Ferrari responds to rival’s “selfish” jabs over F1 start rule changes

Ferrari's Fred Vasseur says he raised concerns about the safety of starts in Formula 1 2026, but was told by the FIA “to design a car to fit the regulations”.

The new power unit regulations raised numerous concerns about the safety of race starts in 2026, with fears that there could be big incidents due to major speed differentials off the line between cars.

The FIA altered the regulations for the start of the new campaign by extending the time before lights go out for drivers to spool up the turbos on their engines, owing to the fact that there is no longer an MGU-H element of the power unit to help with this.

But this hasn’t gone far enough for some, who pointed to the near-miss between Liam Lawson and a slow-moving Franco Colapinto off the line in Australia as proof. 

Ferrari says “enough is enough” on rule change push

The subject was raised again on Thursday ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, with Mercedes’ George Russell explaining that a “quirky” new rule was the reason for so many slow starts where drivers had no battery in Australia.

He said proposals for changes were made by the FIA, but that Ferrari was standing in the way, labelling those not in favour of tweaks as “selfish”.

Ferrari has enjoyed a clear advantage off the line in 2026, with its cars leading both grands prix so far on the opening lap.

Team boss Fred Vasseur believes “enough is enough”, pointing to the fact that he raised concerns about the start last year to the FIA and was told to develop a car around it.

With his team having done so, he believes the matter should be closed.

“I think that we already changed massively the start rules, with the five-second story,” Vasseur said on Sunday in China.

“One year ago I went to the FIA, I raised concerns about the start.

“I said ‘guys, I think it will be difficult’.

“The reply was clear that you have to design the car to fit the regulations, not change the regulations to fit the car.

“We designed a car fitting with the regulations.

“The change of the five seconds, the blue lights, didn’t help us. But I think at one stage, enough is enough. For me, yes, [it’s a closed case].”