George Russell believes Ferrari have built engine device that could give them race-start advantage

Follow us on Google Discover

F1 teams are voicing concerns about race starts with the 2026 cars, but Ferrari appear to have found a workaround.

The first test in Bahrain ended with a somewhat farcical scene as the cars lined up on the grid for a simulated start. Alpine’s Franco Colapinto nearly crashed as he tried to conduct burnouts, and when the lights went out, the drivers did not proceed in grid order.

Andrea Stella, team principal of world champions McLaren, says there must be changes to the start procedure so teams are all ‘ready to go’. He cited potential safety issues if some cars make a slow getaway.

Stella wants the drivers to be given more time to prepare their cars and says this is ‘bigger than the competitive interest’. According to The Race, there were already concerns last year that this scenario would materialise.

Ferrari’s smaller turbo could help them avoid F1 start gremlins

As explained by Jon Noble on The Race F1 podcast, Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur was the first to flag the potential issue, but rival teams didn’t take it seriously at first.

By the time they realised that Vasseur was right, he had already encouraged Ferrari to find a workaround. The paddock consensus, as voiced by Mercedes driver George Russell, is that they built a smaller turbo that needs less time to spool up.

After developing a solution, Ferrari blocked a proposal to lengthen the race-start preparation phase after the formation lap. The matter will be revisited at an F1 Commission meeting next week.

Have the 2026 regulations made F1 worse, with Max Verstappen likening driving the new cars to Formula E?

Comment

Like or Comment

Have your say Sign-in now for free

Noble said: “12 months ago, he was in a Commission meeting and said, ‘We’re going to have a problem in ’26, we should do something.’

“The response from others was, ‘No, it’s going to be fine, don’t worry about it.’

“So he committed to a design that covers this problem, likely a smaller turbo.

Noble’s colleague Edd Straw then added: “George Russell suggested [as much]. He’s not the Ferrari designer or Ferrari driver, but there’s widespread belief that that’s the case.”

“They’ve committed to the smaller turbo, their start issue is sorted,” Noble continued. “Suddenly when it comes back and the others say, ‘We have got a problem with the starts’, he brought this up six months previously, why should he vote in favour?”

In addition to the works team, Haas and Cadillac also use Ferrari engines, so they could benefit too.

Fred Vasseur’s message to Lewis Hamilton over 2026 rules concerns

Consistency is the main problem for Ferrari’s rivals right now. They can still make clean starts, but the success rate is considerably lower than last year.

That success rate is bound to improve with time, and it may be that Vasseur is pressured into changing his stance. A repeat of the Bahrain day three chaos on the Australian GP grid would be a serious problem.

For now, though, Ferrari have an important first-lap advantage over the other manufacturers.

Vasseur has defended the 2026 regulations this week after drivers like Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton raised concerns. Once they have adjusted to the slower lap times, he says their only concern will be beating their competitors.

Hamilton has questioned whether the new rules are in the spirit of ‘racing’, but the unusual techniques will become second-nature within a few races.