The new battleground is on departures
Suddenly, in Bahrain, the teams of Formula 1 found themselves facing a not so unexpected truth: with the absence of the electric motor positioned next to the turbine, and which until last year was called MGU-H, specifically designed to reduce the response delay of the turbo during acceleration, the cars struggle to… start. However, one manufacturer more than the others has circumvented the problem, and it is the Ferrari Of Frederic Vasseur: the Italian team has in fact imagined a power unit with a more compact turbine, compromising on the level of maximum possible power in favor of a less turbo-lag effect and better driveability. For this reason, the fact that a new starting procedure with five extra seconds of waiting before the traffic lights go out is being discussed surprises the Cavallino leaders.
Fred Vasseur and Ferrari’s position
This is confirmed by Fred Vasseur himself, in a long interview granted exclusively to Roberto Chinchero on the pages of the Italian edition of Motorsport.com. The Ferrari team principal has indeed in this regard admitted his astonishment in seeing the way in which the FIA appears willing to modify the starting protocol for safety reasons, to the detriment of all those teams (mainly the Ferrari-powered ones) who instead have a technical infrastructure at their disposal that allows the cars to start without difficulty: “Without 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 of our power unit, have evaluated not only the pure power but also other aspects, such as the starting”.
“That’s why we made some decisions about the engine – adds Vasseur, Ferrari boss since January 2024 – And the FIA had been quite clear from the beginning about its desire not to change the starting procedure. This is why I was surprised when this topic returned to the forefront in Bahrain. It’s easy to ask a pilot to raise a safety or other issue, but in reality it was all known for a long time. When deciding on the architecture of an engine, there are always compromises. On the one hand you have the maximum possible power, on the other the driveability. Choices are made…”.
Ferrari, the opinion of Charles Leclerc
In an interview with the weekly AutosprintAlso Charles Leclerc addressed the issue of starts, confirming that starting from a standstill on the grid is not a problem for the Red team: “It is an issue that we have taken into consideration from the beginning, when we began to focus on this new regulation. Departures don’t seem like a critical area for us. Of course there are still many points to discover about situations that we have not yet experienced live. For example, the behavior of the car in the wet, overtaking in general. There were questions that went beyond what could be covered in a test session. We’ll see how it goes with the first race weekends”.
Modification for security reasons?
A topic, that of standing starts on the grid, which continues to be discussed despite the absence of an official position from the Federation, which in announcing some small changes to the regulations this week however, he has not yet touched on the issue. However, it must be said that, since this is a topic linked to safety, the FIA could also impose a regulatory change without the teams’ consentdespite the understandable and even justified complaints of Ferrari and Frederic Vasseur.
