FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis has given some fresh insight into plans to test a new Formula 1 start procedure in Miami, ahead of an introduction later in the season.

In essence, a car that leaves the line slowly can be given a helping hand from the MGU-K to “mitigate start-related risks", in a bid to improve safety following concerns raised after the opening few rounds.

Intriguingly, the FIA noted that this will be done “without introducing any sporting advantage".

The new system, which will only be trialled in practice next weekend, was revealed in last week’s announcement of the power unit rule changes agreed at the meeting of key stakeholders.

It is the only new element that isn’t being formally incorporated into the rules immediately, and which is still subject to proof testing.

Tombazis stressed that such MGU-K assistance won’t be a regular occurrence, with only a few potential examples logged in the first three races of the season.

“Basically, there's a detection of how well the car is accelerating after small amount of time after the start,” he said when asked by Crash.net about the new system.

“And if that is below a certain threshold, then it kicks in. Just to give you reference points, I think it would have intervened this year on two or three occasions total. I don't think it would have intervened, for example, with Verstappen’s bad start [in China].

“It would have certainly intervened in Liam Lawson start in Australia, no doubt about that. I think the Verstappen start in China would not have been in that threshold of intervention.”

Tombazis stressed that drivers won’t be gaining a sporting advantage as such, despite the fact that anyone benefiting will potentially lose fewer places than they otherwise might have done.

"Well, we made it clear that that first of all, this is not supposed to be a mechanism whereby people would be, let's say, even tempted to do it on purpose, if you know what I mean, to come up better off,” he said.

“So what this would convert is a disastrous start to a bad one. It would not convert a bad one to a good one.

“And indeed, when we first discussed this option with the teams we proposed that if this mechanism kicked in for any car, they would have to do a drive through at the end of lap one, in order to completely discourage any funny games.

“The universal position of all the teams was that when they are in that scenario, they're already out of their control and definitely in a bad place, and therefore that would not be necessary. And we accepted that.

“But if we see that for whatever reason we've missed something, and people started using it for advantage, then we would, of course, intervene. But we don't think that's the case.”

The system will only be available for practice starts in Miami, but the FIA will keep a close eye on the starts of the sprint and the main event as part of its ongoing research.

“We'll be monitoring the real starts and see what would have happened, but there will be some starts in the free practice in these races,” said Tombazis.

“Much as we've decided to do that, we want to do a few more trial runs before we introduce it at the start of the race. So it will not be available in Miami at the start of the race.”