Scott Gulbransen
We’re just two races into the 2026 Formula 1 season, and Ferrari has the best race starts on the grid, a driver lineup most teams would sell internal organs for and a car capable of beating Mercedes on a good day. Scuderia Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur also spent part of his post-race media session in Shanghai drawing a line in the sand over the start procedure controversy. And for once, the Ferrari team principal is completely right to do it.
The backstory matters here. A year ago, Vasseur walked into the FIA and flagged that the 2026 start procedure would be a problem.
“One year ago, I went to the FIA,” Vasseur said in China. “I raised the hand on the starting procedure to say ‘guys it will be difficult’. The reply was clear that we have to design the car fitting with the regulation and not to change the regulation fitting with the car.”
Ferrari did exactly that. They built a smaller turbo that spools up more efficiently, engineered a power unit to meet the new rules, and showed up in Melbourne, with Charles Leclerc storming from fourth to first into Turn One. Lewis Hamilton did essentially the same thing in China from the second row. Rivals watched, fumed, and immediately started lobbying for changes, with George Russell going so far as to call Ferrari “selfish” for blocking further tweaks to the procedure.
“We designed the car fitting with the regulation, the change of the five seconds, the blue light story, didn’t help us at all,” said Vasseur, “But I think at one stage enough is enough.”
Asked whether the case was closed, he didn’t hesitate: “For me, yes.”
Good. It should be closed. Ferrari identified a problem, raised it through proper channels, got told to deal with it, and then went and dealt with it better than anyone else in the paddock. Punishing competence because your competitors didn’t do their homework is not how sporting regulations are supposed to work, and the FIA would embarrass itself by caving to that pressure now.
Vasseur and Ferrari Project Selective Outrage
But here’s the thing, being right about this particular fight doesn’t mean Ferrari’s relationship with regulation drama is suddenly healthy. It isn’t.
The Scuderia has spent the better part of two decades treating the rulebook as both a weapon and a crutch, depending on which direction the wind is blowing. When the rules favor them, it’s a matter of sporting integrity. When the rules don’t, it’s a political conspiracy. The fact that Vasseur has a legitimate grievance right now doesn’t erase the pattern and the pattern is hard to ignore when you’re watching it play out in real time.
Mercedes is still ahead. Ferrari is still trailing on the straight-line performance that matters most when the starts are sorted. Vasseur acknowledged the deficit plainly, saying the team is “eight tenths off in Melbourne, six tenths on Friday in China, four tenths on Saturday,” and that closing that gap requires work across chassis, tires, and engine — not just one parameter. That’s honest self-assessment, and it’s the kind of talk that suggests Vasseur understands where the real work lies.
Ferrari and It’s Cultural Malaise
The problem is that Ferrari’s broader culture has a gravitational pull toward the sideshow. Hamilton and Leclerc are two of the best drivers alive, the car has real pace, and Japan is coming up in 10 days with a circuit that could expose Mercedes’ straight-line advantage in ways Shanghai didn’t. There are legitimate reasons for optimism in Maranello. None of them has anything to do with the start procedure politics.
Ferrari’s best path to a championship — their first since 2008 — runs directly through outbuilding Mercedes over the course of a season, not through blocking rule changes that help rivals catch up. Vasseur knows this.
“Racing didn’t change,” he said. “All the components of the performance are still on the table.”
That’s the right framing. The starts are a weapon right now and using them isn’t wrong. Turning them into a season-long narrative, though, is a distraction Ferrari genuinely cannot afford.
Win the argument on the start line. Win the season in the wind tunnel. Those are not the same thing.
