RUSSELL CRITICIZES FERRARI OVER BLOCKING START PROCEDURE CHANGE
George Russell has accused Ferrari of blocking a proposed change to the Formula 1 starting procedure ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, describing the team’s stance as “selfish” and “a little bit silly.”
The FIA had been evaluating a modification to the start procedure after several teams were caught off guard by a technical detail in the regulations during the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. According to Russell, the issue caught a large portion of the grid by surprise.
“Unfortunately, sometimes when you’re trying to make changes for the good of the sport and a team has a competitive edge, like Ferrari at the moment with their race starts, they wouldn’t wish to see anything changing,” Russell said.
The Mercedes driver explained that many teams only became aware of the rule quirk during the race start in Melbourne.
“I think half the grid got caught out by a quirk in the rules for the race start in Melbourne. We now know that, but because there was some resistance from some teams to change, we’re just going to have to work around it.”
Speaking to the media in Shanghai ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, Russell was openly critical of Ferrari’s opposition to the proposed adjustment.
“The FIA was looking to potentially adjust that, but as you can imagine some teams who were making good starts didn’t want it, which I think is just a little bit silly,” he said. “I’m not overly concerned, but it’s definitely a challenge.”
Russell also noted that implementing such a change would require approval from a supermajority of Formula 1 teams, something the FIA has not yet secured.
“They could do. I think they want to, but they need a super majority from the teams, which they don’t have,” Russell explained. “So you can probably guess which team is against that.”
The controversy centers on a technical detail related to the energy recovery system (ERS) and a harvest limit during the formation lap. Russell said the rule affected teams differently depending on their position on the starting grid.
“I think there was an error that caught a lot of teams out, which was the harvest limit on the formation lap”.
Drivers starting at the front of the grid had already begun the lap when initiating the formation start, meaning the energy used and recovered counted toward that lap’s limit. Meanwhile, drivers further back crossed the start-finish line later, effectively resetting the limit and avoiding the restriction.
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