And they're the best at all of that.

Losing Gale due to a failed dice roll is nothing like a dlc that's an absurd claim. You can't just reload a save to unlock a dlc. It was that simple for Gale.

Failing a roll is on you whether you like it or not. The ever looming threat of failure is important in story telling and suspension of disbelief. It's the opposite of dumb game design. So yeah you either reload until everything gets handed to you or you move on. You're talking like he's locked behind a dlc when you're just pissed a dice roll didn't go your way at level one.

Consequences of your decisions is what makes this game special. You're going to have a bad time going forward with this game if you cannot deal with the fomo.

...Just says there's a transponder that's supposed to judge if there was movement. It says nothing about how said transponder achieves that judgement. It doesn't simply senses movement as you astutely pointed out the car very obviously moved. That means it needs a reference point.

So Is it gps? Is it an accelerometer? Is there another sensor on the grid it has to cross? Is it telemetry? Why is there this much wiggle room?

I would honestly be interested about where you got that the transponder is based on movement vs position. And I don't say that to catch you in a lie at all I am thoroughly honestly interested in this and would like to learn more about this tech.

edit: and yes from the in-board cam it does look like at least the contact patch was in-front you are right.

Well he was far enough not to trip the transponder no matter what the camera suggests.

Ahh didn't know about that thanks for the precision. Still feels a bit harsh to me, especially the second one where he went wide.

Yep that's exactly my concern. This seems abusable. Drivers could theoretically stop further back from the grid and use that distance to get the car rolling before fully dropping the clutch, limiting tire slip. Someone posted the rules about grid placement and while there is a rule against sideways position or angle, there isn't anything about being further back. It's probably not going to happen but I personally would try that short rolling start in practice just to see.

I'm not so sure about your second point. He might have set up further back (probably unvoluntarily) so even when he jumped he didn't cross the limit of the grid box. This would also mean that they didn't have any infringement on the rules you posted so they couldn't just give him a penalty.

I remember some years ago it was possible to measure drivers reaction time at the start. I remember Bottas even had an almost impossible reaction of a couple thousands of a second, he probably got lucky but it still was after the reds went out. So how about using clutch release telemetry or wheel speed sensors data and compare that to exactly when they shut the lights? If that difference is anywhere under 0.000, you jumped. It would still be incredibly hard to judge while not allowing any form of movement before the lights are actually out.

I understood that the first time yeah. And I think you agree with me since you edited your comment to further explain your idea. I'm not contradicting your argument, I agree with it and appreciate that you addressed my criticism. I think it's a hot enough topic to warrant being a bit less open to interpretation, especially in text form.