Heavy debate about Formula 1’s starting procedures during Bahrain’s pre-season tests led to the implementation of the pre-start routine for the 2026 season. While this has alleviated some of the more major concerns in getting off the line, many of the current teams are angling for further changes.
The deletion of the MGU-H from this year’s powertrain rules has taken away one of the key tools that the modern turbocharged engines needed at the starts. Without the ability to automatically spool up the turbo, the drivers need to use the internal combustion engine itself to drive the turbine in order to develop the torque needed for a clean getaway.
Further changes have been proposed, but the FIA needs the teams to form a supermajority for any new procedures to be enshrined in the regulations. Ferrari, which had predicted that the starts might be an issue early on in its powertrain development, is not inclined to budge on its position.
The assumption is that Ferrari has produced a smaller turbo to compensate for that. While this comes at the cost of overall peak power versus a larger turbo, a smaller unit delivers more power at an earlier point in the rev range. Furthermore, and this is the crucial bit: a turbine with less mass thus requires less time to spin at the required speed.
Ferrari has stood by the belief that all manufacturers knew early on that starting procedures would be more difficult, but shrugged it off rather than attempt to design their powertrains around it.
As such, the team has cultivated an advantage at the starts – one that it is unwilling to give up.
Following slow starts in the China sprint race by Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen, the question about starts – and the purported safety issues around them – reared its head again. Naturally, both Ferrari drivers batted this away.
“It’s a bit trickier to be in the optimum window for the start with this engine but I think more time will go on, more teams will find fixes,” Charles Leclerc mused when asked about the start.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
“I think we are on the good side of things for now, but I’m pretty sure everybody will catch up and as I said I think when other manufacturers are doing a good start and they are in the optimum window, I don’t think there’s that much difference between the cars. I don’t expect it to be a problem for a long time.”
Lewis Hamilton generally concurred, underlining Ferrari’s point that it had anticipated what was going to happen in 2026. “I think it’s more exciting; when we all get off exactly the same, it’s boring.
“I don’t think it’s dangerous. There are some people that, in developing an engine, they’ve taken certain decisions in order to get power. We took this specific decisions or our team did to make sure we got good starts.
“But George got just as good a start as I did, and so I think it’ll eventually like fizzle out and be similar.”
With Ferrari unwilling to move from its position, the complaints may well indeed subside – the only way that the FIA can make a change with the current voting blocs would be on safety grounds.
The difference in speeds was less stark in China’s sprint race versus the near-miss in Australia, where Franco Colapinto had to take heavy evasive action to clear the bogged-down Liam Lawson. Antonelli and Verstappen were largely just slow off the line, a situation that is very much normal in F1.
If slower getaways are the primary issue, rather than largely stationary cars, then it’s likely that Ferrari will get its wish. George Russell, who got a stronger start versus that of a week ago, also didn’t feel that it was currently a safety matter.
“I think the issues of Melbourne, at least on my side, we’ve found workarounds,” he said.
“It’s just like on the formation lap, you’re doing all these different switch changes and driving styles and it’s just unnecessarily complicated. However the starts are still challenging.
“I mean last year Shanghai was the second grippiest start of the season and you still see a lot of people struggling. When you get to other places where the grip is lower I think we’re going to still see cars spinning the tyres and struggling to get off the grid.
“But I don’t necessarily think it’s down to any safety. There is a really straightforward fix and there’s I think that’s just the nature of these cars and tyres, to be honest.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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