Vasseur hits out after race start changes: 'Some cars would still be on the grid in China'

The issue of race starts became a major talking point even before the season opener in Australia, as testing in Bahrain had already made it clear that some teams, such as Ferrari, held a significant advantage off the line, while others, including Mercedes, were showing obvious weaknesses.

This all comes down to the different design philosophies adopted by the teams. Ferrari, for instance, opted for a smaller turbo in order to get the car ready for an optimal launch more quickly, even at the expense of outright power. Mercedes, meanwhile, chose a more conventional approach, despite the risk of losing several positions off the start line - something that indeed happened during the opening races of the season.

The topic became even more central when Russell appeared to take an indirect swipe at Ferrari, stating that “The FIA did just want to make our life easier and just remove this harvest limit, but often people have selfish views and they want to do what's best for themselves and that's part of Formula 1.”

Speaking to The Race, the Frenchman joked that without the blue warning light system, “some cars would still be on the grid in China.” He added that while the FIA was fully within its rights to make the change on safety grounds, he also felt it was “a bit unfair” on teams that had invested heavily in optimising their launch procedures.

Vasseur went on to explain that the FIA’s intervention was entirely motivated by safety concerns, meaning the governing body ultimately had the authority to act regardless of whether teams agreed with the decision or not. At the same time, however, Vasseur admitted Ferrari felt somewhat penalised by the late change, given the team had specifically developed its power unit concept around those launch characteristics.

In his view, an alternative solution could have been to force the teams struggling with the procedure to start from the pit lane instead of altering the rules after the cars had already been designed around a certain philosophy.

The FIA chief stressed that the regulations were not introduced suddenly, explaining that the process had been ongoing well before he officially signed off on them in 2022. According to Ben Sulayem, every team had been involved in the conversations throughout the development phase, making the current backlash difficult to understand from his perspective.

His comments come after several teams raised concerns following pre-season testing, with questions emerging over both the new power units and chassis concepts ahead of the start of the 2026 campaign. However, Ben Sulayem suggested there was a clear pattern behind the criticism, noting that the loudest complaints appeared to be coming from teams that had failed to extract performance from the new package.

The Emirati pointed out that frontrunning teams such as Mercedes and Ferrari had not publicly criticised the regulations to the same extent, arguing that dissatisfaction in Formula 1 often depends heavily on competitive position. In his view, teams struggling to adapt are naturally more likely to question the direction of the rules. He finally described the current situation as part of Formula 1’s normal competitive cycle, where teams constantly look for advantages while attempting to close the gap to rivals whenever they fall behind.