wary coyote
not sure if i can post the clip here but during the formation lap at melbourne 2017 martin brundle said, referring to danny ric who was yet to get to the grid and in his garage: "he can join later, but will they elect to save the motor and gearbox..."
anyway my question is, can they really do it? obviously theres no point going out when youre 3 laps behind, but theoretically, can they do it? or is it just old rules?
opaque mural
If you refer to situations where a car did not arrive at the grid pre-race, there are set procedures for this. Specifically, FIA sporting regulations section 44.
30 minutes before the scheduled start of the formation lap the end of the pit lane will be closed and a second warning signal will be given. Any car which is still in the pit lane can start from the end of the pit lane provided it got there under its own power.
This means if a car did not leave the garage to get to the grid 30 minutes before formation lap starts, it will be required to start from the pitlane, as the pitlane exit closes at that time.
If the car had failures before or during the formation lap, usually the start will be aborted and another formation lap will start. The failed car can be attempted to restart, rejoin the race, and start from the pitlane. This procedure is defined in sporting regulations section 45.1.
In that specific Melbourne 2017 case, Dani Ric did get sent out on lap 2, with no expectations from the team.
wary coyote
so cars that didnt get to the grid can start the race?
opaque mural
Yes they can. Recent examples: Perez at Bahrain 2021, car died during formation lap, restarted and started from pitlane. Perez at Belgium 2021, crashed on the way to the grid, car repaired during red flag and rejoined the "race". Zhou at Austria 2022 sprint, car died during formation lap, restarted and started from pitlane.
raven shore
are races required to start with 20 drivers?
they red flagged the race so perez could be get repairs, but what if the car was absolutely undriveable
is there a backup car (i think so?)
opaque mural
backup car (T-car) has not been a thing for well over a decade. Races are not required to have 20 drivers. In fact it can go as low as 12 cars and still count as a F1 world championship round.