure whilst trying to avoid turbo-lag. Over the course of the three days drivers were observed to need to rev for over ten seconds - in the case of the Aston Martin even longer! - to produce the requisite boost.
It is feared the current start procedure of five red lights illuminated over the course of five seconds will not provide sufficient time for all the drivers to prepare - as witnessed late on Friday.
"We need to make sure that the race start procedure allows all cars to have the power unit ready to go because the grid is not the place in which you want to have cars slow in taking off the grid," said Stella. "This is of bigger interest than any competitive interest," he insisted. "I think all teams and the FIA should play the game of responsibility when it comes to what is needed in terms of race start procedure. I'm thinking about the timings, for instance, the timing of the lights, the timing before the lights. They need to be in the right place to make sure that, first of all, it's a safe phase of the way we go racing."
Ironically, this same issue was raised by Ferrari over a year ago, however rivals poo-pooed the Italian team's claim fearing it was simply concerned at self-interest.
Referring to lift and coast, where a driver will lift-off in order to recharge his battery, potentially endangering a driver behind who is closing at a greater speed, Stella said: "There could be cars that follow another car and the car ahead may want to lift to harvest energy. This may not be an ideal situation when you follow closely, and this can give a race situation like we've seen before a few times in Valencia, Patrese in Portugal and there are a few more that definitely we don't want to see anymore in Formula 1."
Stella was referring to Valencia 2010 when Mark Webber's car touched the rear of Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus, sending the Red Bull somersaulting backwards through the air, while at Estoril in 1992 Riccardo Patrese was involved in a similar incident with Gerhard Berger.
Finally, referring to the overtake mode, Stella claims that contrary to the intention, the new system, whereby a pursuing driver can use more electrical power to increase speed at a time his prey is losing power as his speed decreases, simply isn't working.
"Unlike in the past, where we had the DRS and the DRS created such an advantage from an aerodynamic drag point of view for the following car, this year, when you follow somebody, you have the same drag and the same power, so it becomes quite difficult to overtake," he said.
"Our drivers have been racing with other drivers during these three days and they found it extremely difficult to overtake," he admitted, a claim that will cause fans around the world to utter a collective sigh, as this is the opposite of what they were promised. "The fact that you have an additional amount of energy when you follow and you are within one second is difficult to exploit because this extra energy may mean that there is just a little bit more deployment at the end of the straight, if anything.
"So, I think, again, as an F1 community, we should look at what can be done to make sure that we have a sensible feasibility when it comes to overtaking," he said. "Otherwise, we lose one of the fundamental elements of the nature of racing, which is giving drivers the possibility to overtake."
With the F1 Commission meeting on Wednesday, and following claims on social media - in the aftermath of yesterday's botched start - that Melbourne will either witness a risible fiasco or a "bloodbath", Stella insisted that the necessary changes are not for McLaren's benefit but for the good of the sport.
"We are not talking about how fast you are in qualifying," he said. "We are not talking about what is your race pace. We are talking about safety on the grid.
"Like I said before, there are some topics which are simply bigger than the competitive interest. And for me, having safety on the grid, which can be achieved with simple adjustment, is just a no-brainer. It's just a bigger interest."
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