Ferrari hit by ‘unfair’ FIA rule shift after rivals played ‘politics’

Fred Vasseur may have quipped that some teams would still be “on the grid in China” were it not for the FIA’s launch intervention, but it’s not a smiling matter for Ferrari who has lost a key advantage over its rivals.

The FIA has twice intervened to ensure that the race starts are safer after realising the drivers were struggling to get off the line with the new F1 2026 power units.

Ferrari team boss: Politically [it] was well played but not very fair

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Formula 1’s power unit manufacturers and the powers-that-be decided to remove the MGU-H from this year’s powertrain regulations.

But in doing so, they took away a key tool that the turbocharged engines needed at the starts.

The MGU-H previously helped cover turbo lag across the lower rev range, and without it, the cars are taking more time to prepare for launch.

Fearing chaos at the start of the grands prix, the FIA added a pre-start warning with flashing blue lights that would let the drivers know that the start was seconds away. This allowed them to begin the process of getting their cars into start configuration.

Ferrari, though, was still winning in the launches, challenging the pole-sitter on the run to Turn 1.

But with several drivers still struggling to get off the line, and a near-miss between Liam Lawson and Franco Colapinto, motorsport’s governing body went even further.

The FIA introduced a ‘low power start detection’ system at the Miami Grand Prix, which would trigger automatic MGU-K deployment if a car was low on acceleration shortly after the driver released the clutch.

Vasseur has called it “unfair” to Ferrari, who designed its power unit with the launch in mind.

“Imagine without the blue light, some cars would be still on the grid in China,” Vasseur said with a smile to The Race.

But the Ferrari team boss isn’t smiling about the issue, as it has dampened a key advantage that the Ferrari power unit had over the rest of the field.

“You can put on the table the safety grounds, and it’s the right of the FIA and I have just to accept,” he continued. “But at the end, I think it’s also a bit unfair on us.

“I went to the FIA one year ago, and we spoke about this. We spoke about this in SAC (Sporting Advisory Committee), we spoke about this in the PUAC (Power Unit Advisory Committee).

“And I really appreciated the answer from the FIA [that] you have to design the car for the regulations, not the regulations for your car. I think this is a very good approach.

“So then to have half of the grid, 40 per cent of the grid complaining, that it’s mega dangerous and so on.”

The Frenchman went on to say that Ferrari’s rivals played the game well by using safety grounds to force the FIA’s hand.

“Politically,” he said, “[it] was well played but not very fair.”

He added: “It was a decision based on safety grounds. It’s up to them. Even if everybody is against, they can decide.

“It was a bit harsh for us.

“I understand what they did for safety grounds, but the other option would have been to ask them [the other cars] to start from the pit lane if they think it was not safe.

“For us, it’s also a choice that we made. We developed an engine with a criteria and somehow they changed the rule at the last minute.”

Because Ferrari’s power unit, Vasseur reiterated, was designed with the launch in mind.

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“The start is by far the biggest,” said Vasseur.

“The trade-off is do we want to make one tenth of a second [in lap time] or do we want to lose five positions at the start.

“If you ask the engineers they say, okay, let’s have a good start.”

Although Ferrari has led laps in every one of this year’s grands prix, the team has yet to bag a P1 with Mercedes’ controversial power unit, which is said to exploit a loophole in the compression ratios, dominating the stage.

That loophole, though, will only be closed on 1st June.

Mercedes is leading the Constructors’ standings by 70 points ahead of Ferrari, while Kimi Antonelli and George Russell sit 1-2 in the Drivers’ standings

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