The new battleground is over starts
Suddenly, in Bahrain, the Formula 1 teams found themselves facing a truth that was not so unexpected: with the absence of the electric motor positioned next to the turbine, which until last year was called the MGU-H, specifically designed to reduce turbo lag during acceleration, the cars are struggling to… start. One manufacturer more than others, however, has bypassed the problem, and it is Frederic Vasseur‘s Ferrari: the Italian team has in fact envisioned a power unit with a more compact turbine, compromising on maximum possible power in favor of less turbo-lag effect and better drivability. For this reason, the fact that a new starting procedure with five extra seconds of waiting before the lights go out is being discussed surprises the top management of the Prancing Horse.
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Fred Vasseur and Ferrari’s position
This is confirmed by Fred Vasseur himself, in a long interview granted exclusively to Roberto Chinchero in the pages of the Italian edition of Motorsport.com. The Ferrari team principal has in fact admitted his surprise in seeing how the FIA appears willing to modify the starting protocol for safety reasons, to the detriment of all those teams (mainly Ferrari-powered ones) that instead have a technical infrastructure that allows the cars to start without difficulty: “Without the MGU-H, it was clear that turbo-lag would become a factor to manage. It was known from day one and we, in making the choices to define the guidelines for our power unit, evaluated not only pure power but also other aspects, such as the start”.
“It is for this reason that we made certain decisions about the engine – adds Vasseur, Ferrari boss since January 2024 – and the FIA had been quite clear from the beginning about the desire not to modify the starting procedure. That’s why I was surprised when this topic became relevant again in Bahrain. It’s easy to ask a driver to raise a safety issue or something else, but in reality, it was all known for a long time. When you decide on the architecture of an engine, you always make compromises. On one hand, you have the maximum possible power, on the other, drivability. Choices are made…”.
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Ferrari, Charles Leclerc’s opinion
In an interview with the weekly magazine Autosprint, Charles Leclerc also addressed the issue of starts, confirming that for the Scuderia, starting from a standstill on the grid is not a problem: “It’s a topic we’ve considered from the beginning, when we started focusing on these new regulations. Starts don’t seem like a critical area for us. Of course, there are still many points to discover about situations we haven’t experienced live yet. For example, the behavior of the cars in the wet, overtaking in general. There were questions that go beyond what could be covered in a testing session. We’ll see how it goes with the first race weekends”.
Modification for safety reasons?
The issue of standing starts on the grid continues to be discussed even in the absence of an official position from the Federation, which, in announcing some small changes to the regulations this week, has still not touched on the matter. However, it must be said that, as this is a safety-related issue, the FIA could also impose a regulatory change without the consent of the teams, even in the face of the understandable and even justified complaints from Ferrari and Frederic Vasseur.
