Russell accused Ferrari of blocking changes to start procedure
George Russell has accused Ferrari of blocking the FIA from making changes to the starting procedure for this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix and being “selfish” and “a little bit silly” for doing so. Five days ago, the Mercedes driver took victory in Melbourne ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli, but both had to recover from losing places at the start.
A factor in their slow getaways was that both, along with several other drivers, were left with low levels of battery after the formation lap, having been caught out by a rule that Russell says disadvantages those who have qualified on the front half of the grid. The Englishman and GPDA director claims the governing body wants to change the rule, but is unwilling to provide the ‘super majority’ required to push through the alteration.
Russell told Sky Sports, “Unfortunately, sometimes when you’re trying to make changes for the good of the sport, if a team has a competitive edge – like Ferrari at the moment with the race starts – they wouldn’t wish to see anything changing.”
“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, Russell accused Ferrari of being “selfish” and “a bit silly”.
Adding, “The FIA was looking to potentially adjust that (the start procedure), 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. I’m not overly concerned, but it’s definitely a challenge.”
Asked to clarify whether the FIA wants to change the rule, Russell added, “They could do. I think they want to, but they need a super majority from the teams, which they don’t have. So, you can probably guess which team is against that.
The row centres around adjustments to the regulations; these new power units are more dependent on the electrical energy than their predecessors, have made energy management the most crucial element in extracting performance at this early stage of the regulations.
Russell explained: “I think there was an error that caught a lot of teams out, which was the harvest limit on the formation lap. So, a very quirky rule… every lap there’s a harvest limit. The drivers who started in the first half of the grid, who were beyond the timing line, they were already within that lap.”
“So when you did your formation-lap start, you’re spending your battery and you’re charging your battery, which goes towards your harvest limit. The drivers at the back, when they did their formation lap start, they then launch away, they cross the start-finish line and then it resets because they’re effectively on the next lap.
Ferrari has “tonnes of things to improve” – Vasseur
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says the team still has “tonnes of things to improve” in order to build on their competitive start to F1’s new era and that he was “very pleased” with Lewis Hamilton’s start to his second season at the team.
Last weekend, the team were the closest to favourites Mercedes in Melbourne, with Charles Leclerc third and Hamilton fourth respectively. Although they challenged Mercedes in the race, they were ultimately unable to fight for victory, with Leclerc eventually finishing fifteen and a half seconds behind George Russell.
Vasseur said he was satisfied with the team’s step forward in the Melbourne race after difficulties in qualifying, but added there was still much for them to get on top of in the early stages of F1’s new-look regulations.
The Frenchman said, “We know that we have tonnes of things to improve – on the strategy, on the engine, on the chassis, on the tyres, on everything. For the drivers to be used to deal with the car as it is today. If you have the radio of everybody, you saw that it’s quite a challenge. It’s true for us, but it’s true for the others. The result will be based on our capacity to improve quickly.”
Twelve months ago, Ferrari’s only win of the season came in the sprint race with Lewis Hamilton winning from pole. Hamilton is also the most successful driver in Shanghai, with six poles and six Grand Prix wins.
Despite their strategy error on Sunday, Melbourne offered the promise of a possible challenge for the world championships. Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff has already said, “We have a fight on our hands with Ferrari” this year.
Vasseur added, “The feeling is more positive than something else. We had a tough Saturday [in Australia], I think we didn’t put everything together. We were fourth and seventh; it was quite hard, but we recovered part of this [in the race]. It’s good to have two cars fighting also at the top, and we know that we have a very long list of improvements.”
Ferrari, I think, can be encouraged by last weekend; they could have ran a lot closer to Mercedes if there hadn’t been the strategy error, but I still think it would have found it difficult to beat Mercedes.
Asked about Hamilton’s performance in Melbourne, which saw the Briton finish on third-placed Leclerc’s tail, and whether the seven-time world champion was ‘back’ after a disappointing 2025.
Vasseur said, “Very pleased with the performance of Lewis over the weekend, but I think we have to stop saying one weekend he’s there, one weekend he’s not there. It’s a sport, sometimes we are doing a good session, sometimes not.”
“[On Saturday] the quali, honestly, as a team principal, I was disappointed. [On Sunday] it was much better. It’s part of the game that we have to work all together, to push all together.”
McLaren has to “figure out for ourselves” power unit optimisation
Lando Norris says McLaren has to “figure out for ourselves” how to optimise its Mercedes power unit, following concerns in Australia from its customer teams. During last weekend’s race, team principal Andrea Stella made it clear the team still had a lot to learn about harvesting and deployment.
However, Lando Norris doesn’t want to put any blame on Mercedes’ High Performance Powertrains and the Brixworth engineers that are embedded in the McLaren camp. He conceded that he didn’t know what a PU supplier is obliged by the FIA to tell its customer teams.
When asked by Crash.net if McLaren would try to work even more closely with them. he said “We always do that. We’ve worked very closely [with HPP] and they’ve helped us win the last couple of world championships together. “It’s certainly not like that’s not the case already.”
“It’s just early on in the season, there are a lot of things to try to figure out and understand, and it’s just that it’s not told. Certain things don’t need to be told, because you always try to create your own advantages. But at the same time, there are certain things we’re having to figure out for ourselves.”
Norris added he didn’t know what the rules were and what has and hadn’t been said, but says they would continue to work closely with Mercedes. He added that they hadn’t figured out how to maximise it. He did acknowledge that Mercedes benefited from having the latest spec PU in testing, when its customers didn’t, so McLaren was “always going to start on the back foot”.
Adding, “The fact we didn’t have the newer power unit at an earlier point meant that we were always going to be on the back foot compared to a team that is performing extremely well and just more prepared than we are able to be. “I guess we just want to be able to be more prepared, and that’s the main thing we’ve asked for.”
This is obviously one of the disadvantages of being a customer team, but Norris believes that this weekend, the performance gap will narrow. He believes that Melbourne was from a power unit point of very tricky, and even if they were to race now, they would be closer to what they’ve learned.
Last Time Out … Melbourne
FP1 was topped by Charles Leclerc with a 20.267, putting himself four and a half tenths faster than Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton. Max Verstappen put his Red Bull third; the four-time champion was half a tenth behind the Ferrari duo as he went three tenths faster than his teammate Isack Hadjar. Hadjar had at one stage led the session, but had to settle for fourth, eight-tenths off the outright pace
FP2 saw Oscar Piastri fastest with a 19.729, putting himself two tenths faster than the Mercedes duo, with Kimi Antonelli a tenth faster than teammate George Russell. Hamilton had set the early pace on hard tyres but was shuffled to fourth, the seven-time champion just a thousandth behind Russell as he went nearly a quarter of a second faster than Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.
FP3, Russell fastest with a 19.053 as he went six tenths faster than the Ferrari duo of Hamilton and Leclerc, who were separated by a tenth and a half. While Russell’s teammate Antonelli had a huge crash as he veered into the wall at Turn Two, Oscar Piastri was fourth ahead of impressive Red Bull man Isack Hadjar, with four different teams in the top five
Qualifying, Russell beat Antonelli by nearly three tenths to take pole for the season-opener. The Englishman unleashed the expected pace of the silver arrows to set an 18.518, going ahead of his Italian teammate and creating a seven-tenths advantage over the Red Bull of Isack Hadjar. Hadjar was out-qualified both Ferraris and Oscar Piastri; he was a quarter of a tenth ahead of teammate Lando Norris.
Russell took victory, beating teammate Antonelli by nearly three seconds despite initially lost out to the two Ferraris as they got a better start, which set the stage for a race-long fight between the two Mercedes and the Ferrari duo Leclerc and Hamilton. Leclerc then dropped fifteen seconds behind the Mercedes duo as he tried to fight off an attack from Hamilton, the seven-time champion, who could not find a way past, finishing six tenths behind. A first Grand Prix podium for Hamilton at Ferrari, still just out of reach.
World champion Lando Norris finished fifth, but the gap was huge, thirty-five seconds behind the two Mercedes and Ferraris, as he finished nearly three seconds ahead of Max Verstappen. They were the only other cars on the lead lap, as the Dutchman put in a brilliant recovery drive after a difficult qualifying.
Talking Points Shanghai
Round two and the first sprint weekend brings F1 to Shanghai in China, the unique high-speed and downforce circuit is a favourite of drivers, teams and fans. Based on the ‘Shang’ symbol meaning “above” or “ascend”.
A high-speed and high-downforce circuit with multiple straights and tight following corners. One of the most eye-catching corners is Turns One to Three, where drivers head into a tight, long, almost circle which can create drama on the opening laps. The buildings are designed to resemble the ancient Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai. Over the two decades, the rural location has slowly been gobbled up by the growing city.
This weekend is a huge test of the regulation changes. Given its nature, it will be interesting to see the deployment on the 1km back straight, which could be key. On similar section in Albert Park, drivers ran out of energy deployment and decelerated hundreds of yards before actually reaching the braking zone.
A year ago, it was yin and yang for Ferrari’s sprint race victory for Hamilton, followed by double disqualification in the Grand Prix, for him and teammate Charles Leclerc, as well as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly for technical breaches. Piastri led virtually every lap at the Shanghai International Circuit as McLaren sealed a one-two, with Hamilton’s former Mercedes team-mate George Russell completing the podium.
Russell goes into this weekend having underlined Mercedes’ status as favourite with a dominant win, the team’s first win since 1955 came here in 2012, since then five more wins have come. Mercedes looked strong on the straights and the fast-flowing corners, but this isn’t as big an advantage as in 2014.
However, they will be under pressure from Ferrari, who looked quick and last weekend it didn’t come together as they lacked a bit in qualifying, then in the race, a mix up in terms of strategy cost them the chance after Leclerc wasn’t that far off in the opening stint.
But the signs for the Italian outfit are nonetheless positive that it can be the team that challenges Mercedes this year. “We have a fight on our hands with Ferrari,” said Silver Arrows boss Wolff, so expect a close fight between the two this weekend – as long as the Scuderia doesn’t make a mess of qualifying again.
But while Mercedes and Ferrari lead the way, the battle for third is tighter between McLaren and Red Bull. However, this became a Lando Norris – Max Verstappen fight as Oscar Piastri didn’t start following a crash on his way to the grid, and Isack Hadjar retired with an engine failure.
We are early on in the cycle, and the building of that picture continues, on was the right call. It would also be interesting to see whether sprints prove any more entertaining under the new regulations.
F1’s hybrid systems operate largely on a lap-by-lap cycle, with the energy constantly getting harvested and discharged through the battery. As such, the same constraints apply regardless of race length. If battery levels are going to play such a major role in wheel-to-wheel racing at the start of this regulation cycle, a sprint race could provide the perfect setting for the ‘yo-yoing’ effect between drivers.
Verstappen engaged in talks over improvement
Max Verstappen says he is engaged in talks with F1 and the FIA over how to make improvements to the sport’s new rules. The four-time champion has been a vocal critic of the new regulations and has stated he is not a fan of these cars, that he is not enjoying driving the latest cars as much as the previous generation.
That has cast doubt about the four-time world champion’s long-term future in the sport. But speaking in the Drivers’ Press Conference ahead of this weekend’s second round in China, Verstappen, who this week confirmed his participation in the Nürburgring 24 Hours between grands prix dates in May.
He added was nonetheless “conflicted” about the situation and was engaged in helping the sport’s bosses make refinements for the future. Saying “I don’t want to leave, really “I wish I had a bit more fun, for sure, but I’m also doing other stuff that is a lot of fun. I get to race the Nordschleife. I hope in the coming years I get to do Spa [24 Hours], hopefully Le Mans.”
“So I’m combining stuff to find other stuff I find really fun as well. I have my [Verstappen Racing] team going on, so I have a lot of distractions at the same time – positive distractions, I would call it.”
“But at the same time it’s a bit conflicting because I don’t really enjoy driving the car, but I do enjoy working with all the people in the team and from the engine department as well. It’s almost like a bit of a mind… I can’t swear, it’s 5K [fine] now!”
Verstappen added that he didn’t want to leave the sport, hoping it gets better. He has also been working with F1 and the FIA towards something to improve the situation.
On the nature of those discussions with the sport’s bosses, Verstappen said: “I definitely hope not [that it’s the same] for the next few years. I hope already for next year we can make a decent improvement. There are a few options that we’re discussing.”
Last weekend hasn’t “fully sunk in yet” – Lindblad
Arvid Lindblad has admitted that his encouraging debut last weekend in Melbourne hasn’t “fully sunk in yet” after he hit the ground running with a Q3 appearance and points for Racing Bulls.
Following his promotion from F2, he quickly demonstrated why he earned his seat – he outperformed teammate Liam Lawson in nearly every session at Albert Park, and secured the team’s first points of 2026. After Lawson lost places at the start, the English-Swedish driver briefly ran as high as third after storming through before having to settle for eighth.
Speaking ahead of this weekend, Lindblad said, “I don’t really know if it’s all sunk in yet. It was a very special weekend, I enjoyed a lot. In the end it’s been something I’ve been working towards my whole life, getting to Formula One, so to have my debut was very special.”
“To have my dad there as well was really cool. I think the reality of being a Formula 1 driver and making my debut, I don’t know if that’s fully sunk in yet – I think that’s more the part I’d mention”
“But I’m very happy with the race – I think scoring points on my debut was very special and I think the manner in which I did it, being P3 at one point on Lap 1, was pretty cool and definitely more than I could have ever expected.”
In the race, Lindblad was in battles with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton during the early stages of the race, which he previously said demonstrated that he’s “not going to hang about” when it comes to defending track position.
Taking eighth guaranteed him four points and a spot in the history books as he became the youngest British racer to score in a Grand Prix, and one of an exclusive list of drivers to score on their debut.
Asked what that means,, “It’s cool. I’m proud of it and I’m also grateful to everyone from the team, everyone from RBPT for helping to give me a strong package, but a lot of thanks to my parents and Red Bull itself and Dr [Helmut] Marko for the opportunity he’s given me, because he’s been a big part of why I’m standing here today, so I’m grateful to them.”
“The British point as well, the youngest-ever British driver to score points, is really cool for me. I’m very proud to be from the UK – it’s a big part of why I’m here. The grassroots level in the UK is extremely high.
Aston Martin “No good news”
Arriving in Shanghai, chief trackside officer Mike Krack made this tongue-in-check comment to the press, “Why should there be no good news?” The team arrived following an expected tough opening weekend in Melbourne, where, as expected, both Fernando Alonso retired, while Lance Stroll finished fifteen laps down and therefore was not classified, after initially retiring.
The team’s power unit partner Honda, has been struggling with vibrations which are damaging the batteries, as well as the possibility of “permanent nerve damage” to the drivers hands, making it difficult to complete a race distance. There hasn’t been much turnaround time as the Chinese Grand Prix takes place this weekend, but according to Honda, the situation is improving.
Honda’s trackside general manager, Shintaro Orihara, said, “We have found some progress on the vibration situation, and then still we keep working hard to reduce vibration.”
“Still, reliability is our challenging point to improve. So still we are working hard in dialogue with Aston Martin, and then we found something, another countermeasure, so maybe we can try something. Also, we have accumulated mileage in the race, so we learned something from the race event for the driveability and also energy management. So we implement that learning into our simulation system.”
To me, this appears to be a fundamental issue which could take all year to fix but Melbourne, yes, was difficult but better than expected. They, I think, already are looking at exceeding the power unit allocation, though they are coy about how many batteries they might need.
Given spares have been an issue, Honda has been restoring the only two batteries that were available in Melbourne. Motorsport understands Honda has three batteries in Shanghai – so one spare.
Krack retorted: “I think we should not… What is the point if we go on about the number of batteries? I don’t think that this is something that we should try to insist on, insist on and insist on. We have a situation that was disclosed in Melbourne, and I don’t think that we should continue on this battery number discussion, if you allow.”
The duo was then asked how healthy the batteries from Melbourne were; Newey’s comments on finding out about Honda’s tricky staffing situation last November only were also put to them.
As far as the vibrations endured by the drivers are concerned, they haven’t been Honda’s focus, with the manufacturer prioritising its power unit’s actual reliability. In qualifying last weekend, Alonso was two and a half seconds off the pace in Q1; only the Cadillacs were slower.
What can Aston Martin aim for this weekend? Is finishing the race a realistic target yet? Krack insisted, “Every lap you do is important. When you go racing, that has to be the first target. So, we’ll try. I think with the steps we have made, with further steps that we are going to try this weekend, it will bring us closer to that, and that will obviously be the target.”
