{"id":544605,"date":"2026-03-18T13:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T13:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544605\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T13:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T13:52:08","slug":"vasseur-criticises-ferrari-rivals-over-appeals-to-change-race-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544605\/","title":{"rendered":"Vasseur criticises Ferrari rivals over appeals to change race starts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur<\/a> has responded to the requests of other teams to further modify race start procedures.<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of Bahrain testing, it became clear that Ferrari-powered teams had an advantage at race starts. This advantage, which was demonstrated very clearly in Australia and China, is no accident.<\/p>\n

Twelve months ago, the Italian squad raised concerns about the 2026 start procedures. In response, they were met with disinterest from teams across the field.<\/p>\n

As such, Ferrari<\/a> worked to ensure their power unit would overcome any potential difficulties off the line. In this context, Fred Vasseur is growing tired of the recent complaints of rival teams.<\/p>\n

Vasseur: \u201cEnough is enough\u201d<\/p>\n

Pre-season testing is when Ferrari\u2019s advantage from standing starts became apparent. This was no major surprise for the Scuderia, who worked diligently on this area over winter.<\/p>\n

Other teams, however, were swift to call for the FIA to intervene. The likes of McLaren<\/a> and Mercedes<\/a> cited safety concerns as the justification for modifications to start procedures.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Ferrari were unimpressed by these requests. After all, the Maranello squad had already raised these issues \u2013 only to be ignored.<\/p>\n

Therefore, Vasseur\u2019s team saw no reason to compensate for the oversight of other teams.<\/p>\n

As Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen<\/a> dissected the situation in testing: \u201cYou can always start from the pit-lane, if you feel unsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, this did not prevent a series of tweaks from being implemented ahead of the Australian GP. These changes did not eliminate Ferrari\u2019s advantage, but simplified the process to help other teams.<\/p>\n

Amidst fresh calls from rivals to make additional amendments, Ferrari\u2019s Fred Vasseur has a clear response:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already changed massively the rule of the start with the five-second story,\u201d Sky Sports<\/a> quotes him as saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne year ago, I went to the FIA. I raised the hand on the starting procedure to say \u2013 \u2018guys it will be difficult\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reply was clear, that we have to design the car fitting with the regulation and not to change the regulation fitting with the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe designed the car fitting with the regulation. The change of the five seconds, the blue light story, didn\u2019t help us at all \u2013 but I think at one stage enough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

No further changes anticipated<\/p>\n

In typical fashion, drivers and teams argue in favour of their own interests. This means it cannot be a surprise to see Mercedes continue in their push for further race start intervention.<\/p>\n

Speaking before last weekend\u2019s Chinese GP, George Russell<\/a> said the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FIA was looking to potentially adjust that [start procedures]. But as you can imagine some teams who were making good starts didn\u2019t want it, which I think is just a little bit silly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not overly concerned, but it\u2019s definitely a challenge.<\/p>\n

When asked about the chances of the FIA implementing a rule change, Russell said that further action is theoretically possible. (cont. on next page)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has responded to the requests of other teams to further modify race start…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,125958,930,576,577,16874,82],"class_list":["post-544605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-f1-2026-season","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-fred-vasseur","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}