As a longtime Mario Kart player, it's somewhat disorienting to be playing a game that so seriously favors the leader-- Mario Kart is obviously built on the opposite premise, that the leader needs to work hard to stay there. That said, skilled karters can easily whip inexperienced racers-- the handicapping system just makes things a bit more interesting in races amongst advanced players. For example, sometimes it is worth dropping to second place in a race to pick up the better items (shrooms and red shells). And certainly, the leading karter has a big old target on them for the blue shells It's so sweet to pull of a blue-shell dodge with a perfectly time mini turbo

Not saying that Wipeout needs to adopt this sort of gaming mechanic-- it's never (I don't think) been part of the franchise. But it really does play differently, with the first 10-20 seconds of a race being CRITICAL for determining the lead. Not of course that there isn't a lot of skill involved in obtaining and maintaining the lead...

P.S. I actually agree with Typhy, most of the time the 50 second delay doesn't bother me-- I get up, clean up the living room, lift some weights, run dishes to the kitchen, take a leak... it's surprisingly useful!