Recent news suggests that SpaceX are pivoting to hot-staging instead of the flip maneuver for getting Starship away from the booster. Looking at the Titan II hot staging it seems like it would be a violent and explosive event. How could this be mitigated? A hardened cover on top of the booster would be a significant weight penalty. Do the expected gains really outweigh the additional weight?
Since Superheavy is still under power (center 3 engines, at 50%), maybe it just steers out of the exhaust before Starship lights the vacuum Raptors.