Until now, race starter Charlie Whiting had relied on drivers signalling with their hands if their engines stall, which in turn leads to marshals switching on a yellow warning light alongside the relevant grid position.

However, there was a complication in Malaysia, where Carlos Sainz stalled and then put his hands back in the cockpit as he attempted to restart his engine. That led to the yellow light being switched off, and thus the start went ahead as normal.

However, Sainz only just started his engine in time, and had he not done so there was obviously potential for an incident.

This situation has only become possible under the current engine rules, as some engines can be restarted by the MGU-K, whereas in the past there was no way a driver could get going again.

After the Sainz incident, Whiting told the drivers at Suzuka that they had to keep waving, which in effect meant that they could not restart their engines as the procedure requires two hands.

In addition, in Sainz's case the team had to talk him through it at a time when radio traffic is banned.

However, the FIA has now addressed the problem by using the telemetry data it has from all the cars to detect a stalled engine.

The system sends a signal to Whiting, who will abort the start. The car involved will go to the back of the grid for the next attempt.